>Haben und Sein<. Zur Bedeutung von Erich Fromms Sozialpsychologie für die Humanistische Lebenskunde
(1999)
>Tue das Unerwartete< – Eindrücke über eine gewaltfreies Training zur Zivilcourage mit Bernd Sahler
(1999)
A Case of Primary Vaginismus
(1999)
Sometimes human sexuality manifests itself in forms that must be interpreted as symptoms of a severely disturbed psychological situation. The author presents a case in which primary vaginismus – a long known symptom in the gynaecological field and difficult to approach both from a gynaecological and a psychological point of view – is the manifestation of a personality with psychotic elements.
A Contribution to the Settlement of the Historical Antinomy between Conflict and Defects in the Self
(1999)
Inquiring about the origin of mental distress from a relational point of view, the author focuses on the debate between conflict and structural defects, in order to overcome the dichotomy between the two different perspectives. According to the doctrine of defects in the self, which is based on certain Object Relations Theories, pathology is caused by faulty or inadequate caregivers. The doctrine seems too simplistic, because the child is thought of as completely passive. According to the relational viewpoint in psychoanalysis, the development of the subject takes place in a mutual conditioning process between the subject and the environment, which has to be better conceptualised. Defects in the interactive relationships with the primary caregivers, viewed as a failure in the relationship, create in the child a decompensation, which makes it withdraw from the relationship. In order to open itself to the relationship again, as a primal objectual need, the child builds up a pattern of response, which allows it to negotiate it again. Making use of the research on the first phases of development of R. Emde (psychoanalytic trend), C. Trevarthen (interactive-cognitive trend) and K. Kaye (child psychology), the author argues that the adherence to the structured response pattern leads to a conflict between the structured self image and any other potential different way of seeing oneself. Through a clinical vignette the author will demonstrate how this may lead to a non-cohesiveness of the self, viewed as an inactivation of the subject's developmental possibilities.
A New Start for the Continuation of MEGA-Project: Notes on the Recent Publication of MEGA IV/3
(1999)
Action in connection with the therapeutic process is often equated with acting out. The subtle behaviour that belongs to ?the complicated system of transmitting and receiving unconscious signals? (Sandler), with which the patient attempts to make the analyst behave as the object of transference or to fulfill an unconscious desire, is also described as acting out or micro-acting out (Treurniet). This fine-grained action, however, means nothing; it is not symbolic or communicative action. Its intention is, rather, to trigger effects and induce interactions. It occurs not only on the side of the analysand but also on that of the analyst, and is part of the unconscious communication in the therapeutic process. Presented here are some of the various interactive ways and means with which the analyst is prompted into unconscious action and certain, unnoticed, ways in that he turn ?treatsfithe patient. The analyst's action responses can bear the character of interpretations with which he may unintentionally reveal how he regards the behaviour of the patient.
The following report tries to compile the results of several research projects of the main author and his co-workers dealing with the exchange of affect within different types of relationships. Different conceptualizations of transference and countertransference as specific forms of creating relationships are described and the fundamental differences between successful psychotherapeutic relationships and empathetic every day relationships are outlined. Our investigations make it highly probable that transference is a very ubiquitous phenomena to be found in nearly every relationship as specific forms of affective scripts. The specificity of these scripts follows the disturbance with quantity and quality of the shown affect being the main differential marker. Within the severe disturbances we find reductions of affect with one remaining negative ?lead-affect?, with neurotic patients an excess of conflicts affects. Within the group of severe disturbances affect is attached to the self or to the relationship within neuroses and healthy subject to the objects the dyad talks about. The main difference between successful psychotherapeutic and every day relationships can be characterized by the fact that the therapist does not interactively react to the unconscious affective relationship offers, the patient makes, but develops instead those affects the patient is unable to generate, despite they would be urgently necessary from the meaning structure of the situation.
Analytic authority in historical and critical perspective: Beyond objectivism and relativism.
(1999)
Anmerkungen des Herausgebers zu Band XI und zu Band XII der Erich Fromm Gesamtausgabe in 12 Bänden
(1999)
The theory of motivation proposed in this paper unites elements of psychoanalytic object relations theory, ego psychology and the theory of the drives. It is compatible with the theory of motivation proposed by Bischof. The wish for familiarity and the wish to relate to hitherto unknown objects, are both called basic relational wishes. The wishes for fusion, for relating to a person exactly like oneself, for being unconditionally accepted, the wish to be nurtured and to nurture some other person, the wish for being controlled or to control somebody else and for being admired because of gender characteristics, are called central relational wishes. These wishes correspond to the various stages of psychosexual development. They are characterised by the properties of the objects one wishes to relate to and by specific modes of relating. The influence of a person's being restricted to dyadic or multi-personal modes of relating to the intensity of central wishes is taken into account, as well as the influence of central relational wishes on the value system of a person.
This paper is a meditation on the interpenetration of mental and physical, particularly architectural, place. Its premise is that the relationship between person and place is transitional, ever in flux, person continually defining place into a continuous reality, and reality perpetually placing person. Further, this interchange occurs against the backdrop of an inconceivable void whereby the very terms of the interchange can be nullified. Such a void is unconscious and outside in the sense that it is outside what can be known. The matter of opening the inside to the outside becomes an endeavor shared by psychoanalysis and by architecture, notably sacred architecture. The exchange between inside and outside is considered using as examples the body, Freud's office, Disneyland, and the cathedral. Implications are extrapolated as to the provisional nature of the self.