Refine
Language
- English (85) (remove)
Document Type
- Articles (60)
- Reviews (8)
- Dissertations (6)
- Forewords (5)
- Books (3)
- Collections (2)
- Interviews (1)
Year of publication
- 2022 (85) (remove)
The reunification of Germany took place in 1990. As an analyst brought up in the former West Germany, but practicing in Berlin, I have observed over and over again that patients who come from what used to be East Germany (German Democratic Republic) – even those born after 1990 – have a strong need to distinguish between East Germans and West Germans. In their minds, Germany seems still to be a divided country. A split identity appears to have been internalized, producing >West German< and >East German< racists who despise, in the >other< kind of German, a devalued aspect of what being German means. I have tried for many years to understand the hidden meanings of this defensive maneuver for the analytic couple, and beyond this for the relation between the East and West German societies. Here I discuss these unresolved shadows in German identity. Analyses in Germany may be dominated by the splits they provoke, which interfere with patients’ capacities to think. Patients may relate instead to a >German< object that is impersonal, nonempathic, and rejects the idea of an independent internal world. The defensive use of this object in the transference has to be continually worked through in the analysis.
This text aims at a multi-dimensional reflection on Erich Fromm’s conception of the human being. Starting from Marxist-Freudian sources of the philosopher’s thought, the authors show the fundamental ideas underlying his version of psychoanalysis. Next, Fromm’s view of the human being as a social being is discussed, referring to the concepts of unproductive and productive orientations. Another important dimension of Fromm’s thought that is discussed is the reflection on the nature and functions of the symbolic language of the unconscious, which reveals to the human being both the best and the worst aspects of his or her personality. One of the most famous concepts of the American philosopher is also discussed – the distinction between the being mode and the having mode. The authors draw attention to the value Fromm placed on a life oriented towards the being mode. Finally, they remind us, following Fromm that a human being turns towards himself in his or her dreams, going beyond all the schemes and concepts that bind his mind when he or she is awake. The understanding of oneself that comes from a deep reflection on the content and character of a dream can awaken in a person the recognition of previously unknown dimensions of his or her mind; from now on, he is not merely someone immersed in the reality of everyday life. Crossing the horizon of oneiric imagination, he or she becomes free, in the dream, and she experiences the freedom of being on waking.
The riddle of time and space
(2022)
Time is the most important feature or fundamental describer of normal human experience and is also the most eminent forgotten element of psychoanalysis. Freud believes that the unconscious is timeless and believes that it perceives any given moment as new and immaculate. He makes very little effort to illustrate the origin of time; however, he points to the function of the Pcpt-Cs as the key to this riddle. After him, fewer psychoanalysts can be found who have systemically researched this subject, except for André Green, Hartocolles, Arlow, and Sabbadini. In this paper, I have tried to illustrate how the sense of time is related to libidinal cathexis. I have displayed, through some pathological situations such as melancholy, mania, and schizophrenia, and a clinical vignette, that the more ego invests libido in the objects, the faster we sense the passage of time and the more it withdraws libido from the objects into itself, the slower time passes. Finally, using my previous viewpoint about transitional time objects and phenomena, I have presented some ideas about an object relation account of the origin of the sense of time.
This article intends to reflect on some aspects of psychoanalytic theory and practice, to help psychoanalysis evolve. It is therefore important to update psychoanalytic language and practice so that new potentialities and self-transcendence, in the sense of self-expansion are taken into consideration. It is of the utmost importance to take aspects of development and the relational realm into consideration, as well as the way through which the subject repeats their history, maintaining themselves stagnant and in contact with representations that go back to their early relationships.
The postmodern Querfront
(2022)
The philosophical foundations of interpersonal psychoanalysis: Albert Dunham Jr. and racial politics
(2022)
The Pathology of Normalcy and Consensual Validation: Thinking Beyond Neoliberalism with Erich Fromm
(2022)
Think of the ease in which one can acquire food and clothing today. Consider the ubiquitous availability of machines that save us hours of boring labour. For the average person in the global core, it is obvious: the material standard of living has increased exponentially since the industrial-capitalist revolution. Although we may celebrate these achievements it is also clear that such rampant capitalist development has created many horrific ‘negative externalities’.