Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Unconscious
Terms modified by Unconscious Selected AbstractsTHE REBIRTH OF THE IDOLS: THE FREUDIAN UNCONSCIOUS AND THE NIETZSCHEAN UNCONSCIOUS,THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 2 2001Jorge L. Ahumada The author explores how psychoanalysis mutates in its passing from the privacies of the session to the public spaces of academia, shifting away from enquiry into unfolding unconscious psychic processes guided by its method, and from the clinically based notions Freud and his diverse followers constructed, here called the ,Freudian unconscious'. In postmodern intellectual contexts Freud's work fuels a ,Nietzschean unconscious', issuing from public lecterns in the protagonistic, self-creating feats of a ,psychoanalytic discourse'. The ideology of such mutation ishere traced from Nietzsche on to Heidegger and Kojave, and then to Lacan and Laplanche. It reflects the might of the ,death of evidences' and the Romantic penchant for the limit-experience and the primacy accorded to the creative imagination. Discourse as revelation rests on a ,paradox of the enunciation' whereby the subject (author) of the statement is taken to be identical to the subject (matter) of the statement. Banishing the boundaries of illusion and evidence, and of self-overcoming and insight, academic ,psychoanalytic discourse'creates a ,return of the idols' in ,theoretical' narcissistic identification. [source] FEMININITY AND ITS UNCONSCIOUS ,SHADOWS': GENDER AND GENERATIVE IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF BIOTECHNOLOGYBRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 4 2007Joan Raphael-Leff abstract This paper locates contemporary conceptualizations of ,femininity' in the context of current sociocultural changes. It is argued that today's biotechnological opportunities have immense significance for both psychic interiority and the lived experience of gender, in that they invalidate ,eternal' limitations of sex, procreation and embodiment. An explanatory concept, generative identity, is postulated, to account psychologically for the increasing diversity of reproductive patterns. This concept is proposed as a fourth constituent of gender, alongside the reformulated constituents of embodiment, representation and desire. Derived from this is a further concept of generative agency, the expression of the psychic construction of the self as potential pro-creator, shaped in childhood by the negotiation of reproductive restrictions of sex, generation, genesis and generativity, and the ,genitive' issues of arbitrariness, finitude and irreversibility of time. Disturbances in generative identity manifest as unconscious ,shadows' expressed as inhibitions to creative agency, compulsively driven preoccupations with the lived sexed body, and/or concrete enactments which may utilize biotechnological innovations to actualize unconscious fantasies in reality. [source] INTRODUCTION TO ,GOD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS'BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 3 2002David M. Black First page of article [source] The logic of turmoil: Some epistemological and clinical considerations on emotional experience and the infiniteTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2008Pietro Bria The idea of the infinite has its origins in the very beginnings of western philosophy and was developed significantly by modern philosophers such as Galileo and Leibniz. Freud discovered the Unconscious which does not respect the laws of classical logic, flouting its fundamental principle of non-contradiction. This opened the way to a new epistemology in which classical logic coexists with an aberrant logic of infinite affects. Matte Blanco reorganized this Freudian revolution in logic and introduced the concept of bi-logic, which is an intermingling of symmetric and Aristotelic logics. The authors explore some epistemological and clinical aspects of the functioning of the deep unconscious where the emergence of infinity threatens to overwhelm the containing function of thought, connecting this topic to some of Bion's propositions. They then suggest that bodily experiences can be considered a prime source of the logic of turmoil, and link a psychoanalytic consideration of the infinite to the mind,body relation. Emotional catastrophe is seen both as a defect,a breakdown of the unfolding function which translates unconscious material into conscious experience,and as the consequence of affective bodily pressures. These pressures function in turn as symmetrizing or infinitizing operators. Two clinical vignettes are presented to exemplify the hypotheses. [source] Prostate cancer: friend or enemy.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF UROLOGICAL NURSING, Issue 2 2010Part one, the son The aim of the study was to investigate the daily life experiences of sons and daughters following the father's prostate cancer diagnosis. This paper is part one describing the sons experience of life. Research in this field to date has predominantly focused on the father's experiences in coping with the disease, and there is a lack of research on the adult children's experiences following the father's cancer diagnosis. The study assumes a phenomenological,hermeneutic approach, using Ricoeur's theories of narratives and text interpretation. The informants were six sons of men diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer. All participants were interviewed 3 and 10 months after the father was informed of the cancer diagnosis. Data analysis was done in three stages according to Ricoeur: naïve reading, followed by a structured analysis, and concluded with critical interpretation and discussion. Results showed in the experience of worry and dilemma after the father's diagnosis, the son gradually adapted to the new life situation. The adaptation was conscious/unconscious and could be characterized as a personal transition. It is concluded that nurses need to include the son more in the care for the parents. [source] Taming the shadow: corporate responsibility in a Jungian contextCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008Tarja Ketola Abstract Rampant shadows undermine true corporate responsibility (CR) when companies try to keep up appearances by fair means or foul. This paper studies the thoughts, words and deeds of CR actors in their Jungian context. The aim is to help CR actors to understand different CR behaviour and to gain new insights into developing CR values, discourses and practices. This research builds on earlier psychological articles published in this journal, and digs deeper into the psychological resources of the human mind to show what vast potentials lie there to solve CR issues. Jungian theories open up the individual, organizational and societal personality and give opportunities to expand it horizontally and vertically. The Jungian prospective quality of the psyche is illustrated by three levels of unconscious , personal, cultural and collective, which can help the development of CR values, discourses and actions of individuals, organizations, societies and humankind. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Uncanny Exposures: A Study of the Wartime Photojournalism of Lee MillerCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2009PAULA M. SALVIO ABSTRACT Taking the World War II photojournalism of Lee Miller as my point of departure, this article has several purposes. First, it introduces the wartime photojournalism of Lee Miller to education. I situate Miller's use of surrealist photography within emerging curricular discourses that take as axiomatic the significance of the unconscious in education and thus the challenge of representing histories that are simultaneously present, but cannot be perceived or integrated into conventional historical narratives. Second, I provide a textual analysis of Lee Miller's wartime oeuvre with specific attention paid to how this work alters education's "field of vision" of trauma. While this analysis makes no claims to exhaust education's possibilities for framing the war photography of Lee Miller, it will show how Miller's use of surrealist rhetoric and framing devices offered her the expressive power to represent traumatic experiences that resist being integrated into larger social and cultural contexts. By thinking through Miller's war photography, this article contributes to the scholarship in education that is dedicated to establishing a psychoanalytic history of learning and teaching that is capacious enough to address the "difficult knowledge" we too often cast beyond the pale of the curriculum and to expanding the rhetorical tactics possible for representing such difficult knowledge. [source] On Some Problems with Weak Intentionalism for Intellectual HistoryHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2002Vivienne Brown This paper argues that the notion of weak intentionalism in Mark Bevir's The Logic of the History of Ideas is incoherent. Bevir's proposal for weak intentionalism as procedural individualism relies on the argument that the object of study for historians of ideas is given by the beliefs that are expressed by individuals (whether authors or readers) since these beliefs constitute the historical meaning of the work for those individuals as historical figures. Historical meanings are thus hermeneutic meanings. In the case of insincere, unconscious, and irrational beliefs, however, the beliefs expressed by individuals are not in fact their actual beliefs, and their actual beliefs are now taken to be those expressed by the works. It thus turns out that it is not the beliefs expressed by individuals that are the object of study for historians but the works themselves, since the overriding requirement for historians of ideas is to "make sense of their material" and it is this requirement that determines whether or not the beliefs are to be construed as expressed by individuals or by the works. But once it is accepted that the beliefs that are the object of study for historians are expressed by the works and not by individuals, the original argument that such beliefs are historical hermeneutic meanings for historical figures no longer applies. The argument for weak intentionalism thus turns out to be incoherent. Bevir's argument fails to establish that the object of study for the history of ideas is external to the works, and the attempted distinction between interpreting a work and reading a text also fails. [source] Bridging the Social and the Symbolic: Toward a Feminist Politics of Sexual DifferenceHYPATIA, Issue 3 2000EMILY ZAKIN By clarifying the psychoanalytic notion of sexual difference (and contrasting it with a feminist analysis of gender as social reality), I argue that the symbolic dimension of psychical life cannot be discarded in developing political accounts of identity formation and the status of women in the public sphere. I discuss various bridges between social reality and symbolic structure, bridges such as body, language, law, and family. I conclude that feminist attention must be redirected to the unconscious since the political cannot be localized in, or segregated to, the sphere of social reality; sexual difference is an indispensable concept for a feminist politics. [source] The complexity of individuationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES, Issue 4 2004Inna Semetsky Honorary Research Associate Abstract This paper addresses the problematics of individuation in Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy. The concept of fold , the inside of the outside , is analyzed in terms of the relations between thought and unthought constituting the process of thinking in affects. It is suggested that thinking of this sort, called by Deleuze the supreme act of philosophy, may be considered tending towards Jungian and post-Jungian depth psychology. The unconscious of thought is described by the archetypal dynamics of forces acting in the space of the Outside, that this paper posits as the field of collective unconscious. Analogous to Deleuzian virtual tendencies, Jungian archetypes subsist in potentia only and, as a multiplicity of relations between forces, can be expressed through cartographic microanalysis. In accord with Deleuze's method of transcendental empiricism, the unconscious, immanent, microperceptions are reterritorialized by means of mapping the archetypal field. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Long-term effect of the ICU-diary concept on quality of life after critical illnessACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 6 2010C. G. BÄCKMAN Background: Critically ill patients often spend time in the intensive care unit (ICU) either unconscious or sedated. On recovery, they are often in a state of confusion with memory loss that may be associated with a longstanding reduction in health-related quality of life (QoL). We hypothesised that the ICU-diary concept could improve their QoL by filling in their memory gaps. Methods: A non-randomised, prospective study in a non-academic eight-bedded general ICU. A group of patients (n=38) were selected to receive the ICU-diary concept (keeping a diary with photos while on the ICU plus a follow-up meeting) when a long and complicated course was expected. Health-related QoL at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months was compared with a group that did not receive the ICU-diary (n=224). The Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form (SF-36) was used to measure health-related QoL. Multiple regression models adjusted for age, sex, illness severity, pre-existing disease and diagnostic category was used to analyse the effects of the ICU-diary concept at 6 months, and changes over time were analysed using repeated measures MANOVA. Results: Crude and adjusted scores for two dimensions of SF-36 (general health and vitality) and the physical component summary score were significantly higher at 6 months in the ICU-diary group (P<0.05) and some of the effects remained during the 3-year follow-up period (P<0.05). Conclusion: The ICU-diary concept was associated with improved health-related QoL during the 3-year follow-up period after a critical illness. The effect of this intervention needs to be confirmed in a larger randomised study. [source] The place of the unconscious in mental health nursingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2004Marie Crowe ABSTRACT:,This paper acknowledges the concept of the unconscious in psychiatric discourse and explores the importance of this for mental health nursing practice. Mental health nursing practice has always been strongly influenced by psychiatric discourse because of its dominance in the clinical setting. The most recent edition of the American Psychiatry Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual has signalled that the concept of the unconscious is re-emerging in psychiatric discourse. This re-emergence provides the opportunity for mental health nurses to re-affirm or develop their psychotherapeutic skills in the nurse,patient relationship. The psychotherapeutic relationship could focus on ways for the patient to find meaning in their lives that recognize and value difference and multiple ways of being. [source] Community feeling and social interest: Adlerian parallels, synergy and differences with the field of community psychologyJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Russell A. King Abstract The field of community psychology has generally elided the insights of depth psychology and the traditions of Freud, Adler and Jung. Implicitly rejecting the notion of the unconscious, community psychology favours conscious, pragmatic agency. Whereas depth psychology is commonly associated with treatment modalities, community psychology argues that psychotherapy is ultimately unnecessary when prevention strategies are adequately deployed. In the critical and community psychology literature psychotherapy is often derided as both ,individualistic' and inefficient. Adlerian psychology, which espouses a method of psychotherapy, nevertheless holds key points of synergy with community psychology. To distinguish the school from psychoanalysis Alfred Adler named his approach ,Individual Psychology', which could obscure its' social orientation. Like community psychologists, Adlerians similarly argue for a sense of cohesive community as crucial to mental health. They have also adopted an ecological holism as core epistemology, and argue for reducing the necessity of psychotherapy by working in tandem on community-based prevention strategies. The authors consider the rationale for community psychology's distance from the depth psychologies whilst arguing that the unconscious could, if engaged with analytically, provide the discourse with radical new insights. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Inside out, or outside in: meeting with couplesJOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 2 2006Hugh Jenkins The complex difficulties often faced by couples require a range of models for effective help. Relational intensity is heightened in therapy by the ease with which the therapist can be triangled into the couple's relationship and by the influence of the emotional triggers from their respective internal worlds. This article draws on systemic and psychodynamic models and a transgenerational perspective for gendered stories. Different time frameworks link interpersonal and intrapersonal themes. In this sense, the therapist works ,inside out' and ,outside in'. A framework of behaviours, emotions, feelings, meanings and beliefs is proposed to help link these perspectives. ,Invisible contracts' and the sense of there often being an unconscious ,pact to disappoint' are described. Clear models are not enough, for it is the intimate encounter between client and therapist that is the bedrock of therapeutic change and growth. There is no short cut to this sense of intimacy in the unique encounter between therapist and each new couple. Brief examples from practice describe how the issues discussed may be addressed in couples work. [source] The challenges forensic nurses face when their patient is comatose: Addressing the needs of our most vulnerable patient populationJOURNAL OF FORENSIC NURSING, Issue 3 2008Jennifer Pierce-Weeks RN, SANE-A, SANE-P Abstract Since 1996, the American Nurses Association has recognized forensic nursing as a formal specialty. Despite this recognition, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and Emergency Department nurses struggle with incorporating evidence collection into the care they give the unconscious or comatose patient they suspect has been sexually assaulted. Through case example, this article provides an abbreviated review of the circumstances under which these patients present for care, current challenges, and barriers in upholding the standard of forensic nursing care, as well as proposed interventions for the practicing forensic nurse. [source] The Trollopian Geopolitical AestheticLITERATURE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010Lauren M. E. Goodlad Trollope's reputation as a formally dull post-1848 realist persists even though the period of his Palliser series (1864,1879) was characterized by intense political and imperial dynamism. While most of Trollope's novels during this period exemplify a historically engaged realism, The Eustace Diamonds is distinct for its rare meditation on empire in South Asia,a topic that Trollope seems purposely to have avoided. Trollope's fourth Palliser novel captures the vexed ethics of a so-called liberal imperialism through two classic characters,Lucy Morris and Lord Fawn,and their interactions with the Sawab of Mygawb, a "non-character"who marks the novel's geopolitical unconscious. But the novel's most formally distinct features revolve around representation of Lizzie Eustace, who figures Trollope's uneasiness over the New Imperial era's neo-feudal aesthetics. Trollope associated the New Imperialism with Benjamin Disraeli whose Jewish ethnicity he tied to a "conjuring" political agency that could master the theaters of mass democracy and imperial expansion. In The Eustace Diamonds, Lizzie becomes the embodiment of an actively performed New Imperial aesthetic. As a Disraeli-like schemer, she introduces a stylistic referentiality that is alien to Trollope's ,pellucid' linguistic ideal. Where Trollope's sociological and global capitalist novels offer nuanced aesthetic capture, Lizzie marks the representational limits of such realism. Like the Sawab, she is the sign of a Trollopian power to stretch form beyond the crude anti-realism of the racialized scapegoat. [source] PERSONAL ATTACHMENT TO BELIEFSMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2007DALE LUGENBEHL Abstract: There is a tendency in philosophical discussions to see beliefs as belonging to specific people,to see things in terms of "your" belief, or "my" belief, or "Smith's" belief. I call this "personal attachment to beliefs." This mindset is unconscious, deeply ingrained, and a powerful background stance in discussion and thinking. Attachment has a negative impact on the quality of philosophical discussion and learning: difficulties in acknowledging error and changing beliefs, blindness to new evidence, difficulties in understanding new ideas, entrenchment in views, rancorous behavior, and the encouragement of competitive personal contests rather than collaborative searches for the truth. This article investigates the nature of attachment and traces out some of the undesirable consequences for classroom philosophical discussion, thinking, writing, and learning. It presents an alternative model to attachment and offers constructive suggestions for implementing the results of the investigation in the philosophy classroom and elsewhere. [source] Complete recovery from prolonged cardio-pulmonary resuscitation following anaphylactic reaction to readministered intravenous cefazolinACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2003M. W. Gibbs We describe a patient who developed a type I anaphylactic reaction to intravenous cefazolin. The patient had no known drug allergies and had previously received intraoperative intravenous cefazolin 2 months prior without any problems. Forty-fives after receiving cefazolin 1 g i.v. and while fully awake, the patient experienced shortness of breath, became unconscious, and then suffered a cardiac arrest. Resuscitation included endotracheal intubation, external cardiac compression, electrical defibrillation and multiple large doses of epinephrine, atropine, and sodium bicarbonate over the course of 2.5 h and three cardiac arrests. Nevertheless, the patient fully recovered. The intent of this case report is to address widely held concerns regarding cross-reactivity of cephalosporin, particularly cefazolin, to penicillin, the legitimacy of test dosing as a means to safely identify patients who will have an allergic reaction to cephalosporins and comment on patient-related predictors of survival following cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the good outcome in this case. [source] Transformations of self: a phenomenological investigation into the lived experience of survivors of critical illnessNURSING IN CRITICAL CARE, Issue 1 2003Elizabeth DE Papathanassoglou Summary ,Based on the hermeneutical, phenomenological perspective, this study explored the lived experience of individuals with a past hospitalization in an intensive care unit, with focus on their dreams. The purpose was to explore how it is to have been critically ill ,Dreams are the language of the unconscious and can symbolically convey meanings ,Eight participants recounted their experiences with critical illness through semi-structured phenomenological interviews and dream-telling. An interplay between the ,factual,external' world and the ,internal' world appeared to be the basis of their perception of the situation. Participants' narratives were immensely rich in symbols of transformation, transcendence and rebirth. Transformations in perception, in lived-body, and in lived time and space were some of the themes emerging as part of both conscious and dreaming experiences. Attitudes towards death were altered, and elements of heightened spirituality were evident in the aftermath of critical illness ,Critical illness was conceptualized as a ,cocooning phase' leading to transformation of self, spiritual arousal and personal growth. Nurses may be able to alleviate suffering by supporting this process while in the ICU, as well as after discharge [source] Vasovagal syncope evoked by needle phobia when inserting a contact lens,OPHTHALMIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL OPTICS, Issue 2 2005Tatsuya Mimura Abstract Purpose:, To report a patient who fell unconscious because of vasovagal syncope evoked by needle phobia when he tried to wear contact lenses. Case reports:, A 16-year-old healthy boy had sometimes experienced dizziness when looking at the tips of pens. When he put his finger and the lens close to his eye to insert a soft contact lens, he felt sick and dizzy and fell unconscious. Conclusion:, Our experience suggests that patients with needle phobia may develop vasovagal syncope by concentrating on a fingertip when inserting a contact lens. We need to be aware of unconsciousness because of phobia when trying to insert contact lenses. [source] The Feminine (Ob)scene of CrueltyORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 6 2008Margins, On the Fantastic, its Genealogy This article starts out with a panoramic exposition of Latin American fantastic literature, arguing that the fantastic mode has become mainstream rather than a marginalized exception. However, something important is missing from the canonized program for the fantastic, namely a sensation of the fantastic object as well as of the desire that accompanies the dreams or fantasies that give reality its coherence. This article argues that authors like Alejandra Pizarnik and Silvina Ocampo represent a "real" response to the canon of artful metaphysical fictionalizations: an excessive enjoyment that cannot be accounted for in terms of the symbolic but approaches the Lacanian realm of the Real. It is often maintained that the subversive potential of fantastic literature resides in its interrogation of the (unconscious) limits between the real and the unreal that define the social, symbolic order. Yet the fascination of the "feminine (ob)scene of cruelty" resides in what exceeds symbolization, what is left after the categorical operations of culture have been performed, and never ceases to exert a horrifying fascination from beyond the frontiers of socially accepted values. [source] Israeli arab-jewish sandtray group work: creating a world togetherPSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2010Ariel KatzArticle first published online: 27 MAY 2010 Abstract Jewish and Arab Israeli group facilitator trainees participated in an experiential sandtray workshop. Recapitulating the basic Israeli conflict over contested lands, Arab-Jewish dyads were given a contained piece of land (a sand tray) in which to create their ,shared' world using miniatures. The container was just large enough to hold a standard ream of paper, and was half-filled with sand. As the method involves tactile play and giving the unconscious a voice, we could observe the interactional process and products. Would the unconscious provide new solutions where dialogue had become stuck in anger and alienation? The observed outcome of the group work was three distinct styles of coping with the difficult and sometimes painful task of sharing: conflict, domination and co-existence. This paper examines how participants negotiated sharing a limited piece of ,land' with the hope that this concrete task can provide new ways of understanding the unspoken and unconscious aspects of the conflict as well as suggesting new possibilities and a way toward constructive and respectful solutions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Class in the consulting roomPSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2007Valerie Walkerdine Abstract This paper explores the centrality of class in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the context of the review of Layton, Hollander and Gutwill's Psychoanalysis, Class and Politics (Layton et al., 2006). It reviews a clinical engagement with class, arguing that class has not been absent from the clinical setting, being salient in much social work analysis. The issue of how class enters psychotherapy is brought into salience by Layton's observation of comments made by middle-class therapists about their feelings of comfort in entering shops with ranges of goods and ambiences that can be understood in class terms. The issue of class in relation to identity has been well explored in the social science tradition, particularly in the work of a group of feminist scholars. This paper seeks to bring together insights from both the clinical and social science traditions, so that each may be enriched. It argues that much more dialogue is needed between the two kinds of work in order to think beyond the normative unconscious and the problems of the distinctions between inner and outer worlds. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons. Ltd. [source] Perplexity: an effect of social traumaPSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2003Julia Braun Abstract This paper faces the challenge of building hypotheses that contain referents about social subjectivity and the effects of mental inscription of traumatic social events. The authors' starting point is the hypothesis that every link involves a subjectivizing potential. Also the ,unconscious principle of uncertainty' holds that every encounter exposes the individual to unforeseeable effects that cause emotional states bound to the uncertainty that underlies the construction of every link. This principle remains unconscious because the individual defensively implements the ,illusion of predictability', but a violent and unexpected attack may activate it, causing a state of disorganization whose clinical indicator is the feeling of perplexity. The paper discusses thinking disorders within the context of violent actions. Finally, clinical material about a patient being assaulted and held as hostage is discussed. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd [source] Off the beaten track: Freud, sound and music.THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2008Statement of a problem, some historico-critical notes The authors note that the element of sound and music has no place in the model of mental functioning bequeathed to us by Freud, which is dominated by the visual and the representational. They consider the reasons for this exclusion and its consequences, and ask whether the simple biographical explanation offered by Freud himself is acceptable. This contribution reconstructs the historical and cultural background to that exclusion, cites some relevant emblematic passages, and discusses Freud's position on music and on the aesthetic experience in general. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between Freud and Lipps, which is important both for the originality of Lipps's thinking in the turn-of-the-century debate and for his ideas on the musical aspects of the foundations of psychic life, at which Freud ,stopped', as he himself wrote. Moreover, the shade of Lipps accompanied Freud throughout his scientific career from 1898 to 1938. Like all foundations, that of psychoanalysis was shaped by a system of inclusions and exclusions. The exclusion of the element of sound and music is understandable in view of the cultural background to the development of the concepts of the representational unconscious and infantile sexuality. While the consequences have been far reaching, the knowledge accumulated since that exclusion enables us to resume, albeit on a different basis, the composition of the ,unfinished symphony' of the relationship between psychoanalysis and music. [source] The logic of turmoil: Some epistemological and clinical considerations on emotional experience and the infiniteTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2008Pietro Bria The idea of the infinite has its origins in the very beginnings of western philosophy and was developed significantly by modern philosophers such as Galileo and Leibniz. Freud discovered the Unconscious which does not respect the laws of classical logic, flouting its fundamental principle of non-contradiction. This opened the way to a new epistemology in which classical logic coexists with an aberrant logic of infinite affects. Matte Blanco reorganized this Freudian revolution in logic and introduced the concept of bi-logic, which is an intermingling of symmetric and Aristotelic logics. The authors explore some epistemological and clinical aspects of the functioning of the deep unconscious where the emergence of infinity threatens to overwhelm the containing function of thought, connecting this topic to some of Bion's propositions. They then suggest that bodily experiences can be considered a prime source of the logic of turmoil, and link a psychoanalytic consideration of the infinite to the mind,body relation. Emotional catastrophe is seen both as a defect,a breakdown of the unfolding function which translates unconscious material into conscious experience,and as the consequence of affective bodily pressures. These pressures function in turn as symmetrizing or infinitizing operators. Two clinical vignettes are presented to exemplify the hypotheses. [source] The foundational level of psychodynamic meaning: Implicit process in relation to conflict, defense and the dynamic unconsciousTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 4 2007Boston Change Process Study Group (BCPSG) Traditionally, intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense were assumed to determine what happened at the interactive level. The interactive level was seen merely as the instantiation of such deeper forces. The authors delineate the upsidedown theoretical conception of the relationship between the supposedly ,superficial' layer of immediate interaction and the supposedly ,profound' layer of intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense. Here they suggest that the interactive process itself is primary and generates the raw material from which they draw the generalized abstractions that they term conflicts, defenses and phantasy. Conflicts and defenses are shown to be born and reside in the domain of interaction. It follows that relational living out is the deep layer of experience, while the abstractions used to describe the repetitive aspects of these relational strategies, such as conflict and defense, are secondary descriptors of the deep level, but not the level itself, and exist further from the lived experience. These relational processes have largely been written about abstractly and even metaphorically, however, rather than in terms of specific exchanges at the local level of the interaction. Here the authors are redefining the intrapsychic as lived experience that is represented at the implicit level. They suggest that conflict and defense, as explicated in language, are useful abstractions, which are derived from the implicit level of lived interactions. However, they are secondary. The past is carried forward into the present at the level of lived experience. As such, the level of relational action is the foundation for the grasping of the psychodynamics to which the analyst will respond implicitly and interpretively. [source] Between memory and destiny: Repetition,THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 2 2007NORBERTO CARLOS MARUCCO This essay focuses mainly on the topic of repetition (agieren),on its metapsychological, clinical, and technical conceptions. It contains a core problem, that is, the question of the represented, the nonrepresented, and the unrepresentable in the psyche. This problem, in turn, brings to light the dialectical relation between drive and object and its specific articulation with the traumatic. The author attributes special significance to its clinical expression as ,destiny'. He points out a shift in the theory of the cure from recollection and the unveiling of unconscious desire, to the possibility of understanding ,pure' repetition, which would constitute the very essence of the drive. The author highlights three types of repetition, namely, ,representative' (oedipal) repetition, the repetition of the ,nonrepresented' (narcissistic), which may gain representation, and that of the ,unrepresentable' (sensory impressions, ,lived experiences from primal times,',prelinguistic signifiers,',ungovernable mnemic traces'). The concept-the metaphor-drive embryo brings the author close to the question of the archaic in psychoanalysis, where the repetition in the act would express itself. ,Another unconscious' would zealously conceal the entombed (verschüttet) that we are not yet able to describe-the ,innermost' rather than the ,buried' (untergegangen) or the ,annihilated' (zugrunde gegangen)-through a mechanism whose way of expression is repetition in the act. With ,Constructions in analysis' as its starting point, this paper suggests a different technical implementation from that of the Freudian construction; its main material is what emerges in the present of the transference as the repetition of ,something' lacking as history. The memory of the analytic process offers a historical diachrony whereby a temporality freed from repetition and utterly unique might unfold in the analysis. This diachrony would no longer be the historical reconstruction of material truth, but the construction of something new. The author briefly introduces some aspects of his conception of the psyche and of therapeutic work in terms of what he has designated as psychic zones. These zones are associated with various modes of becoming unconscious, and they coexist with different degrees of prevalence according to the psychopathology. Yet each of them will emerge with unique features in different moments of every analysis, determining both the analyst's positions and the very conditions of the analytic field. The zone of the death drive and of repetition is at the center of this essay. ,Pure' repetition expresses a time halted by the constant reiteration of an atemporal present. In this case, the ,royal road' for the expression of ,that' unconscious will be the act. The analyst's presence and his own drive wager will be pivotal to provide a last attempt at binding that will allow the creation of the lost ,psychic fabric' and the construction, in a conjectural way, of some sort of ,history' that may unravel the entombed (verschüttet) elements that, in these patients' case, come to the surface in the act. The analysand's ,pure' repetition touches, resonates with something of the new unconscious of the analyst. All of this leads the author to underline once again the value of the analyst's self-analysis and reanalysis in searching for connections and especially in differentiating between what belongs to the analyst and what belongs to the analysand. A certain degree of unbinding ensures the preservation of something ungraspable that protects one from the other's appropriation. [source] The analyst's countertransference to the psychoanalytic process,THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2006MICHAEL PARSONS There is countertransference, not just to individual patients, but to the process of psychoanalysis itself. The analytic process is a contentious topic. Disagreements about its nature can arise from taking it as a unitary concept that should have a single defi nition whereas, in fact, there are several strands to its meaning. The need for the analyst's free associative listening, as a counterpart to the patient's free associations, implies resistance to the analytic process in the analyst as well as the patient. The author gives examples of the self-analysis that this necessitates. The most important happenings in both the analyst's and the patient's internal worlds lie at the boundary between conscious and unconscious, and the nature of an analyst's interventions depends on how fully what happens at that boundary is articulated in the analyst's consciousness. The therapeutic quality of an analyst's engagement with a patient depends on the freeing and enlivening quality, for the analyst, of the analyst's engagement with his or her countertransference to the analytic process. [source] The seventh servant: The implications of a truth drive in Bions theory of ,O'THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, Issue 5 2004JAMES S. GROTSTEIN Drawing upon Bion's published works on the subjects of truth, dreaming, alpha-function and transformations in ,O', the author independently postulates that there exists a ,truth instinctual drive' that subserves a truth principle, the latter of which is associated with the reality principle. Further, he suggests, following Bion's postulation, that ,alpha-function' and dreaming/phantasying constitute unconscious thinking processes and that they mediate the activity of this ,truth drive' (quest, pulsion), which the author hypothesizes constitutes another aspect of a larger entity that also includes the epistemophilic component drive. It purportedly seeks and transmits as well as includes what Bion (1965, pp. 147-9) calls ,O', the ,Absolute Truth, Ultimate Reality, O' (also associated with infi nity, noumena or things-in-themselves, and ,godhead') (1970, p. 26). It is further hypothesized that the truth drive functions in collaboration with an ,unconscious consciousness' that is associated with the faculty of ,attention', which is also known as ,intuition'. It is responsive to internal psychical reality and constitutes Bion's ,seventh servant'. O, the ultimate landscape of psychoanalysis, has many dimensions, but the one that seems to interest Bion is that of the emotional experience of the analysand's and the analyst's ,evolving O' respectively (1970, p. 52) during the analytic session. The author thus hypothesizes that a sense of truth presents itself to the subject as a quest for truth which has the quality and force of an instinctual drive and constitutes the counterpart to the epistemophilic drive. This ,truth quest' or ,drive' is hypothesized to be the source of the generation of the emotional truth of one's ongoing experiences, both conscious and unconscious. It is proposed that emotions are beacons of truth in regard to the acceptance of reality. The concepts of an emotional truth drive and a truth principle would help us understand why analysands are able to accept analysts' interpretations that favor the operation of the reality principle over the pleasure principle,because of what is postulated as their overriding adaptive need for truth. Ultimately, it would seem that Bion's legacy of truth aims at integrating fi nite man with infi nite man. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||