Wie der Malort entstand
(1998)
Attention is called to an. early work co-authored by Bowlby and containing a systematic discussion of aggressiveness which is lacking in his later work. The book also ad-dresses wider issues which were later no longer pursued by Bowlby. A, summary of the book is provided. The relations of various aspects of the book with later work, both of Bowlby and others, are discussed.
Patients traumatized by events beyond the limits of human experiential endurability often reveal a shattered self with no continuous personal core. These events seem to have occurred without a witness, possibly because their inhumanity caused the subject to disappear while the events were taking place. Such patients suffer from their sudden emergence of dissociated sets of memories which seem to have registered the entire circumstances of the trauma in a frozen state. The therapist's interventions seem to have no impact at these moments. This may be so because there is a self other than the patient's that is present at a scene which belongs to a past that never ceases to recur. These reenactments of past traumatic events reveal a self condemned to disbelief whenever testifying to an inhuman situation devoid of any subjectivity. Vignettes from the psychoanalytic treatment of a patient who suffered from traumatic ?memories? will illustrate the points above. The testimonies of homeless children and of Holocaust survivors also point to this silencing of voices wounded by an inhuman past. Questions regarding the ethical dimension of psychoanalysis and its witnessing to present day injustices as opposed to silencing them ? are addressed.
This paper considers the fundamental change introduced by Ferenczi in1919 by proposing the use of countertransference as an instrument. Basically it reconsiders the concept of analytic neutrality; mastery of countertransference is reached through tolerating it, overcoming resistances against it, demanding a very intense involvement of the analyst, as opposed to the image of the surgeon or the mirror. The paper analyzes the implications of this position for psychoanalysis. It places these concepts in the scientific and personal context in which it was written, then follows the later developments of these ideas in Ferenczi’s own work, as well as in that of some other authors, and comments on the effects of these ideas on the psychoanalytic movement. Finally it poses some questions regarding our present use of countertransference in clinical work, with two brief vignettes highlighting these points.
The Ego Structure and the Self-Identity of the Schizophrenic Human and the Task of Psychoanalysis
(1998)
Therapeutic transformation of the otherwise splitting symbiosis, transformation of the self-object into the transitional subject and progressive psychopathology as a preliminary stage to dualisation, communication and rehabilitation are described against the background of the author's 50 years of experience of working with schizophrenic patients. In addition to good social and existential healing, the author stresses the value of the individual sessions for both therapist and patient. The author clarifies the difference between >projective identification< and >partial identification with the suffering of the patient<, the latter demonstrating the strong side of the therapist, who exerts a positive influence, converting schizophrenic symbiosis into therapeutic symbiosis.
The Concept of Trauma According to Ferenczi and Its Effects on Subsequent Psychoanalytical Research
(1998)
Freud abandoned his belief that all the traumas reported by his hysterical patients were true. He came to the conclusion that pathogenic fantasy was more frequent that real trauma. Ferenczi was the first one to return to the idea that most of the neuroses have a real trauma at their root. His pupil and follower, Michael Balint developed this idea and proposed new ways of describing the mechanism of trauma and and some of the therapeutic consequences. Since then much further research has been done about the problems of pathogenic trauma. The ideas of Maria Torok & Nicolas Abraham as well as some of Leonard Shengold's theories are described in this paper.
Teoriyata na Erih From za >byagstvo ot svobodata< (Erich Fromm's theory about >Escape from Freedom<)
(1998)
Successful Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychotherapy with a Middle-Aged Male Schizophrenic Patient
(1998)
A psychoanalytically oriented treatment of a middle-aged male schizophrenic patient is described. The therapy lasted for ten years, with a follow-up period of four years. The frequency of sessions was once a week throughout. The patient had been chronically psychotic for five years hearing voices accusing him of masturbation. From the beginning a positive transference with idealization developed. Mutual trust and a sense of communion was an important feature of the therapeutic relationship. Humour played an important part even during the most difficult periods of the patient's psychosis. He came regularly to sessions and was able to finish his studies soon after starting in therapy. The psychosis continued for many years. The pivotal point occurred after six year's of therapy when the patient dared to travel abroad alone and realised that the voices, speaking to him in Finnish, must be hallucinations, as he was surrounded by foreigners who did not know his native language. The economic recession forced the patient to stop therapy. During the follow-up period the frequency of sessions has been four times a year. The patient's physical and psychical health have improved and no more psychotic spells have occurred. He now owns an engineering firm, which is doing well.
Sandor Ferenczi's work, nourished by his own experience of shame and injury in relation to his analyst Freud, can be seen to link notions of trauma, regression and shame. This paper may be divided into three loosely connected sections. The first concerns the concept of regression. The second, the debate over the place of gratification and abstinence in controlling the depth of regression and in working through the shame which regression necessarily generates, and the third, the relation between trauma, regression and shame in the work of Ferenczi, together with the shame/ narcissistic injury over his rift with Freud and the subsequent allegation by Jones and others of paranoid delusions and psychotic disturbance.
Revisiting Erich Fromm
(1998)
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) hat das Frankfurter Psychoanalytische Institut und das New Yorker William Alanson White Institute mitbegründet und schließlich in Mexiko ein eigenes Ausbildungsinstitut gegründet. Eine eigene therapeutische Schule wollte er dennoch nie schaffen. Auch hat er selbst kaum etwas zur sog. psychoanalytischen Technik veröffentlicht. Umso aufschlussreicher ist der Bericht, den Ruth Lesser über ihre Supervisionen bei Fromm gibt. Sie schildert, wie Fromm auf den vorgestellten Fall reagiert, welche Bedeutung für ihn Verdrängung, Widerstand, Übertragung und Gegenübertragung in der therapeutischen Beziehungsarbeit haben und wie sehr sich sein Interesse auf die gesellschaftlich geprägten unbewussten Strebungen des Patienten richtete. Eindrücklich wird die Direktheit von Fromms Interventionsstil vermittelt, und zwar sowohl bezüglich seiner empathischen Einfühlung, als auch seines Konfrontierens mit der unbewussten Wirklichkeit. Im letzten Teil wird Fromms besonderes Verständnis der psychoanalytischen Situation reflektiert und die Eigenart seiner psychoanalytischen Behandlungsmethode herausgearbeitet.
Reflections on Culture
(1998)
Prison Life and Alienation
(1998)
This paper considers the fundamental change introduced by Ferenczi in 1919 by proposing the use of countertransference as an instrument. Basically it reconsiders the concept of analytic neutrality; mastery of countertransference is reached through tolerating it, overcoming resistances against it, demanding a very intense involvement of the analyst, as opposed to the image of the surgeon or the mirror. The paper analyzes the implications of this position for psychoanalysis. It places these concepts in the scientific and personal context in which it was written, then follows the later developments of these ideas in Ferenczi's own work, as well as in that of some other authors, and comments on the effects of these ideas on the psychoanalytic movement. Finally it poses some questions regarding our present use of countertransference in clinical work, with two brief vignettes highlighting these points.
Organisation und Charakter. Sozialpsychologische Aspekte zur Analyse von Sekten und Psychogruppen
(1998)
On Love
(1998)
On free-floating attention
(1998)
In this paper, self is conceived as a particular form of mental activity, or process, the dynamic and moving form of which is manifest in the stream of consciousness (James, 1890) and in certain kinds of conversation. A developmental pathway is constructed for self seen in this way. The development schema depends on the postulate of two fundamentally different forms of human language and conversation. One of the conversations, which has a nonlinear form, becomes a linguistic marker of >self.< The emergence of >self< is seen to depend on a form of memory, the autobiographical, which emerges at about four years of age. This memory system also allows the formation of narrative and of the storying that is the basis of culture. Disruptions of self are conceived according to Jacksonian theory and the notion of trauma. They result in forms of consciousness that are underpinned by memory systems, which, relative to the >autobiographical,< are more primitive. The disruptions are manifest in clinical conversations of a less complex, more automatic kind than the narrative of self. They are referred to, in this article, as chronicles and scripts. Successful therapy involves their transformation into a more spontaneous and complex narrative form.
In classical psychoanalytic models, treatment can be understood as enabling patients to repossess their own agency – to take responsibility for themselves as agents in relation to their own motives and impulses (>Where id was, there shall ego be<). How the question of agency is understood developmentally and as part of the treatment process in relational psychoanalytic perspectives has been less clearly articulated. In this article, we suggest that the attainment of the ability to experience oneself as an agent emerges from complex interpersonal and intrapsychic processes in infancy and early childhood and represents a kind of >glue< that provides the foundation for a feeling of personal coherence. We also suggest that the development of a sense of agency is predicated on the negotiation of recognition and mutual impact with parents early in life. When those negotiations go awry, the child's capacity for agency can be disrupted. We suggest that many of the difficulties patients experience in their lives can be understood in this developmental context.
The papers of Hans Loewald are among the most frequently cited and least understood within the psychoanalytic literature. Part of the problem is that his prescient ideas, extraordinarily creative and often visionary, are presented in traditional terminology. This paper is intended as a contribution to the explication of Loewald's important contribution, focusing on his novel understanding of language (both the development of language in the child and the language of psychoanalysis), and his richly dialectical view of the relationship between fantasy and actuality.
O objetivo deste ensaio é fazer uma breve análise dos aportes de Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm e Herbert Marcuse, que de alguma forma contribuíram para a formulação de uma teoria psicanalítica da perversão social. Nesse sentido, percorremos algumas obras dos autores ao analisar conceitos importantes, tais como os de economia sexual, caráter autoritário, princípio de desempenho e dessublimação repressiva, para avaliar até que ponto eles podem ser utilizados como operadores conceituais na análise de alguns fenômenos sociais perversos. O ensaio também apresenta críticas a determinadas soluções propostas pelos autores, mostrando como os caminhos seguidos desembocam em dois modelos de utopia sexual e social.
O Autorze
(1998)
The author discusses Ferenczi's theory of femininity in terms both of its orientation to Freud's constructivist view on the same subject and its intimate connections with his own phylogenetic speculations. She underlines the significance of Ferenczi's assumptions about the universality of the ?trend of maternal regression? and its determining role in genital sexual union. Due to the absence of a ?real? penis in women, Ferenczi postulates that female development is marked by a whole series of regressive moves and renunciations, from urethrality to anality (i.e. from activity to passivity), the ?abandonmentγ of the clitoris in favour of the vagina, and a regressive secondarynarcisstic cathexis of the entire body. The author criticizes Ferenczi's reduction of woman to the ?mother? function and relates this view to recent femininity theories emanating from the French school of psychoanalysis, which follow him in this respect. There is a brief discussion of the author's own approach to establishing a theory of femininity. She situates her theses in the framework of the tensions obtaining between Ferenczi's unsatisfactory theory of femininity as a ?defective? condition and his bold and laudable attempt to provide Freudian metapsychology with a biological foundation.
In this article I explore the concept of a postoedipal adult sexuality and its role in the erotic transference-countertransference processes seen in psychoanalytic treatment. This concept challenges the fundamental assumption that, whenever erotic feelings enter the psychoanalytic space, the analyst always stands in the role of the oedipal parent. It suggests that clinical choices made from within an oedipal model often fail to recognize certain significant developmental changes. An extended clinical example is provided.
Patients’ use of language in the analytic setting can undergo extreme and sometimes surprising fluctuations. Seemingly articulate and engaging patients retreat to the concrete in their use of words, disconnecting verbal expression from one's internal experience. Are these fluctuations indications of limitations in the patient's capacity to put experience into language, or are they indications of the emergence of otherwise unacknowledged aspects of self into the treatment arena? Shifts in the use of language (both patient's and therapist's) can be opportunities to question the work of the analysis. Whether one uses these moments to expand the boundaries of the analytic technique or to expand the boundaries of the analytic relationship – or both – is the question posed in this commentary.
For a surprising number of analysands, many with above-average intelligence and facility with language, words do not adequately capture or convey emotion or symbolize experience. This often subtle difficulty can have a powerful impact on the ability to verbally communicate emotions, process affect, and utilize traditional psychoanalytic interventions. Analysands with these problems therefore often have difficulty using analysis to explore and understand their own experience, yet the reasons for such difficulties are often not recognized by either analyst or analysand. In this article, I suggest that the concept of alexithymia can provide a valuable tool for understanding this gap between affects and language and, in its broadest interpretation, can aid therapists in their pursuit of meaningful approaches to the analytic process. Using the concept as a starting point, I describe and illustrate an approach in which paying attention to apparently insignificant aspects of an analysand's experience gradually helps analysands identify and explore personal symbols and meanings in their lives.
This article discusses binary, or dichotomous, thinking as it develops in normal classification, in pathological splitting, and in shifts of cultural awareness such as that from Classicism to Romanticism. It relates these to states of subjective and objective self-awareness as induced and regulated by the early parental environment. A number of clinical examples demonstrate how pathological splitting may arise and how the therapeutic process works to alter dichotomous thinking and raise it to higher levels of integration. It also suggests that a similar process of integration can take place over time in our historical understanding of cultural paradigm shifts. We do not know the Hells and Heavens of people we pass in the street. There are two possible perspectives. According to the first, on a miniscule ball of earth, in a smudge of mold called a city, some microorganisms move around, less durable than mayflies. And the internal states of [such] beings, deprived of any reason for their existence, perfectly interchangeable, what importance can they have? According to the second perspective, that of a reversed telescope, every one of these beings grows up to the size of a cathedral and surpasses in its complexity any nature, living or inert. Only in the second case can we see that no two persons are identical and that we may at best try to guess what is going on inside our fellow men [Milosz, 1986, p. 120].
Some people feel that aspects of their past or limitations of their present prevent them from living a life they experience as worth living. They embark on the project of fully re-creating themselves. This article traces various manifestations of the desire for self-creation. An extended clinical example shows how this project led a patient to the brink of death, because it was more important for her to feel that she had authorship over her life than to be alive. The desire for self-creation has found cultural expression in the Cartesian program of cleaning the mind from any external influence. In less sublimated forms, this desire can be found in bodybuilding and certain forms of sexual fantasy. This article ends by discussing psychoanalytic and existentialist approaches to the protest against fatedness, which motivates the project of self-creation.
In this paper we explore a few points emphasized by both Fairbairn and American Relational Theory related to conceptualizations of the new and old object and the implications for working in the analytic situation. Underlying much of our discussion is the belief that there are useful tensions between, on the one hand, Fairbairn's emphasis on our attachment to bad and old objects and refractory clinging to these bad objects in the face of receiving something new, and, on the other, a construal of a push or willingness toward integrating externality and newness of objects (e.g., Winnicott, 1969 Benjamin, 1988). American Relational models which explore complexities of interaction augment an understanding of Fairbairn's formulations of why we hold on to old objects. Fairbairn's theory also offers ways of understanding aspects of repetition, even, and sometimes especially, in trying to provide new experience.