Psychoanalytic Understanding Research Articles

"Clothe you his body, he will help to apparel your mind": Imitation and Narcissism in Cynthia's Revels

abstract: This study examines the relationship between imitation and narcissism in the early modern period through a rereading of Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels . Contrary to modern psychoanalytic understanding that a close connection exists between imitation and narcissism, imitation, as a method of translation and creation, in the early modern period does not relate to narcissism; in fact, they can be viewed as opposing concepts. To explore the relationship between imitation and narcissism and to establish a connection between the two concepts in psychoanalysis, this study uses the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Through an analysis of characters, Criticus and Amorphus, in Cynthia's Revels , this study reveals that, while Criticus often imitates classical authors such as Horace, Seneca, and Juvenal, he is not regarded as a narcissist. Contrastingly, characters such as Amorphus are portrayed as narcissistic, though they only quote Latin idioms and do not imitate them. Their behavior is mimicry, a superficial imitation without substance. This article then rereads the portrayals of Criticus and Amorphus from a modern-day psychoanalytic perspective, suggesting that Criticus can be perceived as narcissistic and that Amorphus can be seen as a force of satire instead of a satirized target.

Border Noir: Guilt, Shame and Uncanny Sexuation in Ride the Pink Horse

Although Orson Welles’s 1958 Touch of Evil is the most critically and commercially recognised film within the border noir submode, this essay instead examines Robert Montgomery’s often overlooked 1947 film noir Ride the Pink Horse because of its close attention to the borderland setting. The article utilises a psychoanalytic understanding of affect and a border-influenced reverse anthropology to examine how the deterritorialised effect of the border zone and the uncanny atmosphere of the carnival environment in the film distresses the traditional noir antihero. Specifically examined is the relationship between two major manifestations of anxiety, two major affects: guilt and shame. This attention illustrates how the relocating of the noir universe out of the confines of the conventional dark urban streets to the liminal border zone uncannily transforms the guilt usually associated with the noir protagonist into a type of shame and a stronger encounter with anxiety as, appropriately, a borderless enigma. While guilt usually provides a distance from this enigma for the conventional noir antihero, shame produces a flight into being, as illustrated in the film’s narrative details. Ultimately, Montgomery’s cocksure character (Lucky Gagin), through his encounter with the deterritorialisation of the uncanny border zone, is transported from the conventional noir hero’s masculine position (psychoanalytically conceived) into an abject position that aligns more precisely with the feminine discursive position.

Doppelganger as method: A framework for examining datafication

This paper explores an emerging methodological approach called doppelganger as method. This method uses the idea of a doppelganger or double to explore the social world. It is specifically used to examine datafication, or the increase in the production and use of data and its impact on education. Doppelganger as method begins by locating doubles, finding that doubles of the child and teacher are created through the focus on data production in early childhood education. It then asks how this doubling operates as an instrument of power, using understandings of the literary genre of the doppelganger along with its psychoanalytic interpretations to formulate novel interpretations. Doppelganger as method has been used as a tool to reconceptualize datafication, the increase in the volume and use of data in educational contexts. Using interpretations of Freud's work on the uncanny, a psychoanalytic understanding of the doppelganger is established. This is then applied in an educational context to interpret the function of various doppelgangers. Findings from this method include an ambivalent relationship with data, the marginalization of bilingual children and changes to both teacher and child subjectivity.

PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR TIME DISTORTION IN ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Psychodynamic psychotherapy does not feature in current treatment guidelines for attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United Kingdom. However, there is some psychoanalytic understanding of the disorder, which is corroborated in current neuroscientific theory, and supports clinicians in thinking beyond the behaviourally biased diagnosis and treatment models. One of the core features of ADHD is distortions in chronoception. This clinical paper therefore explores the psychoanalytic and neuroscientific theories of time perception as a way of exploring a discrete element of the complex idea of executive functioning more generally. It supports therapists approaching such executive dysfunction and to reconsider the treatment guidelines. A case example is used to explore how a transference‐, affect‐ and relationally‐focussed therapy can effect lasting change for people with ADHD in a way that behavioural and medication approaches do not. It is argued that such an intervention can improve oscillatory attention between subjective‐ and objective‐time and increase the capacity to self‐contain emotions. This brings patients into alignment with reality and restarts their psychic development towards themselves, others, the parental couple and grieving, which stalled in infancy. The internalised schema of the 50‐minute therapy session also provides a frame of reference for future tasks.

Penetrating Language

In this paper, consideration is given to contemporary culture’s impact on language and its communicative potential. Drawing on psychoanalytic understanding of the human herd instinct, particularly in time of strife, this essay outlines what the “talking cure” has to offer as counterpoint to group think and as a means to enter into all that is idiosyncratic and individual in the use of language.

"It's a fight - the whole personality of the patient to win." The development of concepts of psychosis in the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, 1898-1943.

This study investigates the development of concepts of psychosis in the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw, within the context of social and historical processes to which the hospital was the subject and a broader scope of European concepts of psychosis. In the years 1898-1909, the first chief physician of the psychiatric ward, Adam Wizel, focused mainly on hysteria. The interest in psychoses was initiated by Maurycy Bornsztajn, who started to promote psychoanalytic ideas. The second decade of the functioning of the Jewish Hospital's psychiatric ward was marked by issues concerning the classification of psychoses. In the third decade, after Poland regained independence, psychosis became the main focus of the hospital's staff. Newly appointed psychiatrists, Gustaw Bychowski and Władysław Matecki, contributed substantially to the psychoanalytic understanding of psychosis. Bornsztajn continued to develop his psychoanalytically based concept of psychosis. Wizel changed his attitude toward psychoanalysis and acknowledged the importance of Freud's discoveries. Władysław Sterling contributed to the biological understanding of schizophrenia. In the last period, 1931-1943, the Jewish Hospital in Warsaw struggled with the consequences of the economic crisis in Poland, Wizel's death, and Bychowski's departure, which resulted in the reduced number of publications in the field of psychosis. Nevertheless, Bornsztajn managed to further develop his concept of somatopsychic schizophrenia and Matecki introduced the category of pseudo-neurotic schizophrenia. The psychoanalytic approach developed by Wizel, Bornsztajn, Bychowski, and Matecki was supplemented with other influences, especially phenomenology. Wizel, Bychowski, and Matecki were advocates of the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of psychotic patients.

Understanding the Phenomenon of Negative Myths

Abstract: This article delves into the exploration of negative myths, examining their prevalence in both ancient and modern times. I focus on the psychoanalytic understanding of collective and group narratives, particularly within the context of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Drawing from Levine's two-track model of psychoanalysis, this study investigates how negative myths function as containers for processing unrepresented unconscious content. Through case vignettes, the characteristics of negative myths are illuminated, revealing them as distorted and dysfunctional containers of psychic material. I argue that negative myths emerge in response to dread and fear, serving as reflections of societal anxieties.

Феномен массового нарциссизма как характерная черта современного общества в социальной философии Жана Бодрийяра

Currently, it can be seen that the theory of mass narcissism is gaining popularity in various scientific circles. If narcissism was previously a part of psychoanalytic theory, then over time this concept became the subject of research by some philosophers. One of these researchers was Jean Baudrillard. This philosopher not only made up his own idea of modern society, but also demonstrated the fact that narcissism plays a rather significant role in it because many human desires and drives strongly resemble what is commonly considered narcissism. This article attempts to show exactly how, from the point of view of the French thinker, the phenomenon of mass narcissism manifests itself in modern society. In addition, the difference between the classical understanding of narcissism in psychoanalytic theory and its more modern interpretation is considered. Such an approach can demonstrate how Baudrillard himself understands the phenomenon of mass narcissism, what exactly he puts into this concept and why, despite some similarities with classical psychoanalytic theories, it is not necessary to identify his idea of narcissism with the psychoanalytic understanding of this phenomenon. Starting from the philosopher’s ideas about the structure of modern society (about the influence of information technology on personality and the consequences that the growing philosophy of consumption brings for a person), it is possible to understand quite clearly why Baudrillard turned to this phenomenon and decided to use it to describe a modern person.

A psychoanalytic understanding of eating disorders in athletes: defensive and facilitative potentials

A psychoanalytic understanding of eating disorders in athletes: defensive and facilitative potentials

How can psychoanalytic interpretations of political situations have effects as actions?

ABSTRACT This article examines the difficulties of making use of psychoanalytic insights to understand and influence political events. In clinical practice, it has often been possible to bring about understanding and change in patients, and in that context, immense developments in psychoanalytic theories and techniques have taken place. But there is no parallel tradition giving rise to the interpretation of unconscious political phenomena although there have been outstanding contributions of this kind by individuals, beginning with Freud's work on group psychology. There have been valuable psychoanalytic understandings of broad social changes, but effective interventions in “here and now” political situations have been few. Some examples of these include Keynes's understanding of the economic consequences of the peace of 1918 which were seen to be relevant mainly after the later peace of 1945 and Mitscherlichs' analysis in the1970s of the German people's “inability to mourn” the catastrophes of the Nazi period. The article concludes with reflections on the conditions which might facilitate effective interpretations of political situations by psychoanalysts today.

“Mourning and Melancholia” Meets The Babadook: Emptiness and its Relation to Absence

This paper explores how the film The Babadook illuminates psychoanalytic understandings of melancholia and mourning. The author attempts to unwind the complicated character of melancholia, using Freud as an initial point of orientation, then relying on a few ideas from Klein and later writers. The paper attempts to refine our understanding of the difference between absence and emptiness, especially the difference between being captured in the nothing or deadness of melancholic emptiness, on the one hand, and being alive enough to suffer the absence of a lost object, which bears a potential for mourning, on the other. The possibility of psychic tension between these states is explored. Some implications of the relationship between absence and emptiness for the mourning process are considered. The author uses the film as a resource throughout.

The Situation of Violence, Human Development and Destruction: a Philosophical Aspect

The article integrates a sociological and psychoanalytic approach to understanding the phenomenon of violence in human life. The sociological approach in the ideas of R. Collins makes it possible to see how the destructive nature of man is realized in an act of violence, the role of the situation: space and time, confrontation and tension, fear, panic and dominance as elements of violent action. Psychoanalytic understanding of the phenomenon of violence is connected with the psychological deep nature of destructive drives and desires of a person (Thanatos, hatred, death drive, destructive aggression, the desire to kill and be killed, narcissism of death, pleasure from sadism). There are quite a lot of opportunities to realize the destructive potential of a person. Referring to R. Collins, we are talking about sanctioned and unauthorized violence, symbolic and real violence, violence in entertainment. In any case, as the author notes, it is difficult to commit real violence, since it contradicts such human properties as the desire for solidity with the group, emotional involvement, exchange of emotional energy, support of social and emotional ties.

The Integration of Character Structure and Personality Organization

Theories of both Personality Organization (PO) and Bioenergetic Character Analysis (BA) are born from Psychoanalysis. Due to the influence of a medical model of understanding and treating mental health disorders PO and BA have been taught and developed separately. This article explains PO to the Bioenergetic audience, via the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Second Edition (PDM-2), and proposes a circumplex model for how to integrate the two theories. A psychoanalytic understanding of how people can organize their sense of self in a borderline or psychotic way is described, in contrast to a medical model of viewing borderline and psychotic experiences as discreet disorders. A concept of the self is defined and provides the basis for the integration of theories. Dynamics and traits for borderline and psychotic organization are described and contrasted so that a clinician can identify the difference between the two. A case study is presented to demonstrate how the integration of the two theories looks in practice.

Trauma: open concept.

This paper presents and discusses two sets of theories concerning trauma. The first involves a contemporary social theory of "cultural trauma" and the second refers to psychoanalytic theories on psychic trauma. We argue that these two groups of theories have some relevant elements in common, despite social theorists' critique of psychoanalytic understanding on the matter. In our view, the most important meeting points between these groups of theories concern (a) the possibility to think that trauma is not welded to events but has a formation process, one of attribution of meaning, (b) that this process has a temporality of its own, and (c) that the environment (the objects, actors, and agents that compose it) has a fundamental and determinant role in trauma formation. Further, we suggest that trauma is still an open concept in psychoanalysis.

Tinnitus, speaking: listening in with Daniel Fishkin

ABSTRACT Tinnitus, Speaking is a hybrid text – one part essay, one part interview – which demonstrates how sound artist Daniel Fishkin’s experience of tinnitus might be listened to and thought about from the vantage point of psychoanalysis and in relation to his creative practice. Originally composed for a lay audience of listeners at one of Fishkin’s public presentations, the below work furnishes readers with a preliminary exploration of how a psychoanalytic understanding of bodily symptoms as subjective manifestations of language might add to popular and academic conversations concerning the way tinnitus in conceptualized in relation to the body and discourse. In order to do so, the text approaches the sound art, speech, and symptoms of Daniel Fishkin as a kind of clinical vignette shedding light on how tinnitus can be experienced at the level of language and art while also illuminating aesthetic practice to be an extension of psychoanalysis.

The psychological nature of female psychogenic infertility: psychoanalytic reflections

The theoretical basis of this work are the ideas of Maidi U., Mitchell J., Motz A., Pattis-Zoya E., Reinhold Joseph S., Langer M., Leisinger-Boleber M. The object of research: the phenomenon of psychogenic female infertility in the psychoanalytic understanding. The article shows aspects of the psychogenesis of female psychogenic infertility: the image of the mother, destructiveness and psychogenic infertility, denial of femininity and gender-role identity, violation of identification with the mother and identification with the "dead mother", transgenerational transmission and psychogenic infertility, unconscious conflicts and the Medea complex. These aspects are reflected in two psychoanalytic studies, the results of which are briefly reflected in this publication. The results showed the presence of common signs for women with psychogenic infertility: 1. In fantasies, the future child is endowed with expectations aimed at satisfying a deficient mother; 2. Women have a violation of gender-role identity - identification with the father; the desire to take the place of the father, playing partner and parent roles; 3. Ambivalent perception of the maternal figure; the image of the mother is idealized; 4. Women have a false self, pseudoedipality; 5. Women have a false femininity based not on identification with the mother, but on based on a primitive imitation of her. Identification with the "dead mother" is impossible; 6. The presence of a castration complex in women, reinforced by identification with the father. As a result, the process of childbirth causes horror, correlated with castration, which is denied and covered up by the desire to have a child; 7. The presence of a separation complex, where separation from a "dead mother" is not possible, because then one person will be "dead". 8. Parentification, "dead mother", "dead father", transgenerational transmission of conflicts "crypts and ghosts", untreated traumatization and unlived grief. The leading events in the life history of women suffering from psychogenic infertility are the experience of loss and violence.

Hitler’s Error of Memory: Symptom or Propaganda Ploy?

The purpose of this paper is to use the psychoanalytic understanding of parapraxes to explore the meaning of apparent errors of memory made by Adolf Hitler in speeches ‘prophesying’ the destruction of European Jews. Because historians have suggested the likelihood that these errors were deliberate, the concept of intentional parapraxes is explored and utilized. Whether deliberate or not Hitler’s errors, it is argued, were a product of a psychological conflict between the wish to take public credit for the mass murder of Jews and the need to keep these crimes secret.

The otherness and unconscious elements in a neo-phenomenological theory of subject

Classical phenomenology regards the subject as being characterised by consciousness that features intentionality. However, neo-phenomenology rejects this formulation and develops a subject theory based on embodied affects. In other words, in neo-phenomenology, the subject is penetrated and generated by otherness, and so moves with continuous subjectification like a tidal wave ebbing and flowing. Affect introduces a bottomless, infinite sphere of otherness. Therefore, in neophenomenology affect can be related to the unconscious of psychoanalysis. A comparative analysis of unconscious characteristics in psychoanalysis revealed three types of unconscious elements in the affect-sphere. From that, we may see a path from neo-phenomenology to psychoanalysis, which can contribute to a new psychoanalytic understanding of the unconscious in the dimension of affect.

Libertad, historia y el sujeto del inconsciente. Contribuciones teóricas al estudio de la ideología

In this article we address the notions of freedom, history and subjectivity, in order make an original contribution to the studies of ideology. Our methodology will consist in crossing Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis and the theory of interpellation of Louis Althusser. In the introduction, we start by exposing two major critiques of Freudian psychoanalysis, one formulated by Jean-Paul Sartre, and the other by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, thus shedding the light on how the psychoanalysis could represent (despite those critical arguments), a field of freedom rather than determinism, and a domain which is inherently historical, rather than the opposite. In the first section, will look closer at the notions of freedom, memory and history, advancing a preliminary hypothesis according to which within the symbolic space, the past remains open to changes – which will make both ideology and freedom possible. Moreover, we will see what aspects of freedom could be found within the Althusserian theory of interpellation, and how Lacanian psychoanalysis is compatible with it or can lead us beyond its limitations. In the second section, we will see how there can be a subject that precedes subjectivation, and how Lacan’s theory of subject which arises from the traumatic remainder, surpasses the scope of the theory of interpellation. The third section will address the pulse-traumatic core of the subject, such as it is conceived by Freud, not only as a determining dimension of the individual psyche, but as a structural condition of culture. Via these considerations, we will show how psychoanalysis can provide an explanation of the foundations of ideology, by conceiving the pulse-traumatic core of law that resides in the Name-of-Father. In the conclusion, we will see, through a series of examples, how ideology appears in the guise of truth, and why the psychoanalytic understanding of the unconscious is necessary for debunking the illusions it produces.

Psilocybin's Erasure of EGO.

The psychoanalytic journey and the psilocybin journey both reveal unconscious dynamics. In this article a psychoanalyst discusses his own psilocybin journey. Similarities and differences between these journeys are discussed. Possibilities are offered for a dialogue in which psilocybin may contribute to psychoanalytic understanding and psychoanalysis may contribute to the understanding of psychedelic sessions. Patients may benefit from this cross-fertilization.