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This paper aims at the presentation of ethical and political grounds of the pedagogy of asylum, which, in its assumptions, refers to concepts of such thinkers as Emmanuel Levinas, Erich Fromm, George Steiner, Hannah Arendt, Michael Walzer, Avishai Margalit, Jacques Derrida and Janusz Korczak. Utopia of hospitality, presented in its basic assumptions, constitutes a look at the social life, life of individuals and communities, as concentrated in asylums, while its author thinks that it forms an answer to modern challenges to Western democracies, education and politics in the >Age of Migration<.
Introduction: Despite struggling to establish itself as an autonomous profession, occupational therapy remains extensively regulated and controlled by discursive authorities inside and outside the discipline. After overcoming the profession’s reformist ideals, the military governance that supported its rapid expansion morphed into civil institutions but both were based on similar grounds: occupational therapists should obey a strict set of rules while disobedience and dissent are consistently repressed or silenced. Objective: The objective of this article is to deconstruct dominant (consensual) discourses that shape the status quo in occupational therapy and envision alternative paths for the development of the discipline. Method: Drawing on the work of Erich Fromm and Jacques Rancière, we propose a (critical) theoretical analysis of the concepts of disobedience and dissensus as they apply to occupational therapists. Results: The concepts of disobedience (Fromm) and dissensus (Rancière) can be used to revisit the consensus shaped by discursive authorities inside and outside occupational therapy and expose the political nature of such processes. We argue that remaining oppressive forces similar to those of a warfare regime persist in regulating occupational therapy practice and knowledge by enacting a form of >disciplinary propaganda.< Rather than threatening the development of the discipline, disobedience and dissensus constitute critical responses to disrupt dominant discourses and give rise to healthier concepts. Conclusion: The use of politically charged terms such as disobedience or dissensus can be seen as controversial and unsettling for a profession like occupational therapy but we believe they are necessary for the future of our discipline.
Rather than being absolute, human freedom is relative because human situation and condition limits it. Also relative is press freedom. History of press in Indonesia recorded that press freedom is experienced once more by Indonesian people after the 1998 reform. At implementation level, there are numerous debates on the definition of freedom. This research attempts to analyze autonomous and dynamics press freedom in Indonesia as observed from Erich Fromm’s perspective. This research is a qualitative research on philosophical problem analyzed by means of historical-factual approach. Research result indicates that autonomous and dynamic press can be achieved through two actions. First, opposing the parties who prevent press from becoming themselves. Second, developing the >culture< of rationality, i.e. accustoming the press to develop their common sense to reach each of their realistic point.
Political Reactionism as Affective Practice: UKIP Supporters and Non‐Voters in Pre‐Brexit England
(2021)
Border Situations as Unchanging Human Situations (via Karl Jaspers, Erich Fromm & Noam Chomsky
(2021)
The first aim of this paper is to raise the interest in the works of three authors, Karl Jaspers, Erich Fromm, and Noam Chomsky. The second intention is to show and prove that despite being different in vocation, they essentially speak of the same social reality, regardless of the fact that they observe and reflect reality from different theoretical/scientific positions/aspects: philosophical, ethical/bioethical, anthropological, sociological, psychological, political, legal, economic, cultural, philological/linguistic, ideological. Despite certain differences, what brings them together spiritually/cognitively are the >diagnoses< of the diseased tissue of (post)modern civil society, as well as the assessments of the phenomenon of social/existential reality of our time. What unites them is the comprehensive humanism and care for the man and man’s psychosomatic health and their present and future life, at the time when civilization is on the verge of self-destruction.
During the psychoanalytic discovery and investigation of Psychoneurosis, theoretical scaffoldings offered by Freudian theory were expansive and rich but still incomplete. Amongst the Neo-Freudians, Fromm began unearthing the psychopathology of the society under the heavy influence of Marx. Fromm remarked that the grown-up patient was not a child but an alienated adult who was seen as the neurotic. Feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness and inhibition occurred because the patient did not experience himself as the subject and originator of his own acts and experiences. Alienation had thus caused the neuroses to occur. Ushering in >spiritual liberation< along with complete change of the >economic social constellation< for Fromm were the necessary prerequisites before envisioning a cure of societal pathologies rooted in the contemporary mode of production. Freud on the other hand was skeptical about the application of psychoanalysis to civilization. He ringed in caution to the application of systems of knowledge developed at the individual level when projected to more global levels. Diagnosis of a >collective neurosis< would be tedious since no starting point associated with its development could emerge as the fixation point. Another hurdle that needed to be addressed according to Freud was that even if a substantial system of knowledge did take shape its implementation would be a herculean task. It would take great skill and courage to compel a community to become aware of its blind spots and become available to therapy. Thus, the growth and development of Psychoneurosis had charted a trajectory from the unexplored abysmal depths of the psyche to the more gross levels of societal productions. This paper attempts to establish links between the classic concept of Psychoneurosis and the larger gamut of modern-day society’s psychic reflections.
Idolatry
(2021)
I argue in this paper that every society has its own >libidinal drives< that may or may not paralyze the capacity of individuals towards freedom. Fromm calls this the social character. Social character is the unconscious canalization of individual libidinal drives for the attainment of social objectives instituted by the dominant figures of society. I theorize that the Freirian dyadic alliance persists because of a dominant characterology permeated by the ruling authorities. The dynamics of social character structure not only eludes the oppressed conscious awareness, but it also actually strengthens the domination and control through the institutionalization of structural policies enacted and implemented by the oppressors. Hence, what Freire laments in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed is equalized and smoothen by how the marginalized and the downtrodden cling incessantly towards the oppressors. By depending upon the dominant ruling authorities, the oppressed find fulfillment and satisfaction, upon which they fortify the dyadic-symbiotic relations. This happens because of the dynamics of their character structure that caters to the instinctual drive to survive. The social character gives rise to the inner satisfaction of oppressed libidinous desires and needs, thus equalizing their own emotional needs. Furthermore, the very nature of their submissiveness is a character trait that unknowingly recanalizes their elementary needs in life. Hence, by understanding how the Frommian social character influences social behaviors the symbiotic element that cements the Freirian dyadic relation is unlocked. Through unraveling the dynamics of social characterology, the Freirian dyadic symbiosis ungrounds itself and eventually grasps why the majority of the poor and marginalized are motivated and find fulfillment therein as a matter of survival from controlling authorities.
The Pathology of Modernity
(2021)
This chapter presents the psychological burden of living under modernity’s law of gravitation as the defining focus of much continental philosophy and social science. Most Western philosophers with any self-respect have their own diagnoses of present-day society, intended to capture the essence of living in modernity. Key thinkers such as Nietzsche, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Adorno and Horkheimer, Fromm, Rieff, Eriksson and Mitscherlich gave their important contribution to individuation – the development of a unique self, socialization and subjectivation. Equally important is the question of failed individuation as these psychologists, sociologists and philosophers ask themselves whether modern man can manage without >God< and if the science-based Enlightenment’s promise of secular happiness would hold water.
Context: Propaganda seems to be around us all the time, yet many people would find it difficult to provide a definition of propaganda. It becomes one of those words that are easy to use, but hard to define. Scholars have been writing on propaganda for centuries, yet the definition still remains illusive. Lay people simply call propaganda all communications they disagree with. Propaganda becomes brainwashing or, even worse, psychological warfare. Objectives: The article seeks to address this problem of identifying propaganda. Method: The article develops a theoretical argument by bringing a psychological and psychoanalytic work of Fromm into the real of communication sciences. Results: The author argues that propaganda is more than just a profanity for communication activities we disagree with. In fact, this essay suggests that propaganda is best understood through a psychoanalytical research on sadism and masochism by Fromm. Fromm using a biological concept of symbiosis explained sadism and masochism as a way of building symbiotic relations making an individual bigger than just oneself. Applying this theory to a society makes propagandist and propagandee not that different from a sadist and masochist, both gaining meaning for their lives through propaganda and becoming parts of something bigger. Propaganda's symbiotic relations rely on groupthink and participatory rhetoric focusing on building group cohesion and establishing >us versus them< mentality. Conclusion: The article concludes that propaganda's symbiotic relations work through groupthink and participatory rhetoric focusing on building group cohesion and establishing >us versus them< mentality. Propaganda removes an individual, focusing instead on many; propaganda eradicates individual's desires focusing instead on needs of the group; and propaganda draws sharp boundaries where own group ends and the enemy territory begins. Propaganda becomes an aggressive symbiosis aimed at its own survival and protection from the others. The study, building on this explicating of propaganda through symbiotic relations, proposes several areas for future research on propaganda to better understand its connection to psychology and psychoanalysis.
Following Max Horkheimer, I will first attempt to reconstruct an anthropology that essentially wants to be understood as critical social research. I will then pursue the question of humanism in critical theory. In doing so, I want to show that a reference to a normatively substantive humanism does actually exist in critical theory. On the other hand, I want to show that this humanism is anything but unambiguously and systematically formulated but has been reflected and articulated differently by different representatives of critical theory. The two examples I will refer to here are Theodor W. Adorno and Erich Fromm. I will define Adorno’s humanism as ‘dialectical humanism’, whereas Fromm’s humanism could be described as ‘emphatic humanism’. My reading, however, attempts to interrogate the two positions as to their complementarity. Not ‘Adorno or Fromm’, but ‘Adorno and Fromm’ is the motto that guides me. Finally, I will relate this complementary reading of both approaches in such a way that the possibility of a ‘Critical Humanism’ can be derived from it, which above all also wants to be understood as a sociological research program.
An attempt to understand the idea of >commons< in architecture requires analytical tools and a narrative which will refer to >common values<. Yet the era of Postmodernism taught us mainly the relativism of multitudes of values, standards and paradigms. It made us used to >it all depends< approach. Many popular methods of describing architecture are based on analysing it in a historical or cultural context. This paper, however, proposes a perspective that refers to human needs which have arguably been universal for all the people in all historical periods in all cultures. This perspective could be useful particularly while dealing with big contemporary issues of >commons< in architecture – togetherness, ecology, common places and agendas. This paper proposes a framework based on the school of >positive psychology< and in particular on the unappreciated father of the Frankfurt School and critical theory – Erich Fromm who worked all his life on his comprehensive >theory of needs<. This paper proposes translating the concepts of this theory into architectural analyses and narrative. If we are to understand the essence of >commons<, we need to refer to people’s common needs. These are the key concepts of Fromm’s model. This paper is structured around what Fromm described as three basic, common needs: freedom, creativity and love. The analysis of low-tech movement will serve as an example illustrating how the lens of Erich Fromm’s theory allows better understanding of this phenomenon. The objective of this paper is to propose a new definition and narrative of the low-tech movement which will be based on a psychological framework.
Erich Fromm, the Mentor
(2021)
In the previous chapter, we examined numerous aspects of postwar American society that came into play in Riesman’s formulation of autonomy. Many factors carry weight when we consider what inspired him to write >The Lonely Crowd< and to offer his insightful analysis of conformity’s malaise. Among those who influenced Riesman intellectually, there can be little doubt that Erich Fromm played a major role. Although Riesman never accepted Fromm’s pessimistic view and radical approach to modernity in the West, we clearly see the impact of Fromm on Riesman’s ideas about social character, conformity, and especially autonomy. Thus, in order to better understand Riesman we must take a look at Fromm’s theories especially in some of his early books. Here we find several core ideas that heavily impacted Riesman’s theory of autonomy.
Aim: Through a review of philosophical and theoretical constructs, this paper offers insight and guidance as to ways in which nurse leaders may operationalize advocacy and an adherence to nursing's core ethical values. Background: The US health care system works in opposition to core nursing values. Nurse leaders are obliged to advocate for the preservation of ethical care delivery. Evaluation: This paper draws upon the philosophies of Fromm, Foucault, and Deleuze and Guattari to critically review the functions of nurse leaders within a capitalist paradigm. Key issue: Key emergent issues in the paper include health care and capitalism and the nurse leader's obligations towards advocacy. Conclusion: The nurse leader acts as parrhèsia in viewing truth telling as a duty critical to improving the lives of patients. Ramifications of the decisions by those in power have even greater impact in institutions that serve those with little to no political agency. Implications for Nursing Management: The nurse leader has a freedom and platform that their patients do not and must take the courageous risk of choosing to speak. This paper serves as a call to action for nurse leaders to urgently address the current state of US health outcomes.
Chapter III: Culture
(2021)
The third chapter deals with the cultural environment of humanity. It exposes its nature and stresses its fundamental historicity. It elaborates particularly on the location of cultures, stressing that culture not only constitutes our environment but it also inhabits us. The chapter underlines the crucial role played by mediations in the incessant transformations taking place between individuals and society. The role played by class position and the problem of predictability of individual actions and social development is touched upon in this context. The chapter outlines also the driving lines of evolution resulting in the society/individual couple as we know it. Finally this chapter offers a Marxist appreciation of some very important authors: George H. Mead, Karen Horney, Harry S. Sullivan, John Bowlby, Erich Fromm, Pierre Bourdieu, and the cultural psychology approach.
Over every and each sport event, a dark veil spreads and obfuscates the celebration: doping. Although anti-doping policies have been widely applied, controlling and diminishing this phenomenon has not been achieved yet and the use of doping is commonplace. In this article, I propose the concept of narcissistic civilization as a tool to interpret this phenomenon. I seek for a parallel reading between the Freudian idea of narcissism and its extension to social narcissism by Fromm, together with Heidegger’s analysis of technology, keeping in mind that doping is a technological application. In this way I point out that both theories share a common view in that humans tend to fail in the distinction between the external reality as an object and their own self as the interpreter that is between the >I< and the >not I<. By making this fusion of the two theories that originate from different intellectual traditions, I aspire to provide an interpretation tool for the broad use of doping: I conclude that doping can be understood with the assumption of a narcissistic civilization, focused on technology that calls for the use of PEDs.
Deciphering Crypto-fascism
(2021)
Fascism is a virulent historical social pathology that presents itself as a political ideology or a component of general ideology. It is historical in a double sense. It is actualized at specific times and places. It is also, a recurring feature of history itself. Crypto-fascism is the manipulation of the ambiguity of language for the purpose of fascistic actualization. Crypto-fascism is often an early >tell< or warning of the presence of more widespread fascism. There have been several powerful and deep studies of fascism and its co-optation of the ambiguity of language. Two of these approaches are of particular importance. In both instances fascism is addressed as a potentiality or susceptibility tied to the human condition per se. The first is Freudian and the second is existential. These approaches both meet the historical criteria noted above. In this essay I follow the work of Erich Fromm and Jean-Paul Sartre to understand the ground of fascism and its crypto variant. Camouflage is the hallmark of crypto-fascism, and it is exactly this that Fromm’s analysis and that of Sartre discloses.
The Frankfurt School was the first school to discern the roles of the media in shaping human thought, influencing politics, and increasing the insatiable demand of consumers in capitalist societies. The analysis brought to the fore by Adorno and Horkheimer regarding the >Culture Industry< illustrated a model of media as tools of hegemony and social control advanced by Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Jürgen Habermas. The School also examined the repercussions of mass culture and the rise of the consumer society on the proletariat that was aimed to be the instrument of revolution in the classical Marxian scenario. Another thing that was analyzed is how the culture industries and consumer society were considered as stabilizing forces of contemporary capitalism. Therefore, they were among the first to see the expansion of communication and mass media roles in politics, socialization and social life, culture, and the construction of docile subjects as Foucault puts it. In the present article, I review the contributions to media and social theory advanced by the Frankfurt School. The integration of psychoanalysis, aesthetic theory and the critique of mass culture, and the critique of the Enlightenment are the main components discussed in the present article.
Reassessing Wilhelm Reich’s Mass Psychology: Libidinality, Authoritarianism and the Rise of Fascism
(2021)
Explanations for the contemporary rise of fascistic attitudes and activism solely in terms of historical, political, and socioeconomic determinants, because they tend to assume the individual is a >rational actor< , are often limited in their capacity to account for the significance of individual enchantment with, and passion for, authoritarian movements. The article argues for the urgent need for greater understanding of the psychodynamic allure of fascist and authoritarian politics. In this context, Wilhelm Reich’s 1933 essay, >The Mass Psychology of Fascism<, is reassessed. It is suggested that he presents a valid and profoundly significant thesis when he points to the connections among the attraction and ardor for fascism, societal oppression of sexuality, and the individual’s libidinal inhibitions, conflicts, and frustrations. But his essay needs substantial correction and modification in three respects: (1) His ideas about >natural sexuality<; (2) his assumptions about matriarchal bliss; and (3) his pervasive heteronormativity or homophobia. The critique of these three aspects is primarily theoretical but also touches on Reich’s life history to the extent that it contextualizes his blind spots. Finally, it is suggested that, in subsequent psychoanalytic writings on the dynamics of authoritarianism and the rise of fascism (from Theodor Adorno and Erich Fromm, to Christina Wieland and Jonathan Sklar), far too little attention has been paid to the libidinal underpinnings of these phenomena, to which Reich’s thesis should draw our attention.
Biophilia as Evolutionary Adaptation: An Onto- and Phylogenetic Framework for Biophilic Design
(2021)
Biophilia is a human personality trait described initially by Erich Fromm and later by E.O. Wilson, both of whom agree that biophilia has a biological basis and that it is fundamental to develop harmonious relationships between humans and the biosphere. This review aims at establishing a definition of biophilia as an evolutionary process. To this end, the most significant studies of evolutionary psychology were considered, to outline the fundamental characteristics of a hypothetical biophilic temperament/personality and to reconstruct a plausible history of biophilia as an evolutionary process. This process considers different typologies of Nature (wilderness, rural, and urban) and human cultures (Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Burg) and leads us to consider environmental preference and psycho-physiological recovery in relation to the threshold of time spent in contact with Nature. Unfortunately, modern people, especially children, lack direct and frequent contact with Nature and this can have negative consequences on their physical and mental health. Biophilic design, considering the evolutionary roots of this architectural approach, is an effective way of planning/designing interior and urban environments to stimulate the innate biophilia of the individual.
As social theorists seek to understand the contemporary challenges of radical populism, we would do well to reconsider the febrile insights of the psychoanalytic social theorist Erich Fromm. It was Fromm who, at the beginning of the 1930s, conceptualized the emotional and sociological roots of a new ‘authoritarian character’ who was meek in the face of great power above and ruthless to the powerless below. It was Fromm, in the 1950s, who argued that societies, not only individuals, could be sick. This essay traces the intertwining of psychoanalytic and sociological methods that allowed Fromm to create such new ideas. At the same time, it highlights how Fromm’s sociology was hampered by an economistic Marxist approach to the institutions and culture of democratic capitalist societies. Such theoretical restriction prevented Fromm from conceptualizing how institutions like democracy, science, and psychotherapy can provide resources for widespread emotional recuperation and civil repair.
In 1939, Erich Fromm argued that capitalist culture imbues the pursuit of economic advantage with moral tensions that harm self and psyche. Since this time, the inner implications of such tensions have been somewhat overlooked by theorists, and not without seemingly good reasons. By many accounts, social and technological developments in the later decades of the 20th century have ostensibly reduced the cultural tensions surrounding profit making and mitigated their inner effects. This article, however, presents a different account. Drawing from literature on culture, self, and subjectivity in the neoliberal era, it argues that the tensions Fromm identified have actually been recreated in new, sometimes more elusive ways that bear substantial inner costs. Moreover, focusing on economic elites, this article analytically explores the agentic implications of these inner costs. It argues that the moral tensions that haunt profit making ironically stand at the basis of capitalist agency, shaping its materialistic default through processes rooted in self.
This study explores the character of Takezo the ronin in Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa through the psychological perspective of aggression. This research specifically aims to (a) explore Takezo's psychology of aggression as a ronin and (b) the impact of Takezo's aggression on others. The approaches used in this research are the psychology of literacy and the psychology of aggression. The method used is qualitative; it uses data exposure and interpretation. The data source is the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa (translated version in Indonesian). The data used is in the form of text that is relevant to Takezo's psychology of aggression. The data analysis techniques are carried out in five stages, (1) identifying data related to Takezo's psychology of aggression, (2) data classification related to Takezo's psychology of aggression, (3) data presentation related to Takezo's psychology of aggression, and (4) summarizing data related to Takezo's psychology of aggression. The results showed that Takezo's aggressions are represented in the form of thoughts and behaviour. Takezo's aggressive thoughts are wanting to defeat and kill his enemies. Takezo's aggressive behaviour is killing his enemies, who are samurai. Takezo's aggressions cause the impact of physical category, and they are death and disability on the defeated samurai. Besides, in the psychological category, Takezo's aggressions cause fear and hatred in society. It is concluded that Takezo represents ronin, which desires destructive aggression that has a physical and psychological impact on others. [Author's English version]
Joan Didion is an outstanding female writer who has achieved a distinctive position in contemporary literature. Her second novel, >Play It as It Lays<, is nominated for a National Book Award. Set in Hollywood and Las Vegas, it presents the alienated world through exquisite description of its protagonist Maria. Based on Erich Fromm’s Alienation Theory, this essay attempts to analyze the alienation in the novel from two aspects: first, the novel’s materialistic environment in the 1960s; second, the alienated relationship between spouses as well as between parents and children. [English translation: www.cnki.net, 5/2021]
The knowledge culture of psychoanalysis relies heavily on the practical wisdom of competent psychoanalytic clinicians. In order to become competent analysts, analysts in training should not content themselves with trusting in their supervisors’ intuition and expertise. There is a need for supervisors and supervisees to explicate implicit theories of interpretive and supervisory techniques in psychoanalytic supervision by raising the question >Where does it come from?< with regard to three too often neglected issues. First, both the supervisor and the analyst in training should actively and constantly try to make transparent the process of contextualization, that is, the methodology of inferring latent meaning from manifest content through privileging certain pieces of information over others. Second, it should become an ongoing task in supervision that concrete (recommendations about) technical interventions are embedded in and reflect the application of a particular theory of technique. This facilitates an understanding that goes beyond the interpretation in a concrete situation and helps to generalize learning into a gradually expanding, integrated technical framework. Third, we should reflect and explicate the (predominant) supervisory approaches we are using in order to remain flexible with regard to both supervisory material and ways of reacting to it. Discussing these issues will enable analysts in training to develop their own psychoanalytic identity and integrated frame of reference for their practice that they critically and deliberately reflect upon and actively acquire rather than passively and seemingly intuitively absorb and adopt. Examples for illustrating the explication of theories of interpretive and supervisory techniques are provided.
Today it is still necessary and useful to deal with the empirical foundations and cultural dimensions of a discipline such as psychoanalysis that has played a vital role in shaping the contemporary world, on both sociocultural and clinical levels. This study aimed to describe and summarize the perspectives of experienced psychoanalysts on important aspects of psychoanalysis today. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 62 psychoanalysts. The interview data were processed using a theory-informed thematic analysis. There were 12 macro-themes: important aspects of psychoanalysis, important authors in psychoanalysis today, >contemporary psychoanalysis,< the proliferation of psychoanalytic >schools,< psychoanalytic identity and psychotherapy, psychoanalytic training, the Oedipus complex, dreams, the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and outcome and process research, the relationship between psychoanalysis and research in the neurosciences, empirically validated psychoanalytic concepts, and the marginalization of psychoanalysis. Our study revealed the image of a pluralistic psychoanalysis that the participants interviewed show they have, with various schools/definitions/sources, where Freud and the classical model are contested by numerous other approaches.
When viewed from the vantage point of embodiment, the psychoanalytic understanding of traumatic experience is transformed. In this article, a new language is proposed that describes traumatic experience as disturbances in the flow of an individual’s effortless, unconscious focusing on oneself (>I<), the other or others (>you<), on oneself as connected to others (>we<), and on all that involves the nonhuman surround (>world<). From this perspective, developmental and late-onset trauma models are seen as overlapping rather than competing. The authors support their proposal by drawing on self psychology, relational theory, and the Boston Change Process Study Group and offer illustrative clinical material.
Theoretical conceptualizations of mentalizing postulate a close relationship between the ability to mentalize and the regulation of emotional states. The former is viewed as a key process to modulate the latter, with the origins of the link between the two established in early attachment relationships. However, there is a lack of research testing this association empirically. In the present cross-sectional study, the hypothesis of a positive relationship between the two constructs was tested based on data collected on more than 500 nonclinical adult participants. Various self-assessments and an experimentally derived instrument of mentalizing were employed to this end. Correlational analyses confirmed the expected associations between emotion regulation and mentalizing. In addition, regression models showed that adaptive as well as maladaptive emotion regulation, independent of age, gender, and native language, could be predicted only by self-focused mentalizing.
The article explores the concept of >life< via processual ontology, contrasting the approaches of substance and processual ontologies, and investigates the link between ontological assumptions and sociopolitical discourses, stating that the predominant substance ontologies also promote an objectifying and anthropocentric framework in sociopolitical discourses and ethical approaches. Arguing for a necessary shift in the ontological conceptualization of life to enable environmentally-minded ethics for the future, the article explores the tie between the sociopolitical discourses embedded in a worldview that is grounded in substance ontology and ethical frameworks. Whilst affirming this tie, this study also explicates the limitations and potential feasibility of a processual understanding of life, in the context of the existential disposition of the self-alienated lived-body self that is ontologically predisposed to objectification as a necessary pre-condition to human self-awareness.
This article methodologically explores Erich Fromm’s theory of narcissism in socio-theoretical terms while referring to his theory of alienation. It thereby portrays the foundations of an analytical method of far-right politics in the context of capitalism and demonstrates that malignant narcissism touches off fascism without regard to authoritarianism. Essentially, the Freudian psychoanalytic concept of narcissism lies in Fromm’s social theory. However, it is possible to discern the theoretical essence of his social theory characteristically in his conception of alienation. By focusing on this theoretical concern, I argue that in Fromm’s social theory the concept of narcissism works on a socio-pathological level, particularly in the way in which it synchronizes with alienation, a social phenomenon that fulfils its important functions in conjunction with the marketing orientation under the conditions of a market society, and therefore that the concept plays an overriding role in his theory of alienation. I conclude that the relevance of a Frommian critical social theory of narcissism for our society is best showcased by the concept of postfascism.
Psychoanalysis and body psychotherapy: An exploration of their relational and embodied common ground
(2021)
Working therapeutically with and through embodiment is a topical issue in the psychoanalytic literature. Vice versa, body psychotherapy is deeply rooted in psychoanalytic theory and practice. This paper will explore corresponding themes, historic developments, and recent literature with reference to their actual and potential mutual influences, aiming to demonstrate: (1) that contemporary body psychotherapy practice continues to be informed and influenced by psychoanalytic theory, in particular the relational emphasis in psychoanalysis; and (2) that psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in turn, can be enriched and furthered while utilizing the theoretical paradigm of embodiment and body-oriented, experiential intervention strategies developed in body psychotherapy.
The mother’s body, the role of pleasure in the mother–infant relationship, and the traumatic risk
(2021)
In this paper, I wish to talk about the process of becoming a mother, with particular attention to the role of the mother's bodily experience, during pregnancy and childbirth, in developing maternal competencies. Studies on neurophysiological mother–infant interaction allow us to focus on a series of specific bodily based processes that support their relationship in order to guarantee the establishment of a secure attachment. The experience of pregnancy and childbirth, through the body, reactivates the somatic memories of the woman, with the possibility of a re-enactment of traumatic experiences on the one hand, but also with the possibility of a transformation and an integration of these experiences through physiological, biological, psychological processes characteristic of motherhood. Neurophysiological processes related to bodily pleasure can make the difference. The literature at hand describes a post-traumatic stress disorder in women due to the conditions of giving birth, with particular attention to women with a history of sexual abuse during childhood. We should ask ourselves exactly how psychoanalysis considers this new emergent issue and how it should reconsider the role of the mother's body.
Intersubjectivity and psychopathology: Borderline and psychosomatic bodies >at the mind’s limits<
(2021)
The body is the essential go-between between selfhood and otherness, and the site of the implicit traces of intersubjectivity that have marked the brain as well as the body. The body is also the depository of epigenetically implicit traces, sorts of implicit working models. The body is finally the site of the un/conscious, in the sense of implicit memory, something that is not conscious but guides implicitly, namely without our full awareness, behaviors, motivations, feelings, and responses. In psychopathology, only interpersonal traumatizations or >trauma of human agency< in its three levels causes dissociation in humans. At the mind’s limits, the body/mind disconnection that characterizes psychopathology, as in borderline personality disorders, is also evident in psychosomatic disorders, where the circuit between what the body feels, what the mind registers, and what the subject can name or is able to express verbally is disconnected and, as a result, bodily symptoms come forth in order to name the emotional pain. While hysterical symptoms still retain a symbolic root suitable for interpretation (retaining a metaphoric link between mind and body), psychomatic disorders show that the connection between body and mind has been severed and the symptoms speak >at the mind’s limits.<
A short survey is given of the digitization of the Freud Archives, focusing on Eissler’s interviews. On the basis of several paradigmatic items the author highlights some characteristics of Freud’s technique as well as his attitude to supervision and his general idea of psychoanalysis that differs from our views.
Leadership in Context
(2021)
My studies of leadership build on the work of Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, and Erik Erikson. Those psychoanalysts described leaders of large groups, their personalities and relations with their followers. In my studies of leaders and experience with them, I have found that leadership is a relationship in a particular context. There are different kinds of leaders, and someone can be a leader in one context, but not in another. Furthermore, different leadership roles and different cultures call for different personality types and leadership behavior. People follow leaders for different reasons, and leaders can influence why and how they are followed. While Freud, Fromm, and Erikson only described male leaders, women are increasingly filling leadership roles, sometimes more effectively than men.
My life with Paul Schreber
(2021)
Freud's 1911 and Niederland's 1959 problematic interpretations of Schreber's Memoirs set off a flood of secondary literature. In both selected facts were paired with a plethora of fictions. The narratives of Schreber father and son were misdescribed, misdiagnosed, and misinterpreted, errors have been uncritically copied by commentators ever since. Freud's theory of homosexuality as a cause of paranoia has not stood the test of time. In 1963 Niederland himself stated that the data he collected on Schreber father and son do not explain Schreber's second illness. A further misconception was to totalize both Schreber as person and the content of his book as psychotic, controverted by the fact that Schreber recovered by 1897 and the book is a creative essay with a profound moral message. Schreber's hermaphroditic fantasies were neither homosexual desires toward psychiatrist Flechsig nor morbid delusions but images of an identification with or compassion for his wife who suffered repeated miscarriages and stillbirths. The author revisits the description, diagnosis, dynamics, and deontology of Schreber's story from the perspective of dramatology and narratology and adds new information and insights. The goal of this essay is not only historical, but also a clinical and practical approach to fantasy and delusion.
This paper investigates the emergence of dream material in the graphic novel Arsène Schrauwen, authored by Belgian comics artist, Olivier Schrauwen. Although the author purports to tell the story of his grandfather’s misadventures as a young man, from the novel’s outset the focus on Arsène’s life is blurry and unreliable, much like the creative distortions and displacements of dreaming. Drawing on notions of reverie, countertransference dreaming, and Marion Milner’s oscillation phenomena, I read this book as a metaleptic dialogue between two forms of dreaming, one in the text and one without, and in which the author allows himself to dreamily merge with the subjects of story. As such, I describe the work of an artist who creates a deliberately unrealistic portrait of his grandfather, yet in this unfaithful rendering communicates the enduring and destabilizing presence of generational echoes, which continue to oscillate as the counternarrative dream material of present life.
In this article I will discuss, departing from the usual disintegration of the newborn’s experiences, how one can model the integration of different forms of memory, sensory channels, and mode of representation of these early experiences. Based on the inborn semiotics of the affect system, I pursue the idea that the affect expression of the mother comprises the organizational nucleus of the child’s future personality, and that the representational format of the very young child comprises the mother’s faces and vocalizations. In the aftermath of parental projections, the baby is confronted with plenty of dominant affect expressions, for example contempt, disgust, anger, and fear. These act in contrast to happiness in terms of guiding the affect expression of secure attachment. Following Tomkins, I call these interaction schemes >emotional scripts< and demonstrate that they are carried on into adulthood. Here I launch and discuss four clinical vignettes that can be characterized as being governed by such an >emotional script.< I try to show that these scripts can be redrafted if the governing affect can be exchanged with a different one. These considerations have led to a revised form of the procedure called >splitting.< In addition, implications for treatment techniques are depicted.
The Persian Freud: Freud’s early reception through translation between the 1930s and 1970s in Iran
(2021)
This paper deals with the translation of Freud’s works into Persian in the framework of reception theory. It covers the 1930s and the 1970s, which correspond to the pre-revolutionary period in Iran. The method is historical and draws upon documents, that is, paratexts, written by the translators. The first period, from the 1930s to 1945, was marked by a lack of full translations of Freud’s work, and incoherent accounts of Freudian ideas were published in literary and intellectual magazines. In this initial period of introducing Freud to Iran, there was an unsophisticated understanding of the Freudian discourse; moreover, the discourse was not engaged with other discourses of the time. The second period, from 1945 to the 1970s, saw translations whose prefaces indicate that the discourse was received uncritically by and through translators. Translators took Freud as an intellectual whose ideas could help the Persian intellectuals to fight >superstitions.< However, the translators, who did not have any religious orientations, did not level any criticism against Freudianism at the time.
In this article the history and process of the founding of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) will be addressed. After World War II, the IFPS was the first international association of psychoanalysts established outside the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). Particular to the IFPS was the inclusion of psychoanalytic institutes and groups that were not members of the IPA; a liberal and open approach to new psychoanalytic methods and developments; and the waiver of imposed regulation – within a certain framework – on the terms of psychoanalytic training. In the received history of the psychoanalytic movement, non-IPA psychoanalysts have been neglected. This article intends to shed light on the organization of those so-called psychoanalytic dissidents, who identified as psychoanalysts, but were deemed by the IPA establishment >only< psychotherapists. The history of the IFPS provides material for the analysis of this important but difficult controversy, still markedly perceptible within the psychoanalytic community today.