Psychoanalytic Approach Research Articles

How Do Trauma and Identity Unfold Through Dialogue? A Psychoanalytic and Linguistic Analysis of Netflix's Slasher Solstice

This study aims to explore the relationship between trauma, desire, and identity through language patterns in the Netflix series Slasher: Solstice. Using a psychoanalytic and linguistic analysis approach, the research delves into how characters' dialogues and speech styles reflect their psychological states, particularly in confronting past traumas. The study employs a qualitative method with observational analysis of the interactions and dialogues of the main characters within the series. The results reveal that speech patterns, word choice, and intonation provide deep insights into the characters' psychological conditions. For instance, the character Connor displays aggressive and fragmented speech patterns as a defense mechanism against trauma, while the character Sadia exhibits emotional control through structured and formal language. This research offers a new perspective by combining psychoanalytic and linguistic approaches to understand character development within the horror genre. The analysis reveals that shifts in language style, as the narrative unfolds, indicate a transformation in the characters' identities, increasingly shaped by trauma and internal conflict.

The Umbilical.

Traditional psychoanalytic approaches view excessive parental, social or relational involvement in human development as an opportunity for linking complex gender and identity experiences. The analyst's unconscious bias might present them with an opportunity for interpretation that might resemble something akin to conversion therapy. All of which leaves the patient feeling alienated thereby confirming their exiled Self. Early relational trauma affects every gender and sexual identity. In turn each traumatic situation, from inappropriate interference to traumatic abuse, affects how an individual forms and experiences relationships. Gender and sexual identity are fluid agencies of the Self within all human development. For people who are non-normative when it comes to their gender, identity or sexuality, evidence of early relational trauma should not unthinkingly be treated alongside mental health struggles. This clinical paper explores the once-weekly analytic work with a young trans man who was exiled and lived in a dysregulated state of mind from his early relational trauma. This paper uses images from the artist Louise Bourgeois to explore the early development of projective identification and to propose that this becomes a way of exiling unwanted feelings into the Other with the hope of finding a place of belonging as if through a psychic umbilical.

Buster Moon Projections: How Cartoon Characters Activate Psychoanalytic Defense Mechanisms in "Sing (2016)"

This research aims to examine the projection of the character Buster Moon in the animated film "Sing" (2016) using a psychoanalytic theory approach, especially defense mechanisms. Buster Moon, an optimistic and persistent koala, struggles to save his theater from bankruptcy by holding a singing competition. This study explores how the character reflects and activates defense mechanisms by projection, both within himself and in interactions with other characters. Denial can be seen in his continued disregard for difficult financial realities. Projection is demonstrated through the way he handles personal fears and failures by focusing on the dreams and ambitions of others. Through this analysis, the author reveals how Buster Moon as a cartoon character functions not only as an entertainer, but also as a reflection of human defense mechanisms, providing insight into how animated films can function as a medium for understanding psychological dynamics in life. Keywords: Film, Projection, Defense Mechanism, Psychoanalysis

The introduction of the concept of anxiety into China: a thematic historical study.

This article presents a thematic historical study on the introduction of "anxiety" to modern China. Based on seminal research conducted previously by European scholars on histories of psychological and psychiatric concepts, this article reviews the itinerary of "anxiety" to China by using multiple types of textual evidence. Alongside a detailed description of how "anxiety" was translated and introduced, a comparison between the notions of "anxiety" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western psychoanalytic approaches was made. The processes of how "depression" and "anxiety" were introduced to China were also compared. Three types of textual evidence were meticulously analyzed. First, lexicographical works published since the 19th century were examined to trace the initial introduction and observe the standardized translation of "anxiety" in Chinese. Second, newspaper and periodical articles were analyzed to understand how knowledge of "anxiety" was communicated to the general public. Third, the evolution of psychological and psychiatric terminologies was observed through medical books. It was found that "anxiety" was initially translated into various Chinese terms, with "jiaolyu" eventually emerging as the standardized term after 1949. The textual evidence showed that "anxiety" began to be acknowledged as a disease concept in the early 20th century, though it was not formally recognized as a diagnostic category until the late 20th century. This article also highlights the differences between the Western psychoanalytic view on anxiety and the Chinese folk conception of it. It was observed that the introduction processes of depression and anxiety to China were similar, though their conceptual histories in the West showed much difference. The fading of neurasthenia marked a new era of psychiatric development in China, characterized by an enhanced specificity in the classification of mental disorders, which was never observed in the discourse about "xin feng," a corresponding TCM notion of "anxiety." The article also underscores the need for further exploration of corresponding TCM concepts of "anxiety" and the assimilation of Western psychiatric concepts in China.

Parent work offered by child psychoanalytic psychotherapists: a literature review

ABSTRACT Born out of the traditional model of psychoanalysis for adults, child psychoanalytic psychotherapists initially focused primarily on their young patients’ inner world. Cultural, economic, and theoretical changes have, however, led child psychotherapists to re-evaluate the importance of the environment, and particularly the role of parents, in the lives of children and young people. In contemporary clinical practice, child psychotherapists often include work with parents when addressing mental health difficulties in children and adolescents. However, no clear theoretical and clinical framework exists for working with parents in psychoanalytic child psychotherapy. This paper provides an overview of the various ways child psychoanalytic psychotherapists engage with parents, as well as a discussion of the commonalities and divergences in different psychoanalytic approaches to parent work. The aim of the paper is to synthesise current literature and to clarify this area of work. This is a narrative review of the literature on the types of engagement and models of work with parents of children and adolescents currently offered by child psychoanalytic psychotherapists. The literature reflects the absence of one accepted formulation and practice in parent work. Despite the growing literature, the lack of cross-referencing and shared language using existing and new psychoanalytic ideas perpetuates the field’s fragmentation. In the current cultural and economic context, where other modalities thrive on evidence-based data, the survival of child psychoanalytic psychotherapy in public mental health provision is uncertain. An integrated formulation is needed both to help therapists in their work with parents and allow the evaluation of work with families.

Can AI Lie? Chabot Technologies, the Subject, and the Importance of Lying

This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article examines, as its point of inquiry, popular AI chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. In doing so, an examination of the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and technological significance of AI and its complexities are located in relation to the dynamics of truth, falsity, and deception. That is, by critically considering the chatbot’s ability to engage in natural language conversations and provide contextually relevant responses, it is argued that what separates the AI chatbot from anthropocentric debates, which allude to some form of conscious recognition on behalf of AI, is the importance of the lie – an importance which a psychoanalytic approach can reveal. Indeed, while AI technologies can undoubtedly blur the line between lies and truth-speaking, in the case of the AI chatbot, it is detailed how such technology remains unable to lie authentically or, in other words, is unable to lie like a human. For psychoanalysis, the capacity to lie bears witness to the unconscious and, thus, plays an important role in determining the subject. It is for this reason that rather than uncritically accepting the chatbot’s authority – an authority that is easily reflected in its honest responses and frank admissions – a psychoanalytic (Lacanian) perspective can highlight the significance of the unconscious as a distorting factor in determining the subject. To help elucidate this argument, specific attention is given to introducing and applying Lacan’s subject of enunciation and subject of the enunciated. This is used to assert that what continues (for now) to set us apart from AI technology is not necessarily our ‘better knowledge’ but our capability to consciously engage in acts of falsehood that function to reveal the social nuances and significances of the lie.

Psychoanalytic Approach to Louise Glück’s Blended Receptions of the Myths of Narcissus and Persephone in Averno

In recent years, mythological retellings have garnered increasing acclaim. One such example is Louise Glück’s book of poetry Averno (2006), in which she blends the myths of Narcissus and Persephone. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a narcissus serves as bait when Hades abducts Persephone. However, in Glück’s contemporary rewriting, Persephone seeks to escape her authoritarian mother by embracing Hades, whose perspective is given in “A Myth of Devotion,” but the ultimate outcome is that Persephone is controlled by both her mother and her husband. In the present paper, I shall first address the reception of the myths of Persephone and Narcissus in Glück’s “A Myth of Innocence.” Then, I shall analyse sexuality, trauma and marriage in “A Myth of Innocence” and “A Myth of Devotion” from a psychoanalytic perspective, while also exploring the motifs that occur in Glück’s appropriation of the two myths in question.

Racial melancholia, ambivalence, and shame: a psycho-social examination of white student resistance to anti-racism in a secondary classroom

ABSTRACT This critical ethnographic study uses the concept of racial melancholia to investigate white student resistance to anti-racism in a secondary classroom. I employ a psycho-social (the interplay between psychoanalytic and social processes) approach to examining racialisation through a theoretical and empirical exploration of racial melancholia’s role in engendering a traumatic conflict between desiring anti-racism and betraying whiteness, a conflict that I argue serves as the core of white subjectivity. I analyse three different ways in which racial melancholia caused white students to vacillate between coveting anti-racism and reproducing racism. These students waged a psycho-social battle with whiteness that was mediated by social forces including family, friends, and classmates intersecting and overlapping with psychical processes related to ambivalence and shame. I conclude with how methods for storytelling can open pathways for working through racial melancholia.

The Intersection of Ideology, Subjectivity, and Social Psychology: A Psychoanalytic Approach

This study explores the role of ideology in social psychology and psychoanalysis by drawing on the theoretical approaches of key figures such as Martín-Baró, Moscovici, Lacan, and Žižek. The research highlights how ideology functions as a structure influencing human subjectivity and actions, particularly through the mechanism of fantasy as articulated in Lacanian theory. Ideology is not only seen as an explicit system of beliefs but also as an unconscious process that shapes identification and social interaction. Through in-depth analysis, this study demonstrates that fantasy plays a crucial role in reproducing ideological structures, thereby enabling the persistence of the existing social order. The study also expands our understanding of how gender and political ideologies are produced and reproduced in everyday life. By integrating psychoanalytic concepts and ideological analysis, this research offers a new perspective on understanding human subjectivity within a social context and proposes a more comprehensive theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between social psychology and ideology. These findings are expected to contribute significantly to the existing literature and encourage further research in this field.

The Orpheus' and Eurydice's Myth as a Decoding Grid for the Psychic Damages Caused by Losses Incurred by the COVID-19 Epidemic

This work aims to offer a guideline for treating losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychoanalysis has proven to provide multiple levels of interpretation of both dreams and clinical material, as well as myths, which, for this reason, can also act as an interpretative grid of many current clinical situations, being paradigmatic of human dramas, conquests and tragedies. However, the classical psychoanalytic approach has often used stereotypes that have led to prefabricated and caricatural interpretations, leading to the loss of the richness of suggestions that myths can give to clinical interventions. The Orpheus’ and Eurydice’s myth, being descriptive of the loss of the object of love, which is the most devastating and destructive of losses, can prove helpful in framing the clinical paths to be faced in repairing the damage suffered and in resuming the lost opportunities of development, due to the restrictions imposed by the containment measures of the covid-19 pandemic. The present work presents semiological and psychoanalytic integrated approaches to interpret this myth, proposing itself as an intervention grid for the treatment of losses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, also able to overcome some of the difficulties inherent in other approaches. In particular, "Orpheus' error" presents some suggestions for adopting the clinical approach, which has found support in longitudinal research carried out in the field with a different methodology.

The Infl uence of Trickster Behavior in the Media Space on the Dynamics of Cultural Industries

The trend of media consumption in recent years has been the sharp interest of the mass audience in communication and entertainment. This practice can also be traced in the dynamics of the development of cultural industries, where the emergence of new words (“blog”, “podcast”, “hashtag”, etc.) is noted. This indicates that the media continues to play a huge role in the production and preferences of certain cultural products. Under the infl uence of mediatization, there is a steady demand for behavioral models that, based on humor, irony or deception, contribute to changing the existing order. One of these models is trickster behavior. Such actions in the society of impressions are perceived as a form of entertainment. The purpose of this article is to attempt a philosophical understanding of such transformations in public consciousness and media consumption in the context of cultural and economic dynamics. My thesis is that the trickster, who is a universal archetypal fi gure immersed in a socio-cultural context, plays an important role both in mythology and in religion, culture, media, economics, and politics. It serves as a unifying principle in the process of forming the social memory of peoples, exposing the negative qualities of man and society, showing the level of existing values and morality. Sociocultural, semiotic, historiosophical, communicative and psychoanalytic approaches have been applied to the study of trickster behavior. As a result of the research, manipulative tactics used by tricksters in the media space have been identifi ed, which make it possible to implement a strategy of theatricality: in behavior and speech on the verge of “norm – outrageousness”, an unconventional vision of the situation, a reaction to the challenges of social reality, the introduction of new cultural mythologies into public consciousness. The infl uence of their actions on the formation of sociocultural stereotypes is noted. The study expands the understanding of trickster behavior through the prism of established trends in media consumption and reproduction of cultural products (movies, games, blogs, performances by media personalities, etc.). The relevance of the trickster model of behavior is justifi ed by the digitalization and mediatization of the space of human existence. Keywords: trickster, trickster behavior, cultural industries, archetype, cultural mythologies

Identity Crisis in Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard: A Psychoanalytical Study

August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard have always been recurrently analyzed within disputable studies concerning the characters’ psychoanalytic makeup, the characters’ breakdown at the break of a new social class, and a naturalistic, existential approach. Such a foundational approach for analysis is overpoweringly highlighted in the two plays within an unshakable regularity to the assumption that female identities in the two plays have undergone intense turmoil, toppled heavily in the middle of socioeconomic changes with the decline of aristocracy. However, this paper aims to juxtapose and compare the concept of identity crisis in association with the traumatic experiences of the two characters Miss Julie and Mrs. Ranyevskaia through a comparative psychoanalytic approach. It is inexplicable how the two addressed characters grapple with their different circumstances with fractured identities, where they fail to stand up for their social and gender roles and elevate their sense of individuation and selfhood in the middle of the surrounding deteriorations. Through a comparative analysis, this study lays the groundwork needed for exploring, interpreting, and investigating more nuanced reciprocal relationships associated with identity crisis.

Psychoanalytic approaches for understanding and managing hospital pain: A qualitative analysis of a Colombian hospital case study

Psychoanalytic approaches for understanding and managing hospital pain: A qualitative analysis of a Colombian hospital case study

Совесть и историческая память в контексте российской культуры

Introduction. The work is aimed at revealing the dialectical relationship between the sense of conscience and historical memory, the conditionality of both by the dominant ideals of culture. Theoretical analysis. Using a psychoanalytic approach and the method of critical philosophical reflection, the author focuses on the conditionality of the cognition of history, and at the same time historical memory, by the restrictive framework of conscience, set by the specific orientation of an individual to the ideals of culture. Empirical analysis. The consequences of the predominant emphasis in the media and educational environment on the negative aspects of the Soviet stage of history, which was one of the main reasons for the moral and spiritual disorientation of the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space, are analyzed. This disorientation, right up to moral degradation to Nazi ideals, with the corresponding framework of shame and conscience, manifested itself most clearly in modern Ukraine. Conclusion. The selectivity of this knowledge of history, and, consequently, this memory of the past, depends on the characteristics of the manifestations of a sense of conscience, coupled with the requirements of moral ideals that guide a person in his actions and thoughts. For the successful development of Russia, it is necessary to enrich the historical memory with positive, significant events of the past, building a line of continuity of ideals that orient towards social justice, past and present.

A psychodynamic study of the sexual exploitation of adolescent girls

The literature on the risk of child (commercial) sexual exploitation (C(C)SE) contains limited reference to victim-related factors in the victimisation process. Similarly, the possible links between these factors and adolescence have rarely been considered. However, there is agreement that the age at which most victimisation occurs is between 11 and 14 years. This study seeks to demonstrate how a psychoanalytical approach to adolescence can clarify sexual victimisation behaviours (including sexual exploitation) observed in young girls and enable social workers to deal effectively with these paradoxical behaviours, which appear incomprehensible and discouraging. After presenting the epistemological assumptions of psychoanalytical theories, this study illustrates how early phases of adolescence are considered vulnerable. This study refers to the resurgence of Oedipal fantasies, which, actualised by adolescents’ sexual maturity, threaten family homoeostasis and can lead adolescents to act out. These include risky sexual behaviours leading to multiple victimisations (including sex trafficking), often with irreversible consequences. Based on diverse situations, including that of a young female victim of sexual exploitation, this study attempts to highlight sexual trajectories with multiple victimisations.

The notion and practice of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period. Part 2.

The paper further explores the development of psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry in the interwar period. Jaroszyński attempted to sketch out the idea of "emotional psychotherapy". Stryjeński organized a counseling clinic for the mentally ill, using psychotherapy as one of the means of treatment. Bilikiewicz developed oneiroanalysis - a psychotherapeutic method of dream analysis based on modifications of psychoanalysis. Gottliebowa advocated for the use of psychoanalytically influenced psychotherapy in the gynaecologist practice. Markuszewicz considered psychoanalysis the only psychotherapeutic modality aimed at unearthing the real causes of mental illnesses. Henryk Higier proposed to consider psychoanalysis practically as a method of psychotherapy and saw its heterogeneity as its advantage. Critical views on psychoanalysis as a psychotherapeutic method were delivered by Wirszubski and Mikulski. In general, psychotherapy in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period was highly influenced by psychoanalysis. Moreover, the understanding and practice of psychotherapy in public psychiatric facilities differed from that in private practice. In public psychiatric facilities, it was used mainly to deal with psychoses, so it urged clinicians to modify the classic psychoanalytic approach. In private practice, psychiatrists were dealing mainly with cases of neuroses and therefore could apply standard psychoanalytic procedures. Methods of suggestion, persuasion and hypnosis, characteristic of nineteenth-century psychotherapy, were still in use in Polish psychiatry of the interwar period. The main obstacles to the development of Polish psychotherapy in the interwar period were antisemitic attitudes contributing to hostility towards psychoanalysis, as well as the biological orientation of the majority of the Polish psychiatric society.

Psicanálise e saúde mental infanto-juvenil: uma reflexão sobre o lugar da subjetividade nos CAPSi

The aim of this article is to discuss the work of the mental health teams in the Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPSi), in order to consider subjectivity as a factor of inclusion. The methodology used was based on applied psychoanalysis. Franco Basaglia's contributions were revisited in order to understand his influence on the Psychiatric Reform in Brazil and to elucidate the current practice of CAPSi. The current impasses in the field of subjectivity in the Psychiatric Reform are discussed and it is proposed to locate transversal surfaces that articulate the presence of a psychoanalytic approach to subjectivity in psychosocial care. The conclusion is that it is important to discuss a psychoanalytic approach to subjectivation in public mental health services, so that treatment in these services is not polarized between biological reductionism and psychosocial care.

The enchanted unconscious, impasses, negotiation and surrender: Jeremy Safran in dialogue with the Rebbes of Ishbitz/Radzin.

Dr. Jeremy Safran had a unique talent to seamlessly weave together clinical work with his broad knowledge of philosophy, history, and theology. Alongside his commitment to researching the minutest clinical interactions, he was conscious of the broad values of the nature of the good life that underpinned his analytic approach. This paper will explore the concepts of the enchanted unconscious, clinical impasses, negotiation, and surrender, suggesting that these concepts together provide insight into Safran's larger philosophy of life. It will then provide the approach to these concepts of the Rebbes of Ishbitz/Radzin, a school of Polish Hasidic thought. It will conclude with an exploration of how both Safran's psychoanalytic approach and the Ishbitz/Radzin Rebbes' Hasidic approach to the Torah provide distinct insights and applications of these concepts, which can be mutually enriching for both disciplines.

Faith and Belief Versus Truth and Reality: The Boundaries of Mental Illnesses in the case of a Refugee - a Psychoanalytical Approach

Faith and Belief Versus Truth and Reality: The Boundaries of Mental Illnesses in the case of a Refugee - a Psychoanalytical Approach

Examining the Tale of Keloğlan and Giant Mother Using Psychoanalytic Method: Transition from the Preoedipal Stage to the Oedipal Stage

Psychoanalytic literary theory is one of the frequently used analytical approaches. The theory tries to understand the unconscious motivations and desires of characters in literary works, as well as subjects in real life. This theory, founded by Sigmund Freud and developed by his followers, suggests that the words, behaviors and actions in a literary text can be interpreted through a psychoanalytic lens in order to reveal the repressed desires and anxieties of the characters and the author alike. In the psychoanalytic approach, the oral stage, one of the psychosexual stages, is the period when strong bonds between the mother and the child are at the forefront, and competition with the father has not yet emerged. This period can also be called the pre-oedipal period. At this stage, as sexual differences begin to be perceived, the child turns towards the opposite-sex parent. This phase, which includes the phallic period, is referred to as the oedipal period. During this period, the father, whom the child perceives as positive or negative, is also included in the child's life. Fairy tales have been passed down through generations and have survived until today, both orally and in writing. The effects of situations such as fear and violence that can be found in fairy tale on children and how the child perceives and assimilates this content have attracted the attention of psychoanalytic literary theorists. It is assumed that the language of fairy tale can be effective in solving some unconscious issues of the child in the pre- and post-oedipal periods. In this text; In terms of psychoanalytic theory, the tale of Keloğlan and the Giant's Mother, which is thought to include the issues of the child's pre-oedipal period, has been tried to be interpreted in the light of 'psychoanalytic literary theory'.