In psychoanalytic discourse, the question of meaning or lack thereof should be relegated only to the domain of the interlocutor's perception. Not every slip of the tongue or bungled action is necessarily precipitated by...In psychoanalytic discourse, the question of meaning or lack thereof should be relegated only to the domain of the interlocutor's perception. Not every slip of the tongue or bungled action is necessarily precipitated by some unconscious motivation, although one may construct meaning for it (). What is a message versus a noise depends on the perceptual experience of the analytic couple, and a cigar, if not just a cigar, depends on the context-specific fantasy of the perceiver. The author's aim is to show the difficulty of distinguishing the noise from the message in the interactive matrix of the analytic situation. Yet what at first may seem to be a banal error such as double-booking may at times enliven a stultified course of the analytic process; it may even drag a stillborn transference out of its embalmed closet.
The author explores the idea that psychoanalysis is a process that facilitates, for some patients, the emergence of an ungovernable self. To make this case, Agamben's notion of the ungovernable self and its relation to p...The author explores the idea that psychoanalysis is a process that facilitates, for some patients, the emergence of an ungovernable self. To make this case, Agamben's notion of the ungovernable self and its relation to potentiality-actuality, excess, and inoperativity are explained in light of psychosocial development. It is argued that the seeds of the ungovernable self lie within the parent-infant space of speaking and acting together, wherein good-enough parents' personalizing attunements to infants' assertions facilitate children's sense of singularity that is not contingent on social-political apparatuses. This space of suchness provides a secure base for children's transition to political spaces. From here, the argument shifts to the psychoanalytic process, which (1) affirms the singularity of the individual while engaging in inquiry into and exploration of the patient's life; (2) possesses a key premise of the excess of the "unconscious"; and (3) fosters the exercise of ungovernable selves.
The authors set forth a contemporary Freudian perspective proposing that enacted interaction be viewed as a spectrum of distinct yet overlapping clinical phenomena: acting in/acting out, transference actualization, enact...The authors set forth a contemporary Freudian perspective proposing that enacted interaction be viewed as a spectrum of distinct yet overlapping clinical phenomena: acting in/acting out, transference actualization, enactment, countertransference actualization, and boundary violation. At the center of this spectrum are enactments proper, interactions in which both parties construct and sustain a process that embodies a crucial aspect of their affective relationship. By conceptualizing these interactions as a continuum that is patient-focused at one end and analyst-focused at the other, the authors delineate a range of modalities for analytic intervention. They contend that an oscillation between monadic and dyadic perspectives is integral to grappling with the interactive dimension of the analytic process.
The authors present a clinical case of paranoid psychosis in which the issue of female identification plays a prevalent role. After a brief introduction on the clinical approach to psychosis in Lacan's teaching, the clin...The authors present a clinical case of paranoid psychosis in which the issue of female identification plays a prevalent role. After a brief introduction on the clinical approach to psychosis in Lacan's teaching, the clinical case is exposed and commented on, highlighting in particular (1) the analyst's position; (2) the role of ("push-towards-woman") in psychosis; and (3) the therapeutic effects of psychoanalytic treatment for the psychotic patient.
The author takes up Freud's sexual theory and examines several key issues-narcissism, infantile sexuality, heterosexuality, and gender-in order to reassert the radical aspects of Freud's epistemology. These areas are exp...The author takes up Freud's sexual theory and examines several key issues-narcissism, infantile sexuality, heterosexuality, and gender-in order to reassert the radical aspects of Freud's epistemology. These areas are explored in two broad and interrelated themes, which are characterized loosely as a genealogy of morals and a philosophy of the will to power. Although this moves substantially beyond the formulations used by Freud, the underlying issue in all this material is the problem of value, and the author demonstrates the truly radical arc of Freud's thinking in the way he addresses value in his sexual theory.
The clinical perspective used to understand a patient with an addiction affects the course of treatment and the possibilities for recovery. Positivist and pharmacological models have become popular in the treatment of ad...The clinical perspective used to understand a patient with an addiction affects the course of treatment and the possibilities for recovery. Positivist and pharmacological models have become popular in the treatment of addictions. These models claim that addiction is primarily a pharmacological occurrence and privilege the biochemical effects of specific substances over the intrapsychic conflict of the patient in order to justify the phenomenology of addiction. Although psychoanalytic approaches have been previously used to treat addictive patients, they have frequently been considered unsuitable and inadequate for such cases. The author's purpose is to use the scope that psychoanalytic comprehension provides to examine the subject who is addicted in relation to his or her maturational development; considering the roles played by pleasure, ego defects, and defensive behavior, derived from case vignettes, in order to illustrate the role of intrapsychic life in the maintaining of an addiction.
Given the relative invisibility of female-to-male trans identities in academic literature and cultural representations, the author attempts to provide a psychoanalytical understanding of his therapeutic work in the Frenc...Given the relative invisibility of female-to-male trans identities in academic literature and cultural representations, the author attempts to provide a psychoanalytical understanding of his therapeutic work in the French activist milieu with an adult wishing to change the female gender assigned at birth. On the basis of the theoretical framework of enigmatic messages by Jean Laplanche and gender melancholy by Judith Butler, he explores the multiple expressions of violence-intrapsychic, family, social, and clinical-that contribute to the complex dynamics of gender subjectivity. In the context of these cumulative traumas, the therapist's self-questioning of his own countertransference proves crucial. The author further reflects on the intersectional interweaving of ethnicity and gender.
The author summarizes the trauma/dissociation model of W.R.D. Fairbairn and applies it to the psychological development of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer. Fairbairn's model focuses on the absolute dependency...The author summarizes the trauma/dissociation model of W.R.D. Fairbairn and applies it to the psychological development of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer. Fairbairn's model focuses on the absolute dependency of the infant on its mother for all of its physical and psychological needs. Maternal indifference, neglect, or outright abuse is so catastrophic to the child's sense of security that he/she has to dissociate intolerable events. When dissociation is repeatedly deployed, the memories of parental failures gradually coalesce and form internal self and object structures that mirror the intolerable events that the child experienced. These unconscious views of self and other influence the central ego's perception of reality and are responsible for transferences, reenactments, and projection of the inner relational patterns onto external objects. The author concludes that Breivik's developmental history was acted out in his displaced rage toward innocent victims after being radicalized in adulthood by racist rhetoric on the internet.
The author discusses Winnicott's concept of the use of an object, illustrating how it was used in the case of a woman who survived a suicide bomb attack that killed four people. The author as analyst extends Winnicott's...The author discusses Winnicott's concept of the use of an object, illustrating how it was used in the case of a woman who survived a suicide bomb attack that killed four people. The author as analyst extends Winnicott's and Ogden's ideas by demonstrating in his clinical work that the therapist must survive the patient's unconscious omnipotent belief that her love kills and must maintain his capacity for reverie. The therapist not only has to recover from the pain inflicted by the patient's demand for love, he must also change in response to the feeling of having been destroyed. In the case presented, in order for the process of survival to become real for the patient, the therapist had to discover about himself that he unconsciously shared a common reality with the patient-he, too, was experiencing features of a silenced survivor and experienced an identification with the oppressor.
This article traces the history of the American Psychoanalytic Association since its reorganization in 1945. This reorganization established the hegemony of the Board on Professional Standard and the secondary status of...This article traces the history of the American Psychoanalytic Association since its reorganization in 1945. This reorganization established the hegemony of the Board on Professional Standard and the secondary status of the larger membership. It considers the centrality of the requirement of certification for becoming a member, for running for office, and for voting on bylaw amendments, all of which have since been undone, and for training analyst appointments, which continues to this day. A context for this discussion is the decline of APsaA since the 1970s and its struggle to maintain its place in American psychoanalysis and in psychoanalytic education.
Drawing from historical scholarship, original research, and clinical practice, this essay describes the emergence of Relational Theory as a profound paradigmatic shift within psychoanalysis as illustrated by my own intel...Drawing from historical scholarship, original research, and clinical practice, this essay describes the emergence of Relational Theory as a profound paradigmatic shift within psychoanalysis as illustrated by my own intellectual, clinical, and personal journey from conflict/drive model to the relational perspective. I argue that the classical intra-psychic conflict/drive model, while offering many valid insights, contains significant clinical inadequacies, particularly in its disallowance of gendered ("feminized") feeling states and needs. This disallowance creates an asymmetrical clinical dynamic that therapeutically limits and may be iatrogenic for some patients. I offer historical context by documenting and discussing the repeated "forgetting" of the female body in classical psychoanalysis despite Freud's own invitation for further exploration. I conclude that relational theory addresses these problems by integrating the intra-psychic and inter-subjective, universalizing previously gendered feeling states, and welcoming the analyst's subjectivity into the consulting room. Patient and personal clinical vignettes are used to illustrate these issues.
Destructive behavior is one of the most challenging aspects when treating severe borderline patients because both the therapist and the psychotherapeutic method are called into question. Drawing on three in-depth psychoa...Destructive behavior is one of the most challenging aspects when treating severe borderline patients because both the therapist and the psychotherapeutic method are called into question. Drawing on three in-depth psychoanalytic sessions of a severe borderline patient, the authors present and discuss the communicative potential of destructive behavior in the transference relationship during treatment. A step-by-step analysis and the working through process of the therapist's countertransference led the authors to recognize several complex dynamics of the patient's pathological organization and to the containment and first representation of unsymbolized early anxieties generated during the original encounter with the object.
Neuroscience is partnering with psychoanalysis in the best sense of the word, namely, supporting some aspects of psychoanalytic thinking while challenging others. This dialogue needs to continue because, where trauma is...Neuroscience is partnering with psychoanalysis in the best sense of the word, namely, supporting some aspects of psychoanalytic thinking while challenging others. This dialogue needs to continue because, where trauma is concerned, neither side is privy to the whole picture. Current congruence, dissonance, and considerations for technique are explored.
In a study looking at severe substance abuse in an inpatient clinic, an indirect relationship was found between narcissistic loss in substance abusers and the trauma that has not yet been mourned by their ancestors or pa...In a study looking at severe substance abuse in an inpatient clinic, an indirect relationship was found between narcissistic loss in substance abusers and the trauma that has not yet been mourned by their ancestors or parents. The authors explore these links using psychoanalytic theory, Greek mythology, and a case study to investigate how these concepts are implicated in the histories of those who struggle with drug addiction. Psychoanalysis has explored the relationship between object loss and ego development but, more recently, the concept of the intergenerational transmission of trauma has been included in these discussions.
Since Freud's time, psychoanalysis has been invested in engaging with our shifting awareness of "otherness." Michael Eigen (2018b) calls it "one of the farthest reaching mysteries of the human self … that its sense of bo...Since Freud's time, psychoanalysis has been invested in engaging with our shifting awareness of "otherness." Michael Eigen (2018b) calls it "one of the farthest reaching mysteries of the human self … that its sense of boundaries shifts in radical ways" (p. 139). The present article reflects work with a psychotic male patient. Psychosis is a psychic condition where the game of peek-a-boo with Otherness becomes profound. This article touches on struggles in negotiating and renegotiating the analyst's status as Other when faced with a patient who tries to undo this gap. In these negotiations, different forms of communication emerge as the therapist and patient try to find ways of engaging with madness. In working with psychotic states, time for reverie is a luxury not often afforded the therapist. Writing this article has been akin to a form of reverie that sessions tended to short-circuit, a kind of reverie writing in which clinical details intermingle with cultural images and memories.
In this article, the notion of dwelling is considered from a psychoanalytic developmental perspective, as well as in terms of the political dimension of life. The author contends that a psychoanalytic portrayal of dwelli...In this article, the notion of dwelling is considered from a psychoanalytic developmental perspective, as well as in terms of the political dimension of life. The author contends that a psychoanalytic portrayal of dwelling should not lose sight of the political-economic realities implicated in experiences of being unhoused, especially when we consider the possibility that climate change, which human beings have caused, is likely to unhouse millions of species, including human beings. Given this, the author briefly indicates what this means for psychoanalytic therapy in the Anthropocene Era.
The concept of regression is schematically reviewed, focusing on the complexities and confusions that have surrounded this contested notion in the course of psychoanalytic history. Clinical illustrations are used to sugg...The concept of regression is schematically reviewed, focusing on the complexities and confusions that have surrounded this contested notion in the course of psychoanalytic history. Clinical illustrations are used to suggest descriptive differences in regressive functioning occurring in the course of psychoanalysis. It is argued that there may be an important distinction between the sense-making (adaptational, maturational, and integrative) aims of therapeutic discourse and the distinctively deconstructive conditions of a psychoanalytic process. In this context, the "regressive" impact of the free-associative method is illustrated, and on this basis, it is suggested that there is a significant and profound difference between "free association" conceived simply as uncensored storytelling and "full-on free association" as closer to the babbling of a stream of consciousness.
Three books by Barnaby B. Barratt emphasize the timelessness of unconscious themes and the "pluritemporality" of free associations. Psychic energy is universal but unrepresentable. Repression renders consciousness unreli...Three books by Barnaby B. Barratt emphasize the timelessness of unconscious themes and the "pluritemporality" of free associations. Psychic energy is universal but unrepresentable. Repression renders consciousness unreliable. Such themes separate psychoanalysis from all other schools of psychotherapy that mistakenly think they can bring the patient to some new level of safety and mastery in life. Rather, the essence of psychoanalysis is its discovery that self-authorship is an illusion. Patients are healed during psychoanalysis by abandoning their egoistic quests in favor of embracing energy for living without regard to outcomes. This healing method contrasts with virtually all other psychotherapies that misconstrue Freud's revolution and revert to conventional illusions of self-directedness. Recovering Freud's original radicality may save psychoanalysis-and civilization itself.