TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel T1 - Politics, psychoanalysis, and large group identity (https://doi.org/10.1080/0803706X.2023.2234682) JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 32 (No. 3, 2023), pp. 227-232. N2 - Since Freud's contributions, psychoanalysis has devoted attention to group phenomena in the field of politics. Volkan and Kernberg stand out today for providing conceptual tools for analyzing political reality. Politicians' work has historically included a share of group manipulation, but today a strong trend towards populism is emerging from the right and the left. This offers a unique opportunity to examine in detail how leaders often promote primitive group dynamics, close to borderline personality organizations. The war in Ukraine offers an opportunity for a psychoanalytic exploration of unconscious conflicts. Some leaders' biographies and actions may offer clues, as well as group phenomena that express the need to protect a valuable identity. The current situation has generated an identity crisis in Europe and beyond. Autocratic tendencies have become stronger and we have lost leaders who sustained a more adult, less primitive European identity. The possible solutions lie in the abandonment of infantile maximalist positions and the adoption of a painful, frustrating, slow – and healthy – integrative attitude, perceiving nuances and shades of gray, both in our own group and in that which we consider Other. Psychoanalysis has the responsibility to put its knowledge at the service of society, also in politics. Y1 - 2023 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu T1 - Lucian Freud: the ruthless genius JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 30 (No. 2, 2021), pp. 100-107. N2 - Lucian Freud’s value as a painter goes much beyond his condition of being Sigmund Freud’s grandson. Experts see him as one of the key contemporary artists. His work penetrates the viewer and leaves a lasting impression, seldom related to pure aesthetic beauty. Characters in his paintings provide us with a bridge to explore human frailty and despair, and often convey us a sort of naked truth. His life deserves a close inspection to understand his creative process, his personal demons, and his complex relational life. Here we explore key episodes of his life, linking them to his preferred topics and settings. Also we try to understand how his paintings suggest possible paths to learn about his inner world. Extraordinary technical prowess combines with an uncompromising and dispassionate gaze to produce an outstanding life and work, full of ruthlessness to others, and to himself. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Aguillaume, Rómulo T1 - On psychoanalytic journals and the International Forum of Psychoanalysis JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 30 (No. 4, 2021), pp. 206-208. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu T1 - The disturbing presence of the father: Paternal function and its initial developments JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 3, 2019), pp. 140-146. N2 - The birth of a child strongly influences the way in which we adults perceive life and, therefore, our inner world. This birth, or rather the expectation of it, initiates in the father a complex process, the paternal function. Despite being a common experience, there are many open questions regarding its development and its impact on the new father. We reflect here on paternal function and explore conscious and unconscious fantasies of the man facing new-found fatherhood. We propose that a kind of pre-Oedipal process has already begun during pregnancy. The new being’s mere existence inside the womb generates an exclusionary force that sets the father’s ambivalent feelings in motion. The overwhelming certainty of motherhood and the generation of the mother–fetus bubble develops in parallel with the uncertainty of the father, immersed in inner conflicts regarding what his relationship with the mother–child couple is and will be. He rapidly experiences how the child’s presence makes him an excluded third party, always longing to fully occupy the place he once enjoyed beside the mother. The baby enters a world where father’s strong ambivalence is already in place, facilitating and setting in motion a full development of the Oedipal process. Finally, some considerations are outlined on the potential influence of this complex ambivalence in large group reactions and the need to be remembered that humans have displayed since ancient historical times. Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu T1 - Return to Sepharad: Is it possible to heal an ancient wound? A reflection on the construction of large-group identity JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 28 (No. 2, 2019), pp. 095-103. N2 - Spanish parliament recently issued a new law offering Spanish nationality to Sephardic Jews who so desired and could demonstrate a basic knowledge of the Spanish language and culture. This law attempted to redress a five-centuries-old injustice and was expected to unleash both criticism and praise. Surprisingly, reactions in the public or the press were minimal or absent. Reasons for this are explored through a qualitative study with focus groups, which showed ideas that can be grouped into four main categories: ignorance, justice, distrust, and fear. It is hypothesized that the predominantly silent response to the new law might be due to the fact that it touches on an extremely sensible issue: the historically fragmented Spanish identity. A position of negation is constructed, to avoid deep anxieties related to the fragile core of a collective identity built from many >others< forced to the refuge of an introspection that protects them from the conviction of not fulfiling the ideal identity status, known by all but reached by none. All those >others< have mixed their bloods with the Old Christians along the centuries, possibly transmitting a profound insecurity about their personal and collective identity that might contribute to understanding current social reactions. Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel T1 - A quest for truth or solidarity? A third way ahead for psychoanalysis JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 25 (No. 3, 2016), pp. 191-197. N2 - Today, there are two ways of conceiving psychoanalysis, a classical one focused on the search for truth within the internal world of the patient, and a contemporary one perceiving the patient–therapist relationship as the axis of exploration. Rorty's criterion, which divides disciplines into either truth-based or solidarity-based, may be applied to this dichotomy. These conflicting positions come from two different historical periods: the Enlightenment and the contemporary world. They inhabit a sterile environment without theoretical discussion or comparison. The Renaissance relocated man at the centre of creation and urged him to seek encounters with others as well as with the truth concealed in nature. Possibly, these elements of truth and solidarity, initially designed as complementary, integrative, and nonconflicting, can be found in the work of some psychoanalysts, specifically in Otto Kernberg's proposals. Kernberg makes a creative integration of object relations theory, especially in its Kleinian approach, and ego psychology. In addition, Kernberg's consideration of affects as key elements of the human's internal world reflects a third psychoanalytical >way,< exposing the centrality of relational experiences from the earliest stages of life, alongside constitutional drive forces that link us to our biological make-up and determine much of our inner world and behaviour. Y1 - 2016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gonzalez-Torres, Miguel Angel A1 - Fernandez-Rivas, Aranzazu T1 - Some reflections on nationalism, identity and sexuality JF - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Abingdon (Routledge - Taylor and Francis) Vol. 23 (No. 3, 2014), pp. 135-143. N2 - An individual's identity is gradually built upon a lifelong process of maturation. Sexual life and how our desire is channeled and expressed represent a key area of that global identity. Also, the nation to which we feel we belong constitutes another cornerstone of that complex structure. The obvious attraction that nationalism awakens in many parts of the world might be related to the facilitation of a valuable identity acquired by just belonging to a idealized group instead of through a tiresome and continuous effort. In this process, >others< are chosen by us to establish comparisons with our tribe, helping us through a mirroring process to shape our own image. We project upon those >others< all kinds of undesirable traits. Those attributions tend to be very similar, regardless of which specific groups are involved. The >others< are always lazy, dishonest, untrustworthy, dirty (…). Interestingly, there are a specific set of >positive< attributions that are almost always present: the >others,< and specifically the men in that group, are sexually more potent, attractive, or able. This contradictory image of the >other< can help us to understand the complex dynamics, at the individual and group levels, that are present in radical nationalist movements, and to open up new fields of inquiry and exploration in which psychoanalytic theory can offer guidance. Y1 - 2014 ER -