Psychoanalytic Process Research Articles

It Takes Two to Know One: Mutual Relations at the Heart of Therapeutic Action

ABSTRACT In this essay, I reflect on the origins of relational psychoanalysis during my training years at the NYU Postdoctoral Program between 1983 and 1989, and the subsequent evolution of my own psychoanalytic credo in which I place the essential mutuality of the psychoanalytic process at the heart of the therapeutic action that it generates. I explore the idea that all analysis is at heart a form of mutual analysis in which personal transformation and healing is inevitably bi-directional.

Maternal Subjectivity Behind the Couch: The Analyst’s Secondary Dependency and Its Implications for Political Psychoanalysis

In the international discussion on psychoanalytic technique, there is a controversial discourse on the use of the countertransference. In this paper, I discuss positions that recognize the shared experiences of regression of analyst and analysand in the analytic process, focussing on undifferentiated affective states in the analyst and their effect on the process. Starting from the metaphor of the maternal analyst, I think about these positions through the prism of the current discourse on maternal subjectivity. The naturalization of motherhood and the consecutive denigration of secondary dependency of actual mothers on a facilitating environment is described and compared to the position of the analyst in the regressive process. Referring to feminist and psychoanalytic literature on motherhood and reproductive labor, I discuss reasons for resistance against the recognition of secondary dependency. I argue that the patriarchal structuring of society and psychoanalytic culture seems to be a defense against vulnerability and the recognition of emotional needs. I outline the implications of the full recognition of emotional needs of the analyst for our understanding of the psychoanalytic process. In conclusion, the possibility of expanding the concept of the psychoanalytic frame to political circumstances as facilitating environment of the mutual regressive process is discussed.

Psychoanalysis of the unspectacular.

From the perspective of a poet and first-year psychoanalytic training candidate, this paper develops Jeremy Safran's ideas about the dialectic between psychoanalysis and Buddhism by drawing an analogy between their processes and those of a poetry practice to define an alternative to pathological dissociation under capitalist systems of value. The paper details the writer's experience of working a day job in an office and the pathological dissociation which she subsequently attempts to overcome and critique through writing poetry. Various poems written at work are shared and analyzed as evidence. Drawing from Safran's edited volume, Psychoanalysis and Buddhism, the author then identifies aspects of Zen Buddhist meditation practice and the psychoanalytic process that focus on connecting with reality, however conflicted, as opposed to escaping it. This paper was written under the mentorship of the psychoanalyst and Zen teacher Barry Magid.

Traumatic experience and loss: A brief therapy with a traumatized refugee boy and his parents in exile.

In this paper, the author portrays the psychoanalytic therapy with a twelve-year-old refugee boy and his parents, prior to which the boy had been traumatised by the deaths of both his brothers in the civil war. In 2015 he had travelled with his father to Austria, where he was warmly received in a small community. The author examines how this child reacted to the traumatising experiences, as well as which resilience factors played a role in overcoming them. The psychoanalytic process is illuminated in a detailed analysis of the therapy sessions, which created a space for overcoming the helplessness, mourning the loss and furthering the integration process of the identity, disturbed after the traumatic experiences.

On the Psychoanalytic Political: Discussion of Papers by Von Lieres and Kohan

ABSTRACT This discussion of two related papers on political activism by Bettina von Lieres and Afarin Kohan focuses on the mechanism of transformation from psychic experience into political action. In both papers, the move to political action is seen as a consequence of collectivization, politics being understood as a function of groups, but a distinction is made between brute politics and the elaboration of the political as a psychoanalytic process. The original papers are seen as furthering the aims of social psychoanalysis and community psychoanalysis.

On female melancholia in migration: Interpretations from Turkish-Muslim culture with a case vignette

Today, melancholia is no longer used as a separate clinical picture in psychotherapeutic diagnostics. Instead, the symptoms are subsumed under major depression or dysthymia and understood as a disease concept. In both Freud's interpretation and in the artistic, Islamic, poetic, and medical-historical approaches in Turkish culture, melancholia is understood in a richer way than just in terms of a “disease-like disorder.” This article aims to emphasize the broader understanding of melancholia within the Turkish-Islamic context and illuminate intersections with psychoanalysis. Since the Islamic faith occupies an important place in the treatment and popular understanding of mental disorders both historically and to the present day, religious and mystical aspects related to melancholia are also considered in this article. A case vignette of a melancholic migrant woman with Turkish roots is used to trace the psychodynamic movements in her treatment. In order to follow this patient’s psychoanalytic process, the theoretical explanations in the first part of the article provide the sensibilization for a deeper understanding of the cultural and religious aspects important to the inner dynamics of this woman.

Disordered whiteness: A shape/an unwound sonnet late on the tide

AbstractThis paper is a multifaceted exploration of white subjectivity and the social phenomena of whiteness, about which there is a considerable body of psychoanalytic literature spanning decades. Hazel White's “unwound sonnet late on the tide” explores themes of traumatic legacies, family, shame, and mourning. Critical poetic inquiry is used to consider these themes and make links between the poetics of psychoanalytic processes and the psychoanalysis of poetics.

FROM THE GATE TO THE GATEWAY: PSYCHOANALYTIC NAVIGATIONS ONLINE.

The shift towards remote or online therapy was compelled by the Pandemic. Many colleagues, who neither had practice using this modality, nor had ever considered it as a possibility, ultimately adopted it. This experience brought with it a substantial expansion of online therapy beyond that moment of emergency. It opened up new prospects of intervention, but at the same time it required a greater measure of reflection in order to understand how to inhabit this new therapy space. Setting aside provisory, intermittent, or emergency situations, which temporarily transfer therapy into a "field of tents" (Bolognini, 2021), the author proposes to consider how online psychotherapy redefines an important element of the psychoanalytic setting-the issue of the space. This is no longer the therapist's place of work, envisaged and organized by him/her/them, fixed in time, and contrived only to welcome the therapeutic relationship-one of the crucial aspects of the external setting, which together with the temporal dimension, fulfills the therapy ritual. Assuming the framework to be essential to the psychoanalytic process, this paper will focus on the methodology of online therapy. The author will describe the contributions of the neurosciences, to provide a deeper understanding of the distinctive characteristics of sharing in an online vs. an offline space. Online therapy should be assessed for its distinguishing qualities within a complete theoretical, technical, and clinical reflection specific to each case. Proceeding as if it were a mere relocation of an in-person analysis would enhance the seductiveness of a therapy that is easily accessible with any laptop anywhere, anytime, and in which one could mistake an online connection for a deep connection.

Dreams, memories, and the psychoanalytic process

Freud believed the dreamer’s wish amounted to the most powerful motive underlying all dreaming processes. Ángel Garma suggested traumatic memories might play a similar or even greater role. In the present paper, I extend Garma’s suggestion and propose that unconscious memories of interpersonal interactions are the basic components of dream narratives. Within this perspective, latent dream content includes a wealth of information about the unconscious experience of the transference situation. Through a clinical vignette, I show the reader how appropriate transference interpretations allow the identification of such transferential emotions and their reintegration within the psychoanalytic field.

Social narcissization and its consequences

The report presents the phenomenon of narcissist ic perversion, describes the sources of its occurrence, levels, defense mechanisms, as well as the characteristics of thinking and traits of a narcissistic pervert; The specifics of the psychoanalytic process when working with narcissistic perverts are rev ealed

«Neither the king nor the god...». On narcissistic perversion in the concept of Claude Racamier

The report presents the phenomenon of narcissistic perversion, describes the sources of its occurrence, levels, defense mechanisms, as well as the characteristics of thinking and traits of a narcissistic pervert; The specifics of the psychoanalytic process when working with narcissistic perverts are revealed.

Women's Representation in Hamidullah's and Chughtai's Selected Short Stories: A Psycho-feminist Study

Even though staunch feminist writers take up responsibilities to represent them, the question of identity remains unresolved because of insufficient understanding of women’s psyche and sensitivity. This study focuses on the psychoanalytical behavior of women in phallocentric society to investigate how gender discrimination depends on the social identities of interacting parties. This study examines women’s identities in the selected short stories by Ismat Chughtai and Zaib-Un-Nisa Hamidullah to explore how women’s gender and their inhibitions create difficulties in self-representations for them. This research takes into account the South Asian socio-cultural settings in which Chughtai and Hamidullah's works are placed. Both writers have addressed the core issues related to women’s life going deep into their psychology. Employing the theoretical underpinnings of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, this research would engage with the lived experiences of the women of the sub-continent and highlight the debates and remedies to resolve their issues. The study seeks to clarify how patriarchal systems, power dynamics, and psychoanalytic processes affect women's sense of self and agency through an analysis of the women’s experiences. The findings shed light on more general concerns of gender, identity, and empowerment as well as feminist literary criticism.

Frame, setting, process, and movement

ABSTRACT The author addresses the theme of frame and setting in psychoanalysis, suggesting that they are “functions” of the psychoanalytic process. Frame is defined as the external components of the context that enable the development of a process, and setting as the primarily psychoanalytic elements within the analyst’s mind, necessary for establishing an analysing situation where a process should take place. The author emphasizes that the characteristics of both also define the outline of the process, while discussing attributes that would aid in its development. The author proposes the creation of an imaginary model regarding possible invariants in psychoanalytic theories and theories of technique with the intention of deepening the understanding of the relationship between frame, setting and process. The author concludes with a reflection on the effect of implicit theories on the construction of frame and setting.

Illness, Aging, Dying, and the Psychoanalytic Process: Bibliography.

Illness, Aging, Dying, and the Psychoanalytic Process: Bibliography.

Was It Just a Dream? Aging and Dreaming the Psychoanalytic Process.

By revisiting the last years of a long psychoanalytic treatment of a female patient, a psychoanalyst reflects on her own development as a clinician and on the changes in her experience of psychoanalytic generativity. An increasing ability to understand patient's shifts between creativity and destructiveness brings about a different understanding of the process of mourning, while the shared aging of the analytic dyad highlights the difficulty of ending an analysis that has become a way of life.

An empirical exploration of psychoanalytic processes and outcomes in 27 long-term psychoanalytic treatments

An empirical exploration of psychoanalytic processes and outcomes in 27 long-term psychoanalytic treatments

DIALOGUE IN DEEP KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT'S PSYCHE

The article presents the results of the functioning of groups of active socio-psychological cognition, which is based on the dialogic interaction of the psychologist with the respondent. Dialogue is interconnected with the mechanism of participation (complicity), which is effective both for understanding the essence of psychoimages and the relationships between them. Objectification is a necessary prerequisite for ensuring the integrity of cognition of the subject's psyche, taking into account both the language of the conscious (word) and the language of the unconscious (objectified means of self-presentation). The article reveals the methodological prerequisites for conducting the psychoanalytic process (with the aim of harmonizing the conscious and unconscious factors of the psyche) in its diagnostic and corrective essence of obedience to the law: «positive disintegration of the psyche (weakening of destructive formations of the psyche) and its secondary integration on a more realistic basis». The ASPC method expands the subject's adaptability reserves thanks to self-knowledge through the symbols of the objective world. In-depth knowledge contributes to the resolution of the internal stabilized contradiction of the psyche, which is a personal problem. The dialogic interaction of the psychologist with the respondent in the «P ↔ P» system is subject to the methodology of in-depth knowledge of the psyche, in which the mechanisms of positive disintegration of the psyche and its secondary integration at a higher level of the subject's mental development play a leading role. The latter explains the dual task of actualizing mental processes by the ASPC method: on the one hand, the spontaneity of the behavior of the participants of in-depth knowledge, and on the other hand, the continuity of dialogic interaction between the psychologist and the respondent, which contributes to the weakening of distortions of socio-perceptual reality. The material of the article is based on the principle of determinism: nothing happens «just like that" in the psyche; the dialogic interaction of the psychologist with the respondent is aimed at «deciphering» the visualized self-presenters, with the aim of actualizing the processes of psychocorrection, which contributes to the optimization of the functioning of the psyche. The purpose of the article is to learn about the fixations of the psyche, which dominate the initiatives of the conscious in terms of energy activity. Dialogue in deep learning is the central chain that connects the visualized means of self-presentation of ASPC participants with their verbal interpretations in dialogue. The results of future psychologists undergoing the diagnostic and corrective process in ASPC groups are related to their knowledge of the deep origins of the internal contradictions of the human psyche, which are manifested in different orientations of the «logic of the conscious» and the «logic of the unconscious». Recognizing and helping the subject solve the personal problems of the psyche revealed in ASPC requires the awakening of the instinct of self-preservation, which strengthens the adaptability of future psychologists to the realities of life and expands their opportunities for personal and professional self-realization. Conclusion. Our research in ASPC groups proved the ability of the psyche to recode into visualized means by preserving informational equivalents; the prospects for further optimization of deep cognition in its diagnostic and corrective parameters are outlined, which is implemented through the psychologist's dialogue with the respondent. Our introduction of the fundamental principle of «visualized self-presentation of the psyche by the participants of the ASPC » creates objective prerequisites for dialogic interaction between the psychologist and the respondent, which is revealed in the article.

Transgenerational Transmission of Privilege and Trauma: Locating Jewish Experience in Racial Reckoning within Psychoanalysis

In the context of psychoanalytic culture, the transgenerational transmission of trauma that marks Jewish experience is accompanied by a transgenerational transmission of privilege that inheres from the history and process of psychoanalysis itself. While all members of dialogues addressing racial reckoning are confronted simultaneously with multiple self-other configurations that may be consciously in conflict with each other and/or unconscious and dissociated, my sense that this seemingly discordant coupling of privilege and trauma with regard to Jewish experience generally remains unspoken, is sometimes disavowed, and often results in confusing interactions that stem from split off affect states. Analogous to the analytic situation, the aim of this article is to engage these dissociated, disavowed and/or conflicted parts, such that they become accessible not just to Jewish participants, but to all participants, thereby deepening mutual understanding and expanding self-awareness.

Beyond Mentalizing: Epistemic Trust and the Transmission of Culture

We explore the interpersonal origins of human culture, arguing that culture emerges as a necessary consequence of our helplessness in infancy, which in turn requires a greater degree of collaboration and social organization than is necessary for other mammals. We propose a model of cultural transmission that depends on a dyadic interpersonal process whose vicissitudes can have a lifelong impact. We explore the role played by imagining subjectively experienced psychological states and processes in others, which we have defined as mentalizing, in the process of cultural transmission, and propose that mentalizing is key to the establishment of epistemic trust—that is to say, an experience of trust that enables the individual to absorb and use the knowledge they are being offered. We suggest that psychoanalysis can be viewed as a paradigmatic example of a process of transferring knowledge from one human being (the teacher, the caregiver, the analyst) to another (the learner, the young person, the patient) and argue that the mechanisms of psychic change in analysis cannot be fully understood without appreciating this aspect of the biological/evolutionary origins of our essential humanity. Finally, we discuss the clinical implications of the model we are proposing for the psychoanalytic process.

Field theory: The transference-countertransference relationship and second look

ABSTRACT This paper examines the characteristics and clinical utility of the psychoanalytic field theory proposed by M. and W. Baranger, with particular emphasis on the issues of the transferential-counter transferential relationship and the ‘second look’. The role of central key metaphors embodied in the experience of both patient and analyst is illustrated through the author's personal experience and participation in Three Level Model (3LM) work groups. The risk of moments of intense communication between patient and analyst has the possibility for the analyst to lose distance, making it necessary to go beyond moments of emotional resonance and reverie and to take a “second look” to understand the analyst's involvement in the interactional process in order to prevent the constitution of bastions of the field. The 3LM work groups extend the temporal context to include longer periods of time and a “third group look” that triangulates perspectives through group discussions, allowing for the exploration of transformations that have occurred in the analysis. The field perspective contributes to a deeper understanding of the transference-countertransference relationship. The “second” and the “third look” broadens the analyst's insights and enriches the understanding of the psychoanalytic process and its multifaceted dynamics.