Psychic Envelope Research Articles

La peau et le toucher (thème et variations)

The skin, a very sophisticated organ, strong and fragile, demarcates, includes and wraps up. It is the most visible and can be hidden or modified. The skin succumbs to its environment feelings, to the look, to the gestural or symbolic touch of the emotions. In the first weeks of infancy, the nerve and skin cells are confused. Although these two tissues will separate, information will never cease to circulate between them. The mother-child strong bond is anchored through the skin. The touch is the very first sense to appear and, of all the sensory organs, is the most critical. After the presentation of this central theme, the author will explain many variations. (1) The skin allows us to take into account the sensory clinical realm. Is there, for the psychoanalysts, a censorship of the touch concept? This prohibition, necessary for a psychoanalytic cure, however allows a kind of acknowledgment of the touch and skin. In the psychoanalytic relaxation, and specifically for the input of inductions, the touch takes its meaning when it enters a process that contains and develops it. (2) Over the course of human history, the skin has always been subject to cares and of embellishment. It also represents a form of social language and a wish for differentiation. It is the utmost organ for intimate relationship. The religious language teaches us that Adam and Eve looked at each other, each discovering the other and the sex differentials. Texts on touch and its prohibition seem to come from the Christian New Testament. “Noli me tangere” (“Don’t touch me”) is a reminder of a major taboo in all cultures with respect to touch. The psychoanalysis was born in the western culture but was strongly influenced by the Christian culture. (3) Of course, the Skin Ego, a wrapping of mothering, is discussed with a psychanalytic viewpoint, with notions of psychic envelopes, of container, of borders, of surface and as an exchange area. The very first relation known by the child with her mother comes through the touch (skins contacts) and her mother's voice. The quality of this relation will give the child a feeling of security that he needs and to better live his missing and arousals, otherwise too hard for him. On the skin of each person are visible, hidden, invisible, changed, modified marks linked with its contacts with his first objects. The skin wraps the whole body, the Skin Ego wraps all the psychic complex. (4) The psychopathological and psychosomatic variations of the skin are rich. The psychological consequences of dermatosis are known. As all sensory organs, the skin is the seat of neurotic phenomenon of classic conversion. It is all too natural to discuss the psychosomatic aspects. This has always been a critical opening. Any affective state comes with a somatic state. We very well know that a child in face of a deaf environment to his psychic suffering will use his somatic suffering to grasp her mother's attention that he is missing. Critical shortcomings in such a relation will favour the pathological realm, especially the somatisation, somatic outcome of repressed feelings or drives. Other pathologies can appear like the psychosomatic aspects whereby the patient gives visible material, but meaningless material other than what is offered or the allergic object relation, a kind of mental process “inscribed” and set very early in infancy. Looking for the psychic origin of an illness begins to appear as a false problem. The skin, at the junction of the self and the other, is an infinite place of exchanges with the external world.

Les scarifications à l’adolescence : un autre regard

ObjectiveScarifications, as superficial and repeated skin cuts, often carried out in secrecy during adolescence, are frequently described as a way to compensate for a deficit in the psychic envelope by an envelope of suffering. Confronted with these practices, the clinician's role would be to promote the restoration of a containing function in the patient who could then abandon these transgressive behaviors. This description, often accurate and validated by the clinic, is however insufficient to understand the relational dimension of scarification and the specific choice of this particularly disturbing practice to form an envelope of suffering. MethodBased on the exposure of a clinical case together with its evolution following an interpretative failure, this article develops several theoretical approaches and questions the hegemonic representation of scarification as a substitute for a deficient psychic envelope. DiscussionIf the scarifications result from a deficiency of the containing function due to the overwhelmed body sensations triggered during puberty, then the therapist can provide a sensory envelope to the adolescent through the sound envelope formed by his words. However, if the therapist considers the patient only from a deficiency point of view, he may overlook the interpellation that these scarification behaviours conceal. Indeed, the practices of skin cuts also often result from a resistance of the environment to accommodate the adolescent's impulsive, erotic and aggressive movements. In this context, skin cuts may be an attempt to “force the passage”. To avoid reproducing this rigidity of the environment, the therapist must therefore be particularly attentive about what the scarifications try to modify in him and not limiting them to behaviours that would only concern the patient. ConclusionIn addition to forming an envelope of suffering, scarifications in adolescence, as particularly disturbing transgressive practices, can be understood as attempts, often effective, to force a change of gaze, especially when the adolescent feels confined to the role of a child whose physical experiences are disavowed.

"The Skin is the Cradle of the Soul": Didier Anzieu on the Skin-Ego, Boundaries, and Boundlessness.

Didier Anzieu's notion of the skin-ego builds on a long psychoanalytic tradition that began with Freud's idea that the ego is first and foremost a body ego, a projection in the psyche of the surface of the body, or, in other words, the idea that psychic phenomena are always embodied. An interface, a container for the ego, but also its origin: thus did Anzieu conceptualize the skin's psychic function. The baby's fantasy of having a common skin with the mother is the concrete starting point for a development that, through the prohibition on touching, leads to the experience of being a separate and individual person. Psychoanalytic work with severe mental disorders makes it necessary to investigate deficiencies in the skin-ego's containing function before the patient's psychic contents can be explored. In the psychoanalytic situation, the analyst's words replace tactile contact and thereby contribute to healing injuries to the skin-ego. The clinical implications of Anzieu's theoretical model are illustrated by examples from psychoanalyses of children and adults. The close connection between touch, psychic envelopes, and thinking opens a wider perspective on the necessity of setting limits to violence, against both nature and human beings.

Autisme et médiation thérapeutique avec le cheval monté à cru. Amplification de la qualité paternelle du holding et éclosion d’un moi-corporel

This clinic research focuses on subjects with autistic disorders, which perform equitation therapy sessions. Early work has shown the interest of the horse as a therapeutic mediation for situation with autism. Indeed, the horse favors in a suitable relational framework sensory experiences that are likely to support the construction of body's image and symbolizing effects. Our hypothesis relates specifically to the contact of the rider with the animal. The raw lift (without saddle) would sustain, through its behavioral and psychic potentialities, a gathering of the image of the body. The subject followed is 17 years old and is called Yohan. The weekly equine therapy sessions were held over six months. The clinical material results from careful observations, which were subsequently analyzed. A longitudinal assessment is performed with the Psychodynamic Assessment Scale of Changes in Autism (EPCA, Haag et al.). The analysis of the therapeutic process is then discussed with that of two other autistic subjects who benefited from this same therapeutic mediation. This study shows the value of mediation with the horse and especially the interest of the riding without saddle. The experiences gained would in this context have repercussions on the gathering of their body image, their psychic envelopes and on their internal security.

L’importance du domicile dans la réalité psychique. Enjeux thérapeutiques en psychiatrie

ObjectivesThe residence could be defined as an interface between private and public space but also as a metaphor of the Ego, within the inside and the outside world. This article aimed at reporting analogies existing between the place of residence and the subjectivity. As the residence can be considered as an extension of the physical and psychic envelopes, the objective of this article was to demonstrate that the place of residence is a very important part of the material life as well as the psychic reality. Patients and methodTo explore the relationship between the subject and his home, we have proposed an analysis of literary and artistic works (Louise Bourgeois and Alice Anderson, Samuel Beckett, Marguerite Duras, Primo Levi and Georges Perec) from authors for whom home is inspirational. We propose also the study of three clinical cases of adult patients suffering from depressive disorders and hospitalized in psychiatry. ResultsWe were able to highlight three basic ideas concerning the place of residence: it can be considered as the reflection of psychic fragilities or as consequence of failure of the psychic envelopes or still as support for the construction and the holding of identity. ConclusionThe conditions of living of patients we use to meet at psychiatric hospital (home medical care, social precarity, social phobias, etc.) associated to the importance of the relationship between house and interiority, demonstrate that it's very interesting, for us, to pay attention to the question of the place of residence. In support of these testimonies, we have highlighted the importance, for the clinician, to use elements concerning the place of residence in psychotherapy.

Psychic Envelopes among Adolescents: A Test of Modelling with a Projective Test in Relation to School Refusal

In this article we develop a psychodynamic reflection on the place and functions of psychic envelopes in adolescents using a specific tool the FAST Family System Test The concept of ego skin developed by Anzieu is the origin of a particular functional approach of psychic functioning which relates to the concepts of group dynamics largely developed by the same author This approach makes it possible to locate quot operationally quot the dysfunctions of the relation between the subject and its environment such as their incidences on the individual family and social economy With the adolescent subject these dynamics appear able to bring a clinical intelligibility to us in particular in terms of childrens rsquo relationships at school To this end the use of a singular projective test such as the F A S T Family System Test brings an innovative perspective with the prospect for psychodynamic application in the field of school refusal and schooling in general The use of the FAST and the application that we propose allows to jointly carrying out evaluation and brief psychotherapy

A Couple's Unconscious Communication: Dreams

The author describes the process of a couple's psychoanalytic psychotherapy, conducted in co‐therapy, through the analysis of some dreams and their associations. The dream analysis will show the common and shared inter‐subjective dimension of the couple that emerged from the psychoanalytic psychotherapy setting. Central notions of this clinical work are those of inter‐phantasizing, common and shared dream space, and couple associative chain. But also the containing model of the psychic envelope can be considered as one of the bases of the theory of a couple's dream space. The author describes the process by which the partners of the couple, and more generally the ‘therapeutic new group’, were able to achieve the unveiling of a denial pact that allowed the couple to add to their family at the time of the birth of their first child with Down's syndrome; but also, and more fundamentally, what has allowed this young couple to cope with the trauma of this birth. The author finally shows how the group working‐through, within the setting of the couple's psychoanalytic psychotherapy, gave new meaning to sensations, feelings and affects of the couple.

Danse et recherche de sensations à l’adolescence : danser, un acte de subjectivation

L’auteur présente la recherche de sensations dans la pratique de la danse comme un accès à la subjectivation à l’adolescence. Réactivant des vécus précoces, la danse convoque les expériences de naissance de la pensée et la création des enveloppes psychiques. Effrac-tés par l’émergence pubertaire, certains adolescents dansent pour construire une limite pare-excitante permettant d’accueillir leurs sensations. Dans un groupe thérapeutique à médiation danse, la capacité empathique du thérapeute à recevoir les projections archaïques de l’adolescent et à les traduire dans un « squiggle dansé » renforce les limites du moi et permet au patient de donner forme à ses sensations.

Défaillance dans la construction des enveloppes psychiques et conséquences somatopsychiques chez le bébé. À partir d’une observation, Madras 2 mois 15 jours

This article offers to show how a failure in the construction of the first psychic envelopes can lead to a somatization in babies and what are the possible implications in all regulations and early intersubjective relations. A pediatric research on somatic expression among babies aged between 0 and 4months showed us different backgrounds related to psychosomatic disorganization. The detailed clinical presentation of Madras, a baby aged 2months and 15 days shows the consequences of difficulties in the capacity and construction of the psychic envelopes. This reveals the importance of the quality of early relationships and their vicissitudes, also how body and psyche are built in a close interrelationship and dependence. The article also allows to observe how the conceptual model of psychic envelopes applies to early interactions of the triad. The baby's somatic expression is considered here as a response to a lack of a container. It is also the result of evacuation of excessive unrelated residual tensions.

La reconstruction des enveloppes psychiques et environnementales dans les dessins d’enfants des rues en Haïti : une étude post-séisme

ObjectivesThe objective of this paper is to show how children and adolescents, living in the street in Haïti after the 2010 earthquake, use the street as a space to rebuild their identity. Using drawings of children and adolescents encountered in the context of research on resilience and the creative process among child and adolescent victims of the earthquake (ANR-10-HAIT-002 RECREAHVI), we explored the difficulties, the trauma and the creative expression of these children in the aftermath of the earthquake. These young people found themselves in a particularly vulnerable situation, whether socially, psychologically, or in terms of their safety. Their environmental envelopes were uncertain, fluctuating or damaged, so that the psychic envelopes of these street children was also put to the test. This article concerns the analysis of the drawings of street children and adolescents. We focus on the characteristics of the graphic envelopes to understand how these young street-dwellers symbolize the damage to their environmental and psychic envelopes, and how they express their needs for reconstruction. MethodThe study was conducted in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one year after the earthquake. The methodological approach entailed a series of drawing workshops conducted with 45 children and adolescents aged 10–18 years encountered in three different institutions: a public education center and two shelters. In each establishment, the workshops were held three times a week over a period of three weeks. Participation in the workshops was voluntary and the children and adolescents were instructed to draw freely. Blank sheets and pencils were made available to them. The sessions of 1 h 30 were led by a student in psychology and a facilitator. A total of 680 drawings were collected from these workshops, highlighting various issues and themes. For this article, the analytical work on psychic and environmental envelopes concerned 270 drawings randomly selected in the three institutions. We conducted a classification according to three types of envelope (1) fixed containers/envelopes (houses or other buildings), (2) mobile containers/envelopes (means of transport) and (3) human containers (persons or groups of persons). ResultsAnalysis of the drawings across the different graphic envelopes showed fragile psychic envelopes and a pervasiveness of the trauma of the earthquake. The fragilities are also linked with past trauma in these young people. The analysis also showed that external environmental envelopes that were destroyed in the earthquake (house, school, church, club, etc.) were characterized by internal disorganization, discontinuity and insecurity. The drawings show attempts to express, and a psychic organization characterized by mobility, so as to survive, and to face up to the internal and external instability. DiscussionFor these young street-dwellers, the street-environment, as it is assumed and experienced, is a representation of their psychic space and in particular the way they experience their bodies. Their situation was already fraught with trauma, well before the earthquake reactivated the trauma. Indeed, most street children have experienced other trauma or domestic abuse, and have often been either the victims or the instigators of urban violence. We observed that these young people are looking for stable support, despite their distrust of their environment. However, the group, and the symbolization of the house or home in drawings, appear as the predominant elements. We also note the importance of the secondary therapeutic effects of the drawing workshops, especially the cathartic benefits and the scope for elaboration of trauma in the group, with the support of drawing as a space for play and creativity. ConclusionThe vulnerabilities of these young people deploy in an interweaving of family traumas, earlier experiences of psychic and social precariousness, and the collective trauma caused by the earthquake in 2010. The study shows the need to design counseling and educational facilities to develop their potential and help them build stable relationships with their environment.

The Notion of the ‘Matrix’: New Perspectives in Group Psychotherapy for Psychotic Patients

Following on from the work of Foulkes (1964), we propose in this article to take up the concept of ‘group matrix’. We set out to provide new clinical–theoretical perspectives via the notion of group as ‘envelope’ elaborated by Anzieu (1975). This formulation will provide us with a canvas within which to apprehend the organizational and structural evolution of a therapeutic group for chronic psychotic patients. We will suggest models of the networks forming the matrix and the texture of the psychic envelope of the group. The aim is to bring out the peculiarities of the matrix in this type of group as well as its impact on the psychic positioning of the therapist and on his/her therapeutic work within the group.

Trophies of an afternoon

Abstract In the later years of his life, the influential British psychoanalyst Wilfred R. Bion compiled a fictional trilogy called A Memoir of the Future (1990), loosely based on his childhood in Mathura, India. Through his method – which he modestly called ‘science fiction’ – he constructed a speculative account of the future of psychoanalysis. Considered one of the greatest psychoanalytic thinkers since Freud, Bion is most well-known for his work on emotional states within groups and also for his ‘theories on thinking’. Bion’s concept of maternal ‘reverie’ as the capacity of the mother to sense (and make sense of) what is going on inside the infant has been an important element in post-Kleinian thought. All these concepts are revisited through his ‘science-fictional method’ in A Memoir of the Future (1990). Through this work he wished to break down the constraints of sense that characterized psychoanalytic writing and arrive at a ‘communication of pure non-sense’. The text that follows is a creation myth that combines elements of science fiction and Bion’s theories of psychic envelopes, imagined within the context of the colonial experience in India.

Clinical and psychopathological research on attachment: the contribution of the psychic envelopes model

This paper proposes to put into perspective the attachment model (Bowlby) and that of psychic envelopes (Anzieu) so as to grasp the contribution of attachment theory to the field of psychopathology. Having laid the foundations of the epistemological debate between these two models, relying on a discussion of the stakes inherent in the psychoaffective development approach, the author refers to current forms of psychopathology, which draw massively on the borderline and narcissistic concepts, in order to discuss the sense and benefits of the “skin–ego” model as an alternative and complement to attachment theory. Beyond altering reference models in psychopathology, this debate and related inputs lead to consider therapeutic applications through a combination of the notion of “caregiving group” – a group version of the attachment figure – and the notion of therapeutic offer as a necessary alternative to the ideology of demand.

The psychic envelopes in psychoanalytic theories of infancy.

This paper aims to review the topic of psychic envelopes and to sketch the main outlines of this concept in infancy. We first explore the origins of the concept in Freud's “protective shield” and then its development in adult psychoanalysis before going on to see how this fits in infancy with post-Bionian psychoanalysis and development. Four central notions guide this review: (1) Freud's “protective shield” describes a barrier to protect the psychic apparatus against potentially overflowing trauma. It is a core notion which highlights a serious clinical challenge for patients for whom the shield is damaged or faulty: the risk of confusion of borders between the internal/external world, conscious/unconscious, mind/body, or self-conservation/sexuality. (2) Anzieu's “Skin-Ego” is defined by the different senses of the body. The different layers of experienced sensation, of this body-ego, go on to form the psychic envelope. This theory contributes to our understanding of how early trauma, due to the failures of maternal care, can continue to have an impact in adult life. (3) Bick's “psychic skin” establishes the concept in relation to infancy. The mother's containing functions allow a first psychic skin to develop, which then defines an infant's psychic space and affords the infant a degree of self-containment. Houzel then conceptualized this process as a stabilization of drive forces. (4) Stern's “narrative envelope” derives from the intersection between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. It gives us another way to conceptualize the development of pre-verbal communication. It may also pave the way for a finer distinction of different types of envelopes. Ultimately, in this review we find that psychic envelopes in infancy can be viewed from four different perspectives (economic, topographical, dynamic, and genetic) and recommend further investigation.

L’instabilité chez l’enfant : prise en charge institutionnelle et angoisses de séparation

This article aims to understand the child instability with the psychodynamic model. Instability in the child can be explained like resultant, of a defect of interiorization of the maternal imago sufficiently structuring and reassuring. This distortion of the bonds between the mother and the child will take part in a feeling of insecurity interns and an absence of narcissistic solidity, which will result a separation anxieties of separation. Its actions and movements have thus as a function to maintain the contact with the others, while seeking to differ from their psychic spaces. As part of this article, we present a child of an 8-year-old take care of by Educational and Teaching Therapeutic Institute (ITEP). After a first period of adaptation and familiarisation with the institution, the child tends to reproduce with the professionals the same behaviors as those, which it develops with his family. The healthcare, in particular in ITEP, the heathcare institution relies upon the family work to keep a framework. The framework contains the very archaic sufferings of the child. Some behaviors could be apprehended like a disturbance of the psychic envelopes of the child. Thus, we will observe through the problems separation how psychic work between the child and his parents can go back moving.

La violence de la rage en clinique institutionnelle

In institution, the teams have difficulties to cope with the violent demonstrations of the rage. The analysis of the rage in its intersubjective dimension brings a comprehensive model to their containing work. The rage replies to an attempt of differentiation of the subject, according to the process of the destruction of the primary object: 1) The rage has been theoretically defined by Kohut as an impulsive reaction facing a narcissistic injury. The need of the other becomes inside its own movement with the model of the “destruction of the object”, extracted by Roussillon from the works of Winnicott on “the use of an object”; 2) Four vignettes put to the test this hypothesis. These clinical interventions come from the analysis of practices or the supervision of team (psychiatry services, home of handicapped adults or children, foster home); 3) Finally, the analysis shows that the rage is linked with the psychic envelope's dynamic. The rage appears in very different structures in psychopathology. It is as an explosive movement which jumbles the borders or the psychic envelopes. Its different forms are concomitant to the variations of the subject–object differentiation according to pathologies (autism, psychosis, borderline pathologies). It is an attempt of repeated differentiation of the psychic envelops or spaces between the subject and his objects. So, in institution, its transformation depends on the recognition of its origin (the “ruthless love” in primitive relations) by the containing function of the team.

Infirmier en psychiatrie de liaison : développement de la supervision en milieu somatique

Over the years, somatic care has become increasingly specialized. Furthermore, a rising number of patients requiring somatic care also present with a psychiatric comorbidity. As a consequence, the time and resources needed to care for these patients can interfere with the course of somatic treatment and influence the patient-caregiver relationship. In the light of these observations, the Liaison Psychiatry Unit at the University Hospital in Lausanne (CHUV) has educated its nursing staff in order to strengthen its action within the general care hospital. What has been developed is a reflexive approach through supervision of somatic staff, in order to improve the efficiency of liaison psychiatry interventions with the caregivers in charge of patients. The kind of supervision we have developed is the result of a real partnership with somatic staff. Besides, in order to better understand the complexity of interactions between the two systems involved, the patient's and the caregivers', we use several theoretical references in an integrative manner. PSYCHOANALYTICAL REFERENCE: The psychoanalytical model allows us to better understand the dynamics between the supervisor and the supervised group in order to contain and give meaning to the affects arising in the supervision space. "Containing function" and "transitional phenomena" refer to the experience in which emotions can find a space where they can be taken in and processed in a secure and supportive manner. These concepts, along with that of the "psychic envelope", were initially developed to explain the psychological development of the baby in its early interactions with its mother or its surrogate. In the field of supervision, they allow us to be aware of these complex phenomena and the diverse qualities to which a supervisor needs to resort, such as attention, support and incentive, in order to offer a secure environment. SYSTEMIC REFERENCE: A new perspective of the patient's complexity is revealed by the group's dynamics. The supervisor's attention is mainly focused on the work of affects. However, these are often buried under a defensive shell, serving as a temporary protection, which prevents the caregiver from recognizing his or her own emotions, thereby enhancing the difficulties in the relationship with the patient. Whenever the work of putting emotions into words fail, we use "sculpting", a technique derived from the systemic model. Through the use of this type of analogical language, affects can emerge without constraint or feelings of danger. Through "playing" in that "transitional space", new exchanges appear between group members and allow new behaviors to be conceived. In practice, we ask the supervisee who is presenting a complex situation, to design a spatial representation of his or her understanding of the situation, through the display of characters significant to the situation: the patient, somatic staff members, relatives of the patient, etc. In silence, the supervisee shapes the characters into postures and arranges them in the room. Each sculpted character is identified, named, and positioned, with his or her gaze being set in a specific direction. Finally the sculptor shapes him or herself in his or her own role. When the sculpture is complete and after a few moments of fixation, we ask participants to express themselves about their experience. By means of this physical representation, participants to the sculpture discover perceptions and feelings that were unknown up to then. Hence from this analogical representation a reflection and hypotheses of understanding can arise and be developed within the group. Through the use of the concepts of "containing function" and "transitional space" we position ourselves in the scope of the encounter and the dialog. Through the use of the systemic technique of "sculpting" we promote the process of understanding, rather than that of explaining, which would place us in the position of experts. The experience of these encounters has shown us that what we need to focus on is indeed what happens in this transitional space in terms of dynamics and process. The encounter and the sharing of competencies both allow a new understanding of the situation at hand, which has, of course, to be verified in the reality of the patient-caregiver relationship. It is often a source of adjustment for interpersonal skills to recover its containing function in order to enable caregiver to better respond to the patient's needs.

The early psychic envelopes of infancy and the social and familial support of the mother

The early envelopes of the infant depend on the containing function of its mother who herself depends on the familial, social and cultural environment. The author investigates this topic through three cases. He compares observations from the first and second months of the baby's life. The construction of differentiated psychic spaces between mother and baby depends on being able to face the impact of family pressures. The place and the task of the observer are profoundly close to these familial pressures. The author notices that in the second month, this differentiation is made more difficult when the mother has to face the imminent separation of a return to work.

The Joke Envelope

The concepts of the primeval skin ego, psychic envelope, and related pre-ego containing and wrapping functions elaborated respectively by Esther Bick, Didier Anzieu, and Francis Tustin occupy an important position in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. The psychic envelope begins as a virtual mental protostructure ("proto" because it is not yet based on fully symbolized representations) that holds the budding mind together pending further developments. With maturity, the enveloping functions adopt symbolized, metaphoric form (for example, the aesthetic use of cloth, the analytic framework), but can regress to more concrete and pathological forms. The aforementioned authors based their ideas on a cluster of specific allusions to the idea of a psychic covering, barrier, or envelope in Freud's work. Yet they neglected one reference, hidden in Freud's analysis of the structure ofjokes and humor: the 'joke envelope"--die witzige Einkleidung. The present essay explores Freud's use of the term Einkleidung, including his intriguing idea that a joke requires three people whereas a dream does not and the fact that Freud nowhere speaks of a "dream envelope. "I take the "joke envelope" beyond its original context and posit a relationship between laughter and the early, normative traumas of breathing, crying, and loss, and the dawn of rhythmic envelopes that enable mentalization. Jokes and joking symbolically repeat the early rupture and rapture of breathing and self-other differentiation and the internalization of maternal containing and envelopment.

Cognition et processus psychique : étude de la dyschronie infantile par une méthode comparative de groupes

Authors propose a study of psychodynamic factors in cognition disorders of dyschronia. The purpose is to examine the basic process in representation of temporality. Method Rorschach test is administered. Samples comparisons (children with: 1/dyschronia and learning disabilities n = 23; 2/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder n = 26; 3/control group of normal children n = 40) prove similarities and differences. Results Children with dyschronia and children with ADHD present stern and specific disturbance of psychic process: psychic envelope is altered. Dyschronia is a cognitive disturbance linked to a disturbance in the construction of body image. Clinical study informs about psychic spaces, body image and about rhythm and temporality of psychic process.