Psychoanalytic Method Research Articles

O tempo do luto e o discurso do Outro

Resumo: Trata-se de uma leitura pelo método psicanalítico sobre o tempo de trabalho do luto, através do filme Sede de viver, da biografia de Van Gogh escrita por Forrester, e das concepções sobre o luto no campo da psicanálise, formuladas por Lacan e Allouch, visando abordar a travessia do luto como uma experiência que exige um trabalho não determinado exclusivamente pela relação entre o enlutado e o objeto perdido, mas contando com a função dos ritos e com a linguagem para concluir o luto com um ato.

Wolfgang Loch and his perception of the principles of the psychoanalytic method

Wolfgang Loch and his perception of the principles of the psychoanalytic method

Interpreting the inner world of ADHD children: psychoanalytic perspectives

ABSTRACTADHD is increasingly seen as associated with cerebral dysfunction and caused by it. This development is concomitant with an emphasis on medication, behavioural treatments, and parent training programmes. In contrast, psychoanalytic therapy has receded into the background and is often viewed as inefficient or even noxious. This paper argues that such views are based on a misunderstanding of the scope of psychotherapy. Though much more systematic research is needed to establish its efficacy, it can inform on the ADHD child’s emotional experiences. It can shed light on the connections between his/her inner world and symptoms, such as attention deficits, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. On the other hand, it cannot establish causality in the individual or general case. If we recall that the diagnosis is based on a list of symptoms, not of etiology, we realize that this limitation applies to any scientific perspective on ADHD. Psychoanalytic treatment is one of several approaches to understanding ADHD and helping the child cope with it. This is achieved by the psychoanalytic method, a hermeneutic approach with which the analyst interprets the child’s behaviours and communications as they emerge in the session. The implications of such an approach are discussed.​​​​

Tele-analysis: the use of media technology in psychotherapy and its impact on the therapeutic relationship.

A growing number of approaches in psychotherapy make use of internet- and other media-based interactions. This paper discusses the impact on the therapist-client relationship of using media technology and gives an overview of the current state of the debate. It is suggested that the technical conditions of internet-based interactions produce new forms of social relationships that differ significantly from face-to-face-interactions and that unconscious, nonverbal cues get lost. Research on the therapeutic interaction making use of 'discourse linguistic' methods is presented. The loss of nonverbal cues has implications for psychotherapy in general and especially for the treatment of patients who have difficulties relying on a secure therapeutic relationship. Emotional security in interactional relationships is transmitted to a much greater extent by nonverbal cues than by verbal content; psychoanalytic methods are specialized to refer to this level of interaction. Two alternative scenarios are discussed based on the psychoanalytic theories of Winnicott and Lacan: the risk of an illusionary, idealized image of the other and the possibility that cyberspace can be used for psychological development as a transitional space.

Психоаналітичний наратив у прозі О. Забужко

The article deals with the research importance of Oksana Zabuzhko’s works. Particularly, the necessity of studying the works of the contemporary Ukrainian writer in the psychoanalytic sense is proved. An attempt to consider the author’s prose as psychoanalytic narrative is made. Stages of the writer’s evolution from a theorist to a practicalworker, from a researcher to a writer are traced. An attempt to examine Zabuzhko as an experienced analyst is accomplished. The analysis of the novel in the context of Oksana Zabuzhko’s works is envisaged. Its narrative structure and psychoanalytic base are proved. The direct connection between a literary narrative and a psychoanalysis is highlighted with the aim of underlining the feasibility of studying works of the fi ction literature, written in the style of Freud’s disease stories as psychoanalytic narratives. On the basis of the above basis, the expediency of using the psychoanalytic method in researches of the works of modern literature and the urgency of researching the interaction of a narrative and a psychoanalysis in contemporary literary studies are established.

Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 2.

The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist, who was one of first Poles to use the psychoanalytic method in treatment. So far, he has been mostly known as the one who was Witkacy's psychoanalyst. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Eugenia Dunin-Borkowska are the first patients who are known by their names and who received psychoanalytic treatment in the history of the Polish medicine. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's letters and drawings originating from the psychoanalysis period served as a source of information about Witkacy's psychoanalysis. The paper illustrates dr Beaurain's fate during World War I when he was first a military doctor in Skoczów and then an assistant in prof. Piltz's Neurological-Psychiatric Clinic in Kraków where he actively participated in the creation of a multidimensional programme of war neurosis treatment. After the war finished, initially Beaurain stayed at his assistant post at the Psychiatric Clinic in Kraków but then in 1921 he relocated to the National Psychiatric Hospital in Dziekanka near Poznań. With his professional expertise he contributed to the strengthening of the Great Poland region psychiatry that had experienced qualified personnel shortages after the German qualified staff left. The growing numbers of patients and the overload of professional duties were probably the factors that led to dr. Beaurain's premature death while he was holding the position of the head physician at the National Psychiatric Hospital in Owińska in February 1927.

Myślenie utopijne w "Mad Max: Na drodze gniewu"

This article attempts to describe a sociological view of the post-apocalyptic world in Mad Max: Fury Road and characteristics of utopian thinking related to Furiosa’s rebellion. It reveals that in the post-apocalyptic worlds, social Darwinism grows into fundamental worldview, which is reflected in a feudal society of the Citadel. Afterwards, a feminist topic connected with Furiosa’s rebellion is analyzed. Subsequently, the article characterizes Maciej Czeremski’s and Jakub Sadowski’s structural understanding of the two terms – a utopia and a myth. Furiosa’s psychological motivation is interpreted by using them. They also facilitate to formulate a semantic relation between utopian thinking and an ideology, which is defined according to a psychoanalytic method. Afterwards, a Ernst Bloch’s phrase – a utopian impulse is used to analyze Max’s behavior. It ascertains that through relationship between Furiosa and Max a modernization project of the Citadel becomes feasible. A purpose of the article is to show that fictional post-apocalyptic worlds can be analyzed in a sociological perspective and be a part of socially engaged cinema.

An in-depth observational study of an acute psychiatric ward: combining the psychodynamic observational method with thematic analysis to develop understanding of ward culture

The question of how to create benign organisational cultures in health care is a topic of particular concern in the UK at the present time. The current study aimed to further understanding of complex health care cultures in the National Health Service (NHS), with a focus on an acute adult in-patient psychiatric ward. The psychoanalytic observational method was used for this purpose. The first author conducted six-hour long observation sessions on the ward at weekly intervals, writing detailed process recordings after each observation to take to a supervision group for discussion. The six presentations of observational material and the responses of the supervision group were audiotaped and transcribed. These data were then analysed thematically. The picture that emerged was of a fragile ward environment in which staff appeared fearful of engagement with patients, there was a sense of confusion regarding roles and decision-making processes, and the nursing team felt burdened by responsibility, isolated and anxious about criticism from outside. Contemporary developments within the social defence paradigm are applied to these findings in the context of the intense pressures currently facing staff in the NHS.

The Narrative Memoir as a Psychoanalytical Strategy for the Research of Social Phenomena

The definition of the psychoanalytic method as an investigational method of unconscious processes allows for the interrogation of what would be the different possibilities and the listening devices available to psychoanalysis when it aims to research social phenomena. Around this question, the present article intends to explore the main methods of capturing the history of individuals, namely, the biography/autobiography, the testimony and the oral history, in order to identify the convergences and divergences of each one of these methods in relation to the psychoanalytical proposition. Based on such analysis, we endorse the narrative memoir as a genre that resembles the psychoanalytical clinical case construction, inasmuch as it considers the subjective and political dimensions that pervade the unconscious processes, without ignoring the dimension of the real displayed in the points of fiction, fixation and fantasy displayed in the researched stories.

Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 1.

The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist who belonged to the circle of first Poles who used psychoanalysis in treatment. So far, dr Beaurain has been known from brief references in publications relating to the life and works of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) whose psychoanalytic sessions he conducted between 1912 and 1913. De Beaurain was born in 1867 and studied medicine at Swiss universities (Zurich, Berne, Geneva) where he defended his doctoral thesis as well. He was prepared for the career of a health resort physician and when he returned to Poland, he settled down in Poronin where except for working as a district physician, he also engaged in social and cultural activities. Around 1910 his professional interest shifted towards psychiatry and psychotherapy. In the final months of 1911 he relocated to Zakopane where he opened a private practice for "neu-rotic diseases". At the same time he started treating patients with the use of psychoanalytic methods. The first part of the paper concerns the life of doctor de Beaurain from birth and the period of studies and preparation for his professional career until the time when he started his psychoanalytic work.

On “Imposed Interpretation” in Literary Criticism: The Issue of “French Theory”

This paper is a response to what Professor Zhang Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) terms as “imposed interpretation.” In his article “On Imposed Interpretation,” Professor Zhang sees imposed interpretation as a fundamental feature and basic defect of contemporary Western literary criticism. The author analyzes some of the interpretations, as criticized by Professor Zhang, imposed on some literary classics by feminist, eco-critical, psychoanalytical, structuralist and deconstructivist methods. She reviews the sources and the limitations of the so-called “French theory” in cultural studies courses in American universities before raising the critical practice she endorses: a synthesizing critical methodology that is based on the specificity of the text, uses multiple applicable theories in relation to the socio-temporal context in which the work was produced, while bearing in mind the author’s intentions and the reader’s active participation. Through rigorous textual analysis, literary criticism can identify some new perspectives offered by the text which enable construction of the meaning of the text and of life. This can highlight the functions of literary reading in enriching people’s lives and enhancing the role of reality and man’s spiritual realm.

Psychoanalysis as Applied Aesthetics

The question of how to place psychoanalysis in relation to science has been debated since the beginning of psychoanalysis and continues to this day. The author argues that psychoanalysis is best viewed as a form of applied art (also termed applied aesthetics) in parallel to medicine as applied science. This postulate draws on a functional definition of modernity as involving the differentiation of the value spheres of science, art, and religion. The validity criteria for each of the value spheres are discussed. Freud is examined, drawing on Habermas, and seen to have erred by claiming that the psychoanalytic method is a form of science. Implications for clinical and metapsychological issues in psychoanalysis are discussed.

CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN ORTHODOX AND PSYCHOANALYTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

In current research the is a comparative analysis of conceptual approaches and methods of psychotherapeutic influence in psychoanalytic and orthodox psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic methods are critically analysed: “free associations”, “interpretation of dreams”, “work with unconscious”, “demolition of resistance”, “uncensored pronunciation”, “catharsis”, “transfer”. The author shows basic distinctions in psychological work of psychoanalysts and spiritual practice of orthodox priests and orthodox psychologists and considers destructive consequences of psychoanalytic therapy. The purpose of the research consists in detecting the conceptual and methodological distinctions in orthodox and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Methodology of the research is aimed at conducting a comparative analysis of the ways how an orthodox or psychoanalytical psychotherapy can affect a person and also reveals the historiographic reconstruction of the basic provisions investigated psychotherapeutic approach. The results of this research can be used in comparative psychological investigations involving the analysis of psychotherapeutic effect and also in the practical studies and daily practice of psychiatrists. Practical implementation: psychology, psychotherapy, psychology methodology, psychology history, religious studies.

Unraveling an Enigma

ABSTRACTConfrontation is one of those terms that seem to be an inherent part of psychoanalytic technique. However, the way confrontation is used by many analysts, i.e., confronting split-off unconscious elements, seems based on Freud’s cathartic principles. I highlight how seemingly disparate theories use confrontation in this way and question its usefulness. Recent developments in the psychoanalytic method are discussed that potentially lead to different ways of bringing unconscious elements to the analysand’s awareness. Finally, the use of clarification as an alternative to confrontation is explored.

Psychoanalysis as a natural science: Reconsidering Freud's “scientistic self-misunderstanding”

This paper centres on Habermas's judgement that when Freud assesses psychoanalysis as a natural science, this constitutes a scientific self-misunderstanding. The author discusses Brenner's conviction that Freud's view is not a misunderstanding but is true for psychoanalysis and rejects his conclusion. In the author's view, Freud's assessment of psychoanalysis must be seen as a misunderstanding whose basis lies in its subject. Unconscious figures assert themselves under the repetition compulsion in the same manner as natural laws, each of which asserts itself beyond individual consciousness. It was the discovery of the unconscious that led Freud to conceive of psychoanalysis as a natural science and it seems that this conception is rooted in the structural identity between unconscious and natural processes. Freud's misunderstanding of pseudo-nature as nature seems to be indebted to his energy concept. As it is impossible to deduce psychic energies and their distribution by means of the psychoanalytic method, this being dependent on language, the author recommends replacing the economic metapsychological viewpoint by an affective one. The author goes on further to discuss the object of psychoanalytic investigation, the psychoanalytic method used to acquire knowledge, and the function held by metapsychology.

Анна Ґавальда і Оксана Забужко: психоаналітичний аспект сучасної жіночої прози

Aim The article deals with the importance and relevance of psychoanalytic narrative’s research. Features of psychoanalytic narrative in the modern women-writers’ fiction are described and on the basis of studies the success of using the method of psychoanalysis for the analysis of contemporary literature is proved. Methods The main research method is the method of psychoanalysis. Thanks to this method the psychological nature of contemporary fiction is reasonably justified. Also the comparative analysis is used for researching, it provided a comparative studying of psychoanalytic narrative that forms the basis of the works of French writer A. Gavalda and Ukrainian author O. Zabuzhko. Results In the article «the phenomenon of modern female prose» is circled, main characteristics of women writing is defined. It is made the comparative analysis of the works of two contemporary writers: Ukrainian – O. Zabuzhko and French – A. Gavalda. According to the results of the examination of their works the psychological background and fullness of contemporary works of fiction written by authors-women are established and the use of the method of psychoanalysis is argued in their interpretation. Scientific novelty Despite its widespread using in modern literature a psychoanalytic narrative still remains almost completely unexplored category in literary studies. To this end the analysis of contemporary works of literature, in which psychoanalysis is deliberately set in the subtext, is realized. Practical significance This article may be used for deeper studies of psychoanalytic particularities of the women writing’s nature, of a powerful database application of psychoanalysis in the studies of the women narrative and to analyze literature with the help of the psychoanalytic method.

Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind: a Psychoanalytic Method and Theory. by Fred Busch

Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind: a Psychoanalytic Method and Theory. by Fred Busch

The Search for Psychic Truths

Emphasizing psychic truths as the major domain of psychoanalysis, the author explores the complexity of defining such psychic truths. It is suggested that thinking of levels of psychic truths is the most useful approach. How to understand trauma and historical truth within this context is examined. The role of the analyst as aiding the search for psychic truths, rather than functioning as psychic “truth teller,” is discussed within the context of paradigmatic changes in the psychoanalytic method that form an emerging common ground.

Delving into psychoanalytic texts: the notion of the reading third

ABSTRACTIn this article I introduce the notion of the reading third, which evolves during the reading process. The idea came to my mind while studying Wolfgang Iser’s theory of the reading process, and already knowing about Thomas Ogden’s concept of the analytic third: What is experienced, shaped and understood while reading a text? The notion of the reading third is based on psychoanalytic theory and method like just Ogden’s concept, and on the aesthetic response theory of Iser. Elaborating the reading third, I combine two modes of reading: one understanding and interpreting, and one floating and experiencing mode. To these modes I add two different understandings of truth. The first mode is connected to a traditional, objective and visible truth. The latter mode relies on Wilfred Bion’s concept of O, a special kind of evasive, ephemeral truth. The reading third takes and loses form as one reads, accentuating reading as a highly creative activity, where each reading elicits different understandings, experiences and truths. I give examples of such a way of reading psychoanalytic texts like those of Bion and a work of fiction, Henry James’ short novel The Turn of the Screw.

Psychoanalysis: Intersections between Clinical Practice and Politics

The theme of this section of the Journal is the interface between clinic and politics, which has been discussed within two major fields: In political theory, as to how psychoanalysis can contribute to critical social theories; and in clinical practice, as to how the space of the clinic can be political and transforming. As an intersectional field, it benefits both from the contributions of sociology and politics, and from psychoanalytic concepts, fundamentals, ethics, and methods, referring especially to Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.