Working through the different faces and vicissitudes of the death drive in the countertransference, and especially through projective identification, is a very challenging process. A thorough and versatile process of con...Working through the different faces and vicissitudes of the death drive in the countertransference, and especially through projective identification, is a very challenging process. A thorough and versatile process of containment and working through of the manifold threatening expressions and influences of the death drive is required, experienced most specifically and deeply in the arena of projective identification. This paper demonstrates how each aspect that unfolds in the analyst's countertransference sheds light on a particular layer of anxiety and internal object relations related to it. The creation of a new meaning to the differing expressions of the death drive gradually lessens the compulsion to repeat and enables a better integration between the life and death drives. This process will be illustrated by a prolonged clinical case that involved intense internal working through of the death drive in the analyst's countertransference.
The therapeutic encounter with psychotic patients presents therapists with moments in which they may regress, together with the patient, toward primitive and psychotic areas of experience. Within this shared psychotic wo...The therapeutic encounter with psychotic patients presents therapists with moments in which they may regress, together with the patient, toward primitive and psychotic areas of experience. Within this shared psychotic world, therapists might feel persecuted, as if the ground is slipping from beneath their feet. The author suggests that the psychotic part of the personality, as argued by Bion, is inherent to all of us and may come alive in the psyche of the therapist in response to patients in psychotic states. The psychotic dialogue that emerges between patient and therapist, which involves projective identification and counter-transference mechanisms, must be worked through. Therapists' capacity to survive the psychosis forced upon them and to move through and beyond it is highly significant. By examining clinical material from therapy with a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia, the author discusses this unique countertransference phenomenon, which he terms .
Two decades ago, Adrienne Harris published "Gender as a Soft Assembly," a refreshing, far-reaching paper that intertwines both traditional and cutting-edge psychoanalytic gender theory with anecdotes from Harris's own li...Two decades ago, Adrienne Harris published "Gender as a Soft Assembly," a refreshing, far-reaching paper that intertwines both traditional and cutting-edge psychoanalytic gender theory with anecdotes from Harris's own life as a tomboy in the 1970s. In broadening staid models of development, "Gender as a Soft Assembly" provides the potential for freedom, fluidity, and creativity as an antidote to the rigid, binary constructions of masculinity and femininity. In response, I've summarized the most striking aspects of her paper that coincidentally commingle with my having been a tomboy and offer an opportunity for a reconsideration of my own history.
Freud's mature theorizing about human morality entrenched the functioning of the superego in anxiety stemming from the fear of punishment, a view with which many later psychoanalysts took issue, producing a debate as to...Freud's mature theorizing about human morality entrenched the functioning of the superego in anxiety stemming from the fear of punishment, a view with which many later psychoanalysts took issue, producing a debate as to the distinction between superego and conscience. This debate would later be mirrored more broadly in academic psychology concerning distinctions between shame and guilt. This is an area where the clinical observations and theoretical discussions of psychoanalysis have subtly guided research in cognitive psychology and the cognitive and affective neurosciences. These areas, in turn, have both clarified and supported psychoanalytic theory and practice without negating the rich phenomenological and theoretical basis on which psychoanalysis rests.
The authors explore the value of using psychoanalysis in a community and a social justice setting. A so-called Mental Health Marathon Project in South Africa left human wreckage in its wake. Psychoanalysis, as a conjunct...The authors explore the value of using psychoanalysis in a community and a social justice setting. A so-called Mental Health Marathon Project in South Africa left human wreckage in its wake. Psychoanalysis, as a conjunction between ordinary human interaction and psychoanalytic awareness (Parsons, 2007), provided a way of thinking and intervening in this context so that the families were provided with holding and containment, forensic goals were also achieved in the form of an expert report. This document, named the "Brick Mother Report" (Steiner, as cited in Rey, 1994), attempts to make psychological sense of the impact of the Marathon Project.
Psychoanalysis is an explanatory science, and if our aim is to develop accurate theories of the mind, psychoanalysis would benefit from integrating explanations developed by psychology and neuroscience. The main part of...Psychoanalysis is an explanatory science, and if our aim is to develop accurate theories of the mind, psychoanalysis would benefit from integrating explanations developed by psychology and neuroscience. The main part of the essay shows how psychoanalysis can be integrated with neuroscience and psychology. The concept of integration is defined in terms of six criteria, and the author argues that no matter how tight the integration is, it does not entail that neuropsychological explanations can replace psychoanalytic theory.
The digital divide is defined as the distance between those individuals and communities that have access to digital resources such as high-speed internet and user-friendly, sophisticated computing interfaces and those th...The digital divide is defined as the distance between those individuals and communities that have access to digital resources such as high-speed internet and user-friendly, sophisticated computing interfaces and those that lack such resources. If empathy is understood as being fully present with another person without judgment, evaluation, or anything else added, then being present in the same physical space (such as a therapist's office) is arguably the optimum approach. Yet the genie is out of the bottle. This article engages with new forms of countertransference, parapraxes (slips), and breakdowns in empathy occasioned by taking psychodynamic therapy online including the advantages and disadvantages, the trade-offs, of each approach. It is just as misguided to require therapists exclusively to perform in-person therapy as it would be for everyone exclusively to perform online therapy. There is no turning back the clock.
Working with suicidal patients requires that the therapist not be afraid of threats or gestures. The therapeutic partnership requires the patient to stay alive until the next session. Any suicidal gesture will trigger th...Working with suicidal patients requires that the therapist not be afraid of threats or gestures. The therapeutic partnership requires the patient to stay alive until the next session. Any suicidal gesture will trigger the end of this treatment on the grounds that the patient has shown the treatment was not good enough. Twelve dangerous, neurotic beliefs driving suicidal actions are examined in concert with twelve interventions aimed at dismantling their power over the patient.
Despite the historical importance of free-association to psychoanalysis, there are theoretical tensions within the discipline as to how we think about what is expressed in free association and why it might be important t...Despite the historical importance of free-association to psychoanalysis, there are theoretical tensions within the discipline as to how we think about what is expressed in free association and why it might be important to listen and become aware of ourselves free associatively. This method has usually been conceived of as a mode of speaking with the purpose of listening in order to hear and to arrive at the formulations of interpretation and insight. Rather than solely having this epistemological purpose, it can also be considered as an ontological freeing of subtle energies leading to greater aliveness. Pivotal to this way of approaching psychoanalytic processes are the "helpful notions" of psychic energy and of repression, with the latter being understood not as an eviction of representational forms from the domain of consciousness, but rather as the deformation of representations into traces of psychic energy that remain actively disruptive within us. The author suggests that, through free-associative processes, the patient and the psychoanalyst can become aware of movements of psychic energy that cannot be formulated in the representationality of self-consciousness. This unorthodox reading of Freud's discoveries leads to an interesting "ontoethical" appreciation of psychoanalytic processes as somatically grounded and erotically poetic.
In a scholarly yet playful conversation, the authors explore why analytic thought about trans remains so intransigently difficult. They propose that countertansferential responses to trans patients manifest not just in c...In a scholarly yet playful conversation, the authors explore why analytic thought about trans remains so intransigently difficult. They propose that countertansferential responses to trans patients manifest not just in clinical work but also as blockages to psychoanalytic theorizing. They draw on extensive experience treating trans and non-binary patients, on teaching and supervisory work, and on analytic scholarship to think about why and how theorizing on trans stalls. Whereas in the social realm trans bodies are often hyper-sexualized, in metapsychology and the consulting room trans is notably desexualized. What is the cost of that and why does it occur? The authors locate the problem in the disaggregation of gender from the , arguing that not only has this separation outlived its (once exigent) metapsychological utility, but that it is itself a defense against the anxiety of polymorphous perversity and psychic bisexuality that trans bodies can awaken in analysts of all genders, and especially in cisgender analysts.
The author focuses on trans-identities within the broader field of trans-subjectivities while arguing that subjectivity should be considered within the conceptual framework of a heterogeneous and plural subject. The anal...The author focuses on trans-identities within the broader field of trans-subjectivities while arguing that subjectivity should be considered within the conceptual framework of a heterogeneous and plural subject. The analyst's eagerness to classify gender and sex or typify pathology in a Manichean manner is an inevitable consequence of binary thought. This provokes undesired countertransference effects and creates obstacles to listening in the analytic session. The following contribution reexamines several notions to offer a renewed perspective on the concept of the subject, the Oedipus complex, the desire for a child, the categories of difference and diversity, and the blind spots of binary logic, among others. This reconsideration may in turn elucidate our comprehension of gender and sexual diversities. In this context, the author stresses the need to approach trans-identities and trans-subjectivities with a nonbinary logic based on a rhizomatous way of thinking.
This paper contemplates two notions that I have been exploring in relation to the frontier between subjects and collectives. The first is what I call homo-nationalis, the subject formed by and along the organizing princi...This paper contemplates two notions that I have been exploring in relation to the frontier between subjects and collectives. The first is what I call homo-nationalis, the subject formed by and along the organizing principles of nationalism. This subject, I argue, reflects the ideology and reality of the nation-state. It is animated by its imaginaries and unsettled by its fragilities in the deepest psychological sense. The second is what I call the trans-subject. I use this notion inspired by, and wishing to extend the sense of, transing as it pertains to trans-gendering to other categories of subjecthood, aiming to capture the subject's potential to re-form the precepts of subjectivity as it is prescribed for them. I engage these two notions as I reflect on my (countertransference) experience while working with an individual moving across various collective-social frontiers in the process of a religious conversion.
Using Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of "becoming" and the "rhizome," as well as Bion's discussion of the interaction between the "establishment" and the "messianic idea," the author analyzes (1999), a film that presen...Using Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of "becoming" and the "rhizome," as well as Bion's discussion of the interaction between the "establishment" and the "messianic idea," the author analyzes (1999), a film that presents the story of a young transgender man who was raped and murdered. The author focuses on how the radical unsaturation of gender dichotomy may turn into an unbearable threat as it turns the linear, hierarchical "tree-like" relations of body and mind into a process of deterritorialization.
Using theory from philosophy and from race studies, the author explores the countertransference confusions and enactments that can arise in working with trans and gender nonbinary patients. Case material is presented to...Using theory from philosophy and from race studies, the author explores the countertransference confusions and enactments that can arise in working with trans and gender nonbinary patients. Case material is presented to explore in vivo the potential for enactments and toxic anxiety in the analyst in work with patients exploring or inhabiting new forms of desire and identity. Primitive states of anxiety and dysphoria may inhibit the analyst's capacities to allow freedom and reflection in cases of complex gender construction.
This essay attempts to expand the traditional model of negative countertransference by giving it a Lacanian twist. The author uses theories and concepts from Freud, Winnicott, and Lacan in order to explore the affective...This essay attempts to expand the traditional model of negative countertransference by giving it a Lacanian twist. The author uses theories and concepts from Freud, Winnicott, and Lacan in order to explore the affective dimension of countertransference in two cases of trans-identified patients. In the first case, the author shows that wanting to do good was counterproductive, while in the second vignette maintaining a position of neutrality allowed the author to go beyond fear and pity, which led to a dynamic resolution.