Refine
Language
Document Type
- Articles (324)
- Dissertations (46)
- Books (18)
- Reviews (18)
- Collections (6)
- Interviews (2)
- Forewords (1)
- Journals (1)
Year of publication
- 2014 (416) (remove)
Well before the now flourishing field of animal studies, the thinkers associated with Frankfurt, Germany’s Institute of Social Research theorized and problematized society’s troubling relationship with animals. Early critical theory explored the various manifestations of >unrelenting exploitation< animals have experienced in human societies and maintained that the domination of animals is intimately linked to the domination of human beings, especially of women and racial and ethnic minorities. They criticized Western thought for instrumentalist attitudes toward animals and were committed to extending compassion to animals. Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse mount four challenges to sociologists today: (1) to unmask the shared forms of domination experienced by both animals and marginalized human beings, (2) for environmental sociologists to make animals a principle subject of investigation, (3) for sociological animal studies scholars to engage with philosophy, and (4) to adopt a critical and normative sociological perspective when studying human–animal relations.
Erich Fromm's Ecological Messianism: The First Biophilia Hypothesis as Humanistic Social Theory
(2014)
Revisiting Erich Fromm’s works provides a theoretical foundation for a comprehensive and normative theory of human–nature relations that contains psychical, social, economic, and ethical components. Fromm’s system of thought was rooted in understanding humanity’s effort to establish meaningful relations with the natural world and how socioeconomic systems mediate this endeavor. His normative theory maintained that society must develop a nondestructive relationship with the environment by fostering and perfecting the human potentiality of biophilia—a thorough love of living beings. He argued that biophilia will not become the prevailing character structure until society is capable of meeting three prerequisites for human flourishing: security, justice, and freedom. Because Fromm’s social–ecological and ethical insights were partially rooted in humanism and Talmudic studies, he forces environmental scholars to rethink the Judeo-Christian and humanistic traditions, two pillars of Western thought often criticized in environmental literature.
Ferenczi's discovery of trauma was labelled by Freud as a return >to errors< that he himself upheld he had committed before 1897. During the dramatic period running from the Wiesbaden Congress (September 1932) to Ferenczi's death (May 1933), Freud wrote to numerous correspondents (among them Jones, Eitingon, and his daughter Anna) complaining that Ferenczi's latest theoretical elaboration corresponded to a simple return to the origin of psychoanalysis and was also a symptom of a serious psychosis. The theme of this paper is that Freud's opinion concerning Ferenczi's concept of trauma is a result of misunderstanding: the trauma as described by Ferenczi is not the one that preceded (in Freud's theory) the desertion of the seduction theory, but is something that is much deeper and mortifying, where the sexuality role is less central. The author pauses to ponder and reflect on the importance of the concept of Erschütterung as a cause in losing basic trust, a perspective that moves far from Freudian sex-centrism that puts psychoanalysis face to face with the sufferings of the victims of extreme trauma.
This paper explores the possibility that consideration of Fromm's social character is relevant not only to an improved understanding of the collective unconscious of an entire community, but also to the clinical practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy with individuals. In doing so it attempts to extend Fromm's ideas about the intersectionality of psychoanalysis and sociology beyond the realm of social theory. The paper centers around the description of the psychodynamic treatment of an adult female whose psychological problems are thought to be partly the result of her social character, which was internalized during her formative years but whose impact remains apparent in light of her choice of ego defenses and general way of relating to and understanding the world.
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.
The International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) was created to achieve an open, plural spirit, not constrained by any single psychoanalytic theory, such that one of its main aims was to >avoid the bureaucratization of its theory.< The IFPS did not intend to turn its back on the statements of early psychoanalysis; instead, it sought to use them as a basis for proposing and developing the theory of psychoanalysis. These same aims and origins served as an inspiration for each of the Latin-American societies that would gain affiliation to IFPS over the years. The Sociedad Psicoanalítica Mexicana AC, under the guidance and representation of Erich Fromm, played a central role in the creation of the IFPS. A brief account of the participation, affiliation, and development of each of the six affiliated Latin-American Societies – from Mexico, Brazil, and Chile – and one Study Group in Argentina will be described.
Conceptualizing intersecting psychical dynamics taking place within the analytic relationship, the concept of truth is considered as an integral element of the patient's unrepresented, subjective self-experiences, particularly in respect to traumatic aspects. Truth is also conceptualized as a process of exploration of traumatic elements emerging dynamically in the context of transference. During such processes, it is possible that the patient's traumatic truth may collide with certain aspects of the analyst's mental life affecting deeply his/her phantasy and stirring strong feelings and representations of traumatic self-experiences of personal and subjective meaning. These instances are vital intersubjective aspects of the analytic relationship. They facilitate the exploration of the patient's unconscious inner truth and are signified as internal moments of meeting, emphasizing a psychical interchange between the analytic dyad and creation of a mental-cradle, a space for exploring and representing the patient's traumatic self-experiences. Clinical material is provided from the psychotherapy of a young woman with borderline psychopathology and unrepresented traumatic parental loss and migration. Discussion brings together basic theoretical conceptions regarding dynamic, joint mental functions of transference and countertransference and indicates the utility of actualizing disturbing countertransference experiences and the analyst's personal recourses and subjectivity for the exploration of the patient's truth.