Semiological Prospects
(1993)
This paper argues that some forms of sadomasochistic fantasy and enactments can represent a developmental and therapeutic advance for some patients. Playful fantasies of dominance and submission, when enacted, function to reassure the patient that the other can survive the full expression and power of his or her sexual desire. Sadomasochistic scenarios can mitigate guilt and worry and free the patient for an experience of sexual ruthlessness. The apparent differences in the manifest roles of the man and woman in this situation are belied in a paradoxical way by underlying commonalities. A woman can use her consensually scripted domination as a reassurance that the man can withstand the full force of her excitement, and the man can experience his partner's excitement in submission as a condition of safety for the consolidation of his phallic strength. Two clinical examples illustrate these paradoxes and the affirmative dimension of certain kinds of sadomasochistic play. The suggestion is made that blanket critiques of sadomasochism as either perversion or misogyny are misguided and potentially repressive.
Presents a case study of a 30-yr-old man treated for narcissistic personality disorder and attempts to show how further contributions to an alternative approach to psychoanalysis can come from E. FROMM. FROMMian themes are all present in the case in varying degrees. It is suggested that the 2 main features of this case (narcissism and homosexuality) were the outcome of a pathological symbiosis with both parents. Eight themes, drawn both from FROMM's published works and from his unpublished writings, are stressed, including benign vs malignant aggression, having vs being, homosexual and incestuous symbiosis, and secret family narcissism.
>Dati empirici sull'ontogenesi del carattere sociale tedesco e confronti transculturali<: Vengono descritte la teoria dell'attaccamento, così come è stata sviluppata da Bowlby, e la ricerca empirica che ne è derivata, a cominciare dalla Strange Situation della Ainsworth e dalle osservazioni in casa ad essa correlate. Vengono pure riferiti gli studi sulla trasmissione transgenerazionale, sui modelli di lavoro interni e gli studi longitudinali. L'argomento principale del lavoro è costituito dagli studi transculturali condotti in Germania, Israele e Giappone. Nella Germania settentrionale, in confronto agli Stati Uniti, venne trovata una frequenza maggiore di comportamenti evitanti nei bambini. Questo dato è stato correlato con la richiesta culturale di una prematura fiducia in sé. Si suggerisce che nei bambini evitanti della Germania settentrionale noi vediamo l'ontogenesi precoce del carattere autoritario.