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Three distinct, yet overlapping, phases of treatment emerge when working with some borderline and psychotic patients. This are patients who test the ordinary limits of psychoanalysis, but can profit from its deep exploration. The first phase is colored by acting out, interpersonally and intrapsychically. An analytic envelope of containment is necessary to sustain the treatment. Interpretive holding and containing help the patient find a psychic receptacle capable of detoxifying violent projections. Many of these patients terminate prematurely. The second phase is centered around the patient's defensive use of the death instinct to extinguish or destroy certain parts of their mental functioning. This difficult standoff between parts of the patient's mind becomes replicated in the transference. The third phase reveals the more fundamental problem of paranoid~schizoid anxieties of loss and primitive experiences of guilt. These include fears of persecution and annihilation. Some patients abort treatment in the first or second phase and never work through the phantasies and feelings of loss. Nevertheless, much intrapsychic and interpersonal progress is possible. Given the instability and chaotic nature of these patient's object relations, the analyst must be cautiously optimistic in their work and realize the potential to help the patient even when presented with less than optimal working conditions.
In order to discuss the depressive personality we have first to distinguish between this clinical entity and other types of depressive psychopathology that might also be chronic. The character traits and psychodynamics of the depressive personality confirm that there is a special group of patients, who belong to a depressive disorder continuum. The particular technical problems that depressive personality present are: (1) the inability to enjoy anything and the consequences of this on the therapist's experience and interventions, and (2) the negative therapeutic reaction which threatens the analytic process and the therapist's competence. If we combine transference/ extratransference interpretations with an >empathetic understanding< approach to systematic confrontation and interpretation, we can therefore justify the need for a slightly modified psychoanalytic technique in the treatment of the depressive personality.
Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children. Impact of armed conflict on children. 78 pp.
(2002)
Using a clinical vignette, in which self-disclosure appears as a starting point, the authors investigate the connection between method and techniques. As the recent literature on the subject generally maintains, the classical analysts' neutral position can no longer be accepted. Analysts are always fully engaged in the intersubjective relationship and pass their values on to their patients through their professional roles – which can be understood as self-disclosure in a wider meaning. However, self-disclosure, and in more general terms the analyst's participation in the process, need technical criteria of reference. By deepening the relationship between method and techniques, established by Rapaport, the authors maintain that method is determined by theory and in turn gives meaning to techniques. As a consequence, techniques play a minor role with regard to theory and method. The opening of psychoanalysis to the relational perspective is bringing about the decrease of technique as an absolute value in favour of a greater self-awareness of the analyst who, following the method related to his/her theory will be able to better cope with techniques.
An etymology of a biophilia is Latin and is also mentioned with the instinct of the preservation of race as defined in Japanese-English dictionaries, in American dictionaries it is defined as an appreciation for life. And also bio is life and philia is love in Greek. The preface of >The Revolution of Hope< as described by Erich Fromm who is an American philosopher is a reference for biophilia. He described >The love of life< which exists in most of us is a latent power that is mobilized and whose behavior can change and can bring about change when life is threatened by danger and is fully recognized.
Symbolization
(2002)
Comment on Sergio Caruso's Article ‚On the Conjunction of Basic Assumptions in the Enlarged Group<
(2002)
This paper discusses Freud's >Oedipus complex< both in its elaboration of the >Ueber-ich< and from a broader point of view, which relates to the development of man's moral sense. It is a disturbing experience to watch the continuous twilight of the function of the father, either as the head of the family or as the belief in a God or in a Truth that establishes a well-defined morality. At the same time, the function of the father as Lawgiver is supplanted by the function of money as the only value and the measure of all things. Since Freud's days, the field of morality has been increasingly invaded by the discourse of experts and administrators who determine Good and Evil with the intention of reaching a maximization of the profits and a more complete domination of our bodies. This paper questions the actual validity of the Oedipus complex as the organizer of modern man's sense of morality through its provocative title: >do we still have anything to do with the old blind man?<
This paper discusses the ethical humanism of the late psychoanalyst Eric FROMM as compared to traditional Judeo-Christian theism. Considering their respective views of human nature and possibility, and of the relationship between truth, reason, and revelations, the authors posit that FROMM and traditional theists take radically different positions, making their religious stances fundamentally incompatible. In conclusion, the authors suggest how these differences could have significant implication for pastoral care.
This book explores the thinking of 8 pioneers of religious psychology: William James, Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Gordon Allport, Abraham Maslow, Alan Watts, Erich FROMM, Viktor Frankl. Fuller presents the theories of these seminal figures in a clear, straightforward way, and also examines the limits of psychological explanations of religion. He concludes the book by exploring the contributions to religion by some prominent recent figures in psychology.
An unusual set of silences mark the history of psychoanalysis, and the origins of training analysis is notable among them. Organizational trade unionist politics too often substitute for genuine scholarship. The advantages and limitations of the practice of training analysis need to be explored. Both Glover and Lacan pioneered politicization. A variety of authoritarian devices have been operating for suppressing >dissidence<. The future of psychoanalysis may depend on the extent to which the political, social, and strictly philosophic sides of psychoanalysis get explored. in proposing that training analysis leads to.
This paper discusses Freud's theory in the context of the most significant redefinitions in contemporary biology. Freud's ideas in general, as well as his conception of mental illness, were deeply grounded in the paradigm of evolutionist biology, which prevailed during his lifetime. Over the last four decades, another paradigm emerged in this field and became dominant, i.e., the informational paradigm. For this reason, some of the implications of this new paradigm for resignifying Freud's concepts like repetition, death drive and anxiety will be outlined.
The goal of this article is to clarify some of the aspects concerning the academic teaching and research that is carried out in the field of psychoanalysis in the Brazilian Universities, versus the transmission and training in psychoanalytic institutions. The author describes how psychoanalysis is present in the Brazilian university context, from undergraduate to graduate studies, and also points out perspectives regarding the future of psychoanalysis in Brazil.
The author describes the historical pathway trailed by a psychoanalytical institution (C rculo Psicanal tico de Minas Gerais) in a developing country (Brazil) and the structural consequences to this institution. As this institution was founded according to Igor Caruso's non-orthodox proposals, it has been destined to be a pluralistic society, composed of members who follow multiple theoretical orientations. As all of these members are united in the same institution, they all have the same hierarchical rights. The author discusses the difficulties encountered in maintaining this sort of institution.
The end of the 20th century inaugurates the tele-techno-media dimension that gives place to subjective mutation of incalculable effects. These transformations crucially affect adolescents and youths, for this new dimension promotes a planetary enlargement of the non-family influences which act directly on idealness. Held between the illusionary temptation of the ideal-ego and the possibility of living the ego ideal, the adolescent suffers through the confrontation with this colossal identifying, fragmented and voracious mirror. The author then discusses what the psychoanalyst can do.
Andrucha Waddington is the director of a Brazilian movie named Me, You, Them . It can be defined as a laboratory which demonstrates the possibilities and obstacles that inhabit human relationships. A woman from the northeastern region of Brazil proves herself capable of creating new forms of female/male relations by inaugurating an original model of family structures which do not aim toward completeness. The diversity of each unfolding relationship demonstrates the certainty of unfulfilled need. Instead of subverting the established order, this woman experiences new perspectives through her love affairs, as these reveal a new space for her feminine condition without denying masculinity. This dynamic process is a consequence of her refusal to accept the passive melancholia of mythic femininity. The possibility of refusing this mortal feminine condition results from the internal process of mourning which reveals a novel dimension of issues that shall be worked through and elaborated. Femininity and masculinity permeate the transitory space between similarities and differences as both are structured upon the human condition of helplessness.
The author discusses his recollection of Erich Fromm's views on psychoanalytic work with patients, including the author's treatment of a patient. The remembrance involves Fromm's clinical thinking on social character and the social unconscious, and its relevance to present-day clinical work. The author presents, in detail, his treatment of a 37-year old successful woman which addresses certain of today's clinical views on gender differences that resonate and differ with Fromm's thinking on the treatment of the marketing personality.
From its beginning Interpersonal Psychoanalysis was eminently suited to address theoretical and clinically issues when working with patients from different cultures. The open-ended quality of the detailed inquiry was a particularly useful tool to get to know the >stranger<, as American social scientists of the fifties and sixties were quick to acknowledge. It therefore comes as a surprise how few interpersonalists have addressed themselves to cross-cultural issues. Particularly lacking has been attention to countertransferential problems in analyzing patients from other cultures. In addition the impact of the cultural climate on the analytic process itself has rarely been explored. As cross-cultural contacts in the consulting room have become more frequent it is important for analysts to consider that developmental sequences, family relationships, interpersonal distance, concepts of time and openness to emotional sharing may differ from what Western psychoanalysis considers to be >normal<.
To fully develop a science of social character, three aspects of Fromm's social character theory need to be clarified. The first has to do with the difference between individual and social character. Fromm expanded on Freud's description of normal types: erotic (receptive), obsessive (hoarding) and narcissistic (exploitative). Besides the concept of social character, Fromm made three major contributions to the psychoanalytic theory of character: the concept of productiveness, sociopolitical modes of relationship, and the marketing character. Social character is an interac-tion between internalized culture (values) and individual character. This interaction results in variations in social character and helps explain the Secon issue, how so-cial character changes. The concept of social selection explains how narcissistic en-trepreneurs restructure social institutions to shape a new social character. The third issue concerns how social character develops throughout the life cycle. Fromm never offered a developmental theory. Erik Erikson's model of development fit the social character of America at the mid-century. A revision of this model provides a useful construct for understanding changes in the kind of problems being brought to psychoanalysis at the start of the 21st century and also changes in psychoanalytic practice.
This article is an attempt to begin to weave together Freud’s work – on dreams here envisioned as the original model for virtual reality – and from Fromm’s work – on the impact of the market on personality. The contributions of these two psychoanalysts provide a necessary dual foundation for an understanding of emerging aspects of human psychology that are evolving, at the beginning of the 21st Century, alongside the profound influence of the electronically driven global market. It is time for psychoanalysis to engage more fully in the study of cultural forces. While it is easy to disregard dreams, both in the general culture and of late in psychoanalysis itself, dreams and their interpretation have always been central in human living, in the development of religion and in the birth of psychoanalysis as our own secular religion. Dreams, in their disembodiment and in their fluidity of information transformations have served as one model for developments within cyber culture and virtual living. The destruction of nature is seen as an underlying theme in the development of compatible relativist-subjectivist philosophies and in the growth of cyberculture. Thus, Freud’s insights into dreams and Fromm’s into the marketing personality are both crucial to an understanding of major contemporary forces.
In this article we intend to discuss eating disorders, principally anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. We initiate this discussion from a medical point of view and then proceed to psychoanalytic theory in an attempt to shed light upon the cultural aspects that influence these disorders. Special emphasis has been given to certain Brazilian cultural patterns that permeate the manifestation and treatment of this condition in our tropical country. We have centralized our discussion around three questions: Can eating disorders be considered as post-modern disorders? Do contemporary factors have a determinant role in the onset of this disorder? How can psychoanalysis contribute toward a better comprehension of these disorders?
In a public institution that works with adolescents who have committed infractions and the application of penalties that restrict the freedom of these adolescents, the psychoanalytical concept
incompleteness has furnished the basis for an educational project. This same concept of nonwholeness has also been applied in order to explain why certain teenagers adhere to a criminal set of values instead of choosing righteous ones. Psychoanalysis teaches us to work through the demands that are made by our patients so as to bring the unconscious wish to the surface. Our work with these demands conditions the onset of still another demand: the request for clinical treatment. Both social and institutional demands can be treated in a similar way. In this paper, we associate violence with the notion of wholeness, therefore the acknowledgement of vulnerability and lack can actually restrain violence. This is a paradox sustained by psychoanalysis.
The author points out that it is desirable for psychoanalysis to possess not only descriptive theories, which are useful for clinical purposes, but also a general, unitary theory to explain the functioning of the mind. An explanatory theory must be consistent with the findings of the other sciences of the mind. Freud pursued his explanatory aim by formulating his energy-and-drive theory in line with the sciences of his day. This underlay the recognition achieved by psychoanalysis at the time. We currently lack an explanatory theory consistent with the present-day neurosciences, while on the other hand the energy-and-drive theory can no longer be deemed to possess explanatory value. However, a new explanatory theory can be constructed on the basis of today's cognitive sciences. Summarizing the ideas presented in his writings over the last twenty years, the author here puts forward his own theory, which he considers will be useful, first, in a clinical context, second, with a view to standardizing the language used by psychoanalysts, and third, as part of a policy of securing recognition for psychoanalysis among the present-day psychological sciences.
The institution of psychoanalysis has included controversies, dissensions and expulsions at both the theoretical-methodological and personal-organizational levels. There have also been several intra- and intergroup conflicts in the history of psychoanalysis, and in constructing and patterning the future of psychoanalytic knowledge. In the context of Finnish psychoanalysis, the Therapeia Foundation (founded in 1958) met from the start with resistance from official psychiatry and also from the IPA. For example, in the mid-1960s, D. W. Winnicott, as the President of the IPA, supported the orthodox Finnish psychoanalytic study group (later to become the Finnish Psychoanalytical Society), and pronounced that the Therapeia group was too loose and was not strictly able to use the IPA-recognized designation >psychoanalytic<. The Therapeia Foundation and its Training Seminar combined classical psychoanalysis and its new versions with existentialphenomenological views, anthropological medicine, research on >social pathology< and even modern theological research. On the basis of their Swiss analytic training, three Finnish psychiatrists, Martti Siirala, Kauko Kaila and Allan Johansson, organized Therapeian training to incorporate sciences and arts, and skills involving the therapeutic >carrying< of burdens. The multifacted nature of open psychoanalysis was seen to find its proper organizational expression when the Training Seminar of the Therapeia Foundation became, in 1974, a Member of the IFPS.
Postmodernism originated in an overreaction to >modernist< sociocultural trends of the past few centuries. Flaws of postmodern writers include: ignorance and distortion of the history of science and philosophy; the erroneous assumption that such faults of some natural scientists as reductionism and narrowness are intrinsic to the entire enterprise, even to rationality; overgeneralizing such valid criticisms to the level of metaphysical relativism; and deliberately obscure and pretentious writing. Its vogue is a threat to science in general and to psychoanalysis in particular. Psychoanalysis was vulnerable to a postmodernist attack because of Freud's rejection of scientific standards for his creation, his n ve realism, and his authoritarian heritage plus certain weaknesses of theory, technique, and organization resulting from it. Analysts are urged to stay close to clinical observation and abstain from generalizing outside their realm of expertise.
The paper presents historical remarks about psychoanalysis in institutions with a special focus on the contributions of nurses working in psychoanalytic settings. A case report of the forensic psychotherapy ward in Reichenau Mental Hospital, which is organised as a therapeutic community, shows how individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy and special nursing care contribute to significant progress in the treatment of a severely narcissistic arsonist.
Fromm viewed intrapsychic dynamic processes as having their origin in a generalized organic life force that gets transformed into psychic energy called passions. He is acknowledged as one of the most original, creative writers of the mid-20th century whose fertile mind and humanistic sensibilities synthesized the domains of psychoanalysis, social philosophy, and politics. His unyielding belief that the development of the individual psyche is inseparable from its two-way interaction with a lived relational and cultural context presaged the evolution of the relational perspective in psychoanalysis, and his concept of passions foreshadowed contemporary neuroscientific theories of affect and its role in intrapsychic life and self-identity formation. Damasio’s theory of emotions is reviewed as a specific example of the current revamping of psychoanalytic theory as bottom-up information processing, that is, the integrating and synthesyzing of affective experience and memory (preverbal mentalization) as fueling the creation of a narrative self. Fromm’s discussions of dissociation are linked both to Damasio’s core self experiences and to Bromberg’s conceptualization of psychoanalysis of dissociative experience as a process of >standing in the spaces.< And finally, Fromm’s descriptions of psychoanalysis as an art are linked to Schon’s action-oriented theory of practical knowledge.
Trauma Lives in Speech
(2002)
The author approaches the topic through infant observation. At the age of eight months the baby moves in the borderland between the physical and the symbolic. When the baby hurts herself, she needs the mother's arms to protect her: at the same time, her budding spoken symbol >mama< is comforting in itself, it carries the memory of the mother's arms. Can speech – tone of voice, rhythm, pauses – and the moments of loss, absence, the losing of self also be intertwined? The author discusses the question of how trauma starts to live in speech through two patients. She talks about >a silent language< which speaks in between the words and sentences – changes the rhythm of speech, makes lose words, tears a hole in speech. This >silent language< talks about trauma, reaches for its very essence – a bodily experience and meaning to the wholeness/ disruption of self.