Leading articles

Α few years ago, almost every major magazine in the German-speaking world published a lead story per year on the subjects of burnout or depression. The debate about burnout as a high-performance disease was particularly fruitful for the uncertainty of the middle classes during the financial and euro crisis. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Frank Schumann from Berlin, Germany.

He studied sociology, psychology and philosophy at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and graduated with a thesis on the concept of the subject in Freud´s writings. In 2017 he received...


DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? >> continue

The Book

With a book in mind as we were developing the symposium, the participants were invited to select any relevant topic, of their own choosing and personal interest, but that the material had to be new, original and unpublished. The resulting essays were to tell stories that integrated theory, practice and history. To the core Burlingham collection, we then added over a hundred archival photographs from Thomas Aichhorn in Vienna, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna, the Freud Museum London and other institutional and private collectors. The book was originally due to be published by Karnac Books. It remains in the History of Psychoanalysis Series, but was issued by Routledge in January 2019. >> continue

Like so many New York stories, the Freud/Tiffany Project came from a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. About 6 years ago, I met Michael Burlingham, the grandson of Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, just when he had started to inventory the objects and documents in the estate of his father. That would be Bob Burlingham, Dorothy’s eldest son. As a teenager, Bob had taken hundreds of photos and placed the celluloid strips of his photo and film negatives, horizontally, into an album. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Elizabeth Ann Danto from New York, U.S.A.:

She is emeritus professor at Hunter College – City University of New York, and an international lecturer on the history of psychoanalysis as a system of thought and a marker of urban culture...



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? >> continue

Thank you for giving the psychoanalytic community outside of Britain the opportunity to ask questions related to Brexit – a topic that many people across the globe, and especially fellow Europeans, follow with a great deal of interest.


Britain’s decision to leave the European Union came as a great surprise to many Europeans - Were the British surprised by the referendum’s result? >> continue

“If society is in danger, it is not because of man’s aggressiveness but because of the repression of personal aggressiveness in individuals” (Winnicott, 1991)

The word aggression is derived from the Latin word "aggredi" (deponent), which can be either translated as "charge, attack" or"advancing/charging forward (something)". The first translation indicates the hostility (destructiveness) associated with this term, while the other emphasizes its constructive potential. Both versions are legitimate interpretations of the term aggression. It is precisely this ambiguity that makes the discussion about aggression so delicate. Most people associate aggression solely with destruction and anti-social behavior. The perception of one´s own aggressive impulses causes feelings of fear or guilt that must be repressed, split off or compensated as of counteractions. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Petra Roscheck from Vienna, Austria:

Psychoanalyst / psychotherapist in training under supervision
Education/Training:
Studied psychotherapy science at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna...
 

DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? >> continue

Freud’s consulting room has become a familiar historic image with its carpet-draped couch, and as is well known, every surface was laden with ancient archaeological figurines. With affectionate irony, he called them “meine…alten und dreckigen Götter[1].” These figures represented to Freud a metaphor for psychoanalysis itself – digging for long-buried evidence of powerful but often unacknowledged truths. That they were gods presents an even deeper mystery, never plumbed directly by Freud himself, but suggesting the simultaneous fascination and aversion characteristic of a neurotic symptom. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Pamela Cooper-White from New York, U.S.A.:

The Rev. Pamela Cooper-White, Ph.D., is the Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychology and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, New York since 2015, after many years as professor at Columbia Theological Seminary and Co-Director of the Atlanta Theological Association’s Th.D. program in Pastoral Counseling. She was the 2013-14 Fulbright-Freud Scholar of Psychoanalysis in Vienna, Austria. ...


DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? >> continue

A transcultural, psychoanalytic essay for migrants.

The root of my interest in transcultural psychoanalysis is probably anchored in my own biography, and this interest grew while working with patients at the Sigmund Freud University’s outpatient clinic, and later in my own private practice. During my time at the outpatient clinic, I observed the phenomenon that many patients longed for psychotherapy in their native language, despite being proficient in German. This phenomenon took on a new dimension when individual patients preferred psychotherapy in German, although they were not proficient. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Jorge Luis Rios from Vienna, Austria:

• Born in 1984 in Lima, Peru
• 2013 Psychotherapy Science studies at the Sigmund Freud Private University
• June 2014 - March 2015 propaedeutic internship at the Sigmund Freud University Outpatient Clinic..


DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? >> continue

In Part II, Dany Nobus discusses the Bloomsbury Group, the psychoanalytic tradition (or lack thereof) in the United Kingdom, Shakespeare and the status quo of mental health services.

When did psychoanalysis arrive in Britain? >> continue

In his interview with THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST, Professor Dany Nobus reconstructs the clinical history of Princess Alice of Battenberg and provides insight into the history of psychoanalysis.

What sparked your interest in Princess Alice of Battenberg? >> continue

William Shakespeare and Sigmund Freud.

“Everywhere I go, a poet has been here before me” (Sigmund Freud)

No analysis will ever do justice to the scope and literary brilliance with which William Shakespeare illustrated the depths of the human condition. His iambic pentameter, or blank verse, is said to mimic the rhythm of the human heartbeat. The key to understanding his plays is empathy as the famous playwright had a profound and unsurpassed understanding of the human psyche - a gift that inspired both great admiration and ambivalence in Sigmund Freud. >> continue

Sociological concepts and their representation in "Tokyo blues (Norwegian Wood)" by Haruki Murakami.

Relationships take different forms depending on the type of society or culture. In this article, we will examine sociological concepts to understand the characteristics of modern societies and explore their influence on relationships and the phenomena that are wrapped in, such as emotional ties, sexuality, intimacy and others.

Algunos conceptos sociológicos y su observación en “Tokyo blues (Norwegian wood)”, de Haruki Murakami.

El aparejamiento es sin duda uno de los fenómenos más significativos del funcionamiento psicológico. A pesar de darse ya en el psiquismo más temprano y ser sentido como muy íntimo e individual, recibe una fuerte influencia contextual, tomando formas distintas según el tipo de sociedad o cultura en la que se produce. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Pere Llovet Planas from Barcelona, Spain:

Clinical Psychologist at the Universities of Barcelona and Geneva, Psychoanalytical Psychotherapist, Diploma in Advanced studies in Political Science and Sociology at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University.
Professional Development as Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalytical Psychotherapist in Public Services in Geneva and Barcelona, Clinical supervisor at various public services and private groups, Teaching at several academic or professional institutions in Barcelona and other Spanish cities. >> continue

In the second epiosde of Finding Freud, we will visit the place, where Freud dreamt and interpreted his famous dream "Irma´s injection".

We will explore a historical site that bears great significance for psychoanalysis - Let us surprise you with our story!


>> continue

«Do your smuggling job,
the one you have always done,
and that was more than you believed
as the job of listening and answering .. ". (Baudouin, 1964)

1. Introduction

To conceive the complementarity of the Freudian agencies (Es, Ego and Super-ego) with the Jungian agencies (Persona, Shadow and Self) ...

«Fais ton métier de passeur, celui que tu as
toujours fait, et qui était aussi, plus que tu ne
croyais, métier d’écouter et de répondre… ». (Baudouin, 1964)

1. Introduction

Pour concevoir la complémentarité des instances freudiennes (Ça-Moi-Surmoi) avec les instances jungiennes (Persona-Ombre-Soi) ... >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Jean-Christophe Bétrisey from Geneva, Switzerland.


Dans notre série d´interviews "im Gespräch mit", nous présentons brièvement les auteurs des éditoriaux. Nous voulons donner à nos utilisateurs la possibilité de lire les éditoriaux d´un point de vue différent.

Cette semaine, nous sommes particulièrement heureux d´accueillir Jean-Christophe Bétrisey de Genève, Suisse. >> continue

The concept of "happiness" has a very important role in our society: many people affirm today that the purpose of life is "to be happy", but what do we mean with "happy?"

People often confuse happiness with fun, or they consider it to be merely the opposite of suffering; nevertheless, happiness and suffering are part of the cycle of life, alternating with each other: cohabit phases of evolution and involution, regression and development ... >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Floriana Irtelli from Milan, Italy.


Nella nostra serie di interviste "in conversazione con" presenteremo brevemente gli autori degli editoriale e vogliamo offrire ai nostri utenti l´opportunità di leggere l´editoriale da un altro punto di vista.

Questa settimana siamo molto lieti di dare il benvenuto a Floriana Irtelli da Milano, Italia. >> continue

When the name Sigmund Freud falls, most people immediately think of psychoanalysis. However, Freud was already a popular researcher before developing psychoanalysis. Some of the key steps that have led him to develop psychoanalysis had already been made while working on his previous research areas, such as neurophysiology and psychopharmacology. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Anna Lindemann from Vienna, Austria:

Anna Lindemann studied literature, philosophy and history at the University of Bielefeld and did her doctorate at the University of Vienna. Her first book Sigmund Freud, das ‚Cocain‘ und die Morphinisten: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen und klinischen Praxis im Umgang mit Suchtmitteln (1850-1890) was published in July 2018. She currently works as a freelance historian in the field of the history of science and teaches at the SFU (Sigmund Freud Private University) Vienna. >> continue

Top executives need to realize that execution of strategy is not an abstract exercise. It involves people. And to have people work together towards a common goal is not a given. People need to be co-opted to make strategy implementation successful. As many senior executives have learned the hard way, to get everyone on the same page, to create alignment, can be an uphill challenge full of resistances... >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries from Paris, France:

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries is a Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at the INSEAD Business School for the World. He brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Bringing to bear his knowledge and experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, M.B.A., and D.B.A., Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association), he scrutinizes the interface between international management, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and dynamic psychiatry. His specific areas of interest are leadership development, top executive team building, organizational change and cross-cultural management. >> continue

Femininity - motherhood - imparting

The motherliness and femininity as relations between mother / maternal caregivers, daughters, sisters and wives are carefully depicted in the film. The still very young-looking mother of Yasemin, who has two other girls and a boy - the youngest child who evokes associations with the long-awaited son - is very asexual and fraught with the woman´s weak role as the stereotypical traditional Turkish woman. "You´re a woman, haven’t you understood yet?" (13 mins., 6 sec.), she asks Yasemin referring to the paternal prohibitions, defining Yasemin as her ilk, limiting her liveliness. At the same time she limits her even more by caressing Yasemin like a little baby ("Amanda Anasının Kuzusu!", "Oh, you mother´s lamb!" (13 min 15 sec.). >> continue

Growing up in two worlds as a female adolescent

On the relevance of the historical in psychoanalytic psychotherapies

I believe it was a Saturday night in 1988 when my parents took us children to visit a friendly "guest-worker family" in the neighborhood. I can remember a lively society, a room steeped in the bright light of the ceiling lamp – a space, in which the adults and children gathered in a world of their own. Our parents sat on the "couches" that were common in so-called "guest workers´ homes" and chatted while the children were absorbed in their games on the floor. We were enveloped in Turkish ... >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Hale Usak from Innsbruck, Austria:

Clinical and health psychologist, education scientist-in-training, psychoanalyst-in-training under supervision at the Innsbrucker Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse. Her first published monograph "Unter unserem Seelenteppich" highlights previously hidden stories of life and suffering of Turkish pioneers from first-generation guest workers. Her dissertation was published in the Psychosozial-Verlag under the title "Psychoanalyse in der Türkei. Eine historische und aktuelle Spurensuche". Both were rewarded with academic awards. >> continue

Growing up black in post-colonial Caribbean societies presents unique challenges. The specter of racism involves ethnicity, color and class as the history of the region resulted in a diverse tapestry of cultures rigidly stratified along racial lines.

The institution of slavery in the Caribbean (1662-1838) reshaped the psychological construct of millions of people up to this day. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Glenville Ashby from New York, U.S.A:

Glenville Ashby was born in Trinidad. He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, The London School of Journalism, The College of Media and Publishing, Euclid University, and the International School of Applied Psychoanalysis.
He also studied at The Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, The Pontificia Accademia Pro Vita, Vatican City, Rome, and St. Gall´s Seminary in Switzerland.
He is a member of Oxford University Philosophy Society, the South Asian Journalist Association, the Canadian Bioethics Society, the American Society for Psychical Research and the International Society of Applied Psychoanalysis.
He received his doctoral degree in Interreligious Dialogue and Diplomacy. >> continue

We are happy to announce the launch of our new column "On the Couch" with the psychoanalyst Michaela Heger-Holeschofsky, where our readers can ask questions and receive professional advice. You are welcome to submit theoretical questions as well as personal concerns. Mag. Michaela Heger-Holeschofsky will answer your questions – including those submitted by children and adolescents – to the best of her knowledge. The column’s goal is to make psychoanalysis accessible to a wider, psychoanalytically interested audience. We look forward to your submissions!

Born in Vienna in 1979, Mag. Michaela Heger-Holeschofsky completed her studies at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna, as well as at the Psychoanalytic Seminar in Innsbruck. She currently runs her own private practice in Vienna. >> continue

This article aims to examine the special circumstances that mourning work has to take into account when dealing with relatives of the Desaparecidos - people who went missing during the last civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina.

I will examine how the absence of a beloved person’s body requires a different approach concerning the psychic apparatus and the mourning process. How does one mourn a missing person? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Valeria Portaluppi from Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Valeria Portaluppi is a psychoanalyst from Argentina who graduated with honours at Universidad de Buenos Aires in 2010. She performed a Mental Health Interdisciplinary Residency at Hospital “Colonia Nacional Dr. Manuel Montes de Oca” from 2012 to 2015. In the same institution, she was Residency Chief from 2015 to 2016. After getting her Mental Health specialization degree, she performed a Gerontology Post Basic Interdisciplinary Residency at the hospital “Dr. Velez Sarsfield” from 2016 to June 2018. >> continue

On famous psychoanalysts and their study of parapsychology.

“You will learn nothing from this paper of mine about the enigma of telepathy; indeed you will not even gather whether I believe in the existence of “telepathy” or not.” (Dreams and Telepathy, Sigmund Freud, 1922)

As connoisseur of ancient Greek language and literature, Sigmund Freud must have had a nodding acquaintance with “Philopseudes” by the satirist Lucian of Samosata (the inspiration for “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), in which the sharp-tongued author wittily ridicules those who believe in the supernatural.
>> continue

Ovid’s myth according to the Freudian definition

"Narcissus and Echo, metamorphosed into voices"

Tiresias, a soothsayer who became very popular in Aonia, made a prediction about Narcissus, born of the nymph Liriopé and Cephise, which for a long time remained mysterious:


Le mythe d’Ovide à la définition freudienne

«Narcisse et Écho, métamorphosée en voix»

Tirésias, devin devenu très prisé en Aonie, fit à propos de Narcisse, né de la nymphe Liriopé et du Céphise, une prédiction restée longtemps mystérieuse: >> continue

We suffer in this world: our society is pathogenic. This society is one that is part of what is now called hypermodernity. Hypermodernity, as its name suggests, is a "modernity" of excess, excessiveness, and the limitlessness that has written in its DNA the Greek hubris (overconfidence) as a trademark.


Le narcissisme social (part I)

Nous souffrons de ce monde: notre société est pathogène. Cette société est celle qui s’inscrit dans ce qu’on appelle désormais l’hypermodernité. L’hypermodernité, comme son nom l’indique est une «modernité» de l’excès, de la démesure, du sans-limite qui a inscrit dans son ADN l’hùbris (démeusure) grecque comme marque de fabrique. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Elsa Godart from Toulon, France.


Dans notre série d´interviews "in conversation with“, nous présentons brièvement les auteurs des éditoriaux. Nous voulons donner à nos utilisateurs la possibilité de lire les éditoriaux d´un point de vue différent.

Cette semaine, nous sommes particulièrement heureux d´accueillir Elsa Godart de Toulon, France. >> continue

Esther Menaker’s attitude toward and relationship with Anna Freud was quite the opposite of friendship, or even respect. Menaker was psychotherapeutically analyzed by Anna Freud because Menaker, like Anna Freud, had a strong interest in child analysis. In psychoanalysis, at the time, there was little interest in children at first because of a strong focus on questions of sexuality that were not considered relevant for children. As Menaker points out, “[t]he common attitude toward children was that whatever problems they might have, they would outgrow them in due time”. >> continue

The Vienna School of Psychoanalysis with its creator and main proponent Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) triggered significant interest in the U.S. and became particularly prominent when Freud visited the U.S. in 1909. Psychoanalytically interested Americans started to flock to Vienna after World War I until the Nazis took charge of the metropolis in 1938. By then, Sigmund Freud had already left the city and the country along with his daughter Anna (1895-1982) and many of their (often Jewish) friends and patients. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Carmen Birkle from Marburg, Germany.

After teaching at the Universities of Mainz, Vienna, Bergen, Dijon and the Columbia University in New York City, Carmen Birkle has been a Professor of North American Literature and Cultural Studies at the Philipps-University Marburg since 2008. She was President, Vice President and Managing Director of the German Society for American Studies and is currently its International Delegate. >> continue

On June 4, a sculpture of Sigmund Freud created by Oscar Nemon was unveiled on the campus of the Medical University of Vienna. Prior to the unveiling, we talked to Sigmund Freud’s great-grandson Lord David Freud and Lady Aurelia Young, the sculptor’s daughter.


Interview with Lord David Freud:

What is your relationship with Vienna?

Lord David Freud: It´s a very complicated relationship because my father (Anton Walter Freud) and the rest of the family was thrown out of Vienna, and it was the fundamental cause of an underlying insecurity for him. It was very character-forming in a not very positive way. My father was very insecure wherever he lived. He never felt quite at home, that he belonged in the UK. >> continue

Two famous psychiatrists, who loved art and whose homes were made into museums.

Angelos Katakouzenos (1904-1982) was a pioneer and representative of the psychiatric science, as well as one of the greatest Greek intellectuals of the 20th century, who admired and respected the work of Sigmund Freud, ...


ΔΥΟ ΔΙΑΣΗΜΟΙ ΨΥΧΙΑΤΡΟΙ ΠΟΥ ΑΓΑΠΟΥΣΑΝ ΤΗΝ ΤΕΧΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΣΠΙΤΙΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΕΓΙΝΑΝ ΜΟΥΣΕΙΑ

Άγγελος Κατακουζηνός (1904-1982): από τους πρωτοπόρους εκπροσώπους της ψυχιατρικής επιστήμης, αλλά και τους επιφανέστερους πνευματικούς ανθρώπους της ελληνικής διανόησης του 20ου αιώνα, που θαύμαζε και σεβόταν το έργο του πατέρα της ψυχανάλυσης Sigmund Freud, ... >> continue

Trauma as Identification Process

Bohleber (1998) describes the transgenerational transmission of trauma as identification process and introduces 5 ”general characteristics” that are unique to this type of identification. First, the identification refers to a past event. Secondly, these processes refer to an absolute and crude identification with the parent. The traumatized parents require a „regulation of their precarious narcissistic balance and mentally take possession of the child out of necessity” by projecting the split, “written off” parts unconsciously onto the child.  >> continue

"Trauma is contagious“, states Judith Herman pointing towards the relationship between mental illness and how it is structurally passed on within different types of relationships. Freud already addressed the transgenerationally transmitted emotional processes in his book “Totem and Taboo”. He argues that

“[…] we may safely assume that no generation is able to conceal any of its more important mental processes from its successor. For psycho-analysis has shown us that everyone possesses in his unconscious mental activity an apparatus which enables him to interpret other people’s reactions, that is, to undo the distortions which other..." >> continue

"Normopathy" refers to a social aberration whose collective pathology is no longer perceived or accepted because a majority of the population consistently thinks and acts in relation to the socially dominant values. It is dominated by the primitive defense mechanism: "What everyone does, cannot be wrong!"  >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Hans-Joachim Maaz from Halle, Germany. >> continue

We put psychoanalysis in Belgium under the magnifying glass.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to Johan De Groef and the psychoanalytic community in Belgium.

The development of psychoanalysis in Belgium is closely tied to the country’s complex history and diversity. Sigmund Freud himself once visited Brussels on his way to Paris, and describes the cosmopolitan city as follows:

"Brussels was beautiful, a huge city, splendid buildings, the street inscriptions French and Flemish [...] I came to a steep hill, where a building stood, of a mass development and column splendor, [...] I really thought it was the royal palace, [...] It was the Palace of Justice. [...] Moving on, I soon came to the Rue Royale and now a find followed the others, the monument of Egmont and Horn was the most beautiful." >> continue

From the dissolution of the oedipal complex to the development of several attachment styles.

"With the failure of the Oedipal complex the investment on the maternal object must be abandoned" (S. Freud, The Ego and Es)

There is an anecdote in the life of Sigmund Freud that tells the origin of the Oedipus complex; it is said, in fact, that when he was little, his father Jacob told him that at the age of ten, a stranger turned to him exclaiming “Down from the sidewalk, Jew!”. Then, Sigmund asked his father Jacob how he reacted he replied, “...


Lo sviluppo della libido
Dalla dissoluzione del complesso edipico allo sviluppo di diversi stili di attaccamento.

"Con lo sfacelo del complesso edipico deve essere abbandonato l’investimento oggettuale materno" (S. Freud, L’Io e l’Es)

Esiste un aneddoto nella vita del Maestro che racconta l’origine del complesso edipico; si narra, infatti, che quando era piccolo il padre Jacob gli raccontò che all’età di dieci anni un uomo si rivolse a lui esclamando “Giù dal marciapiede ebreo!”, allora Sigmund chiese al padre come avesse reagito e Jacob rispose “... >> continue

Sigmund Freud lived in Vienna from 1860 to 1938 where he gained insights that would change the world. The zoologist and neurophysiologist Freud spent more than a decade researching the anatomy of the nervous system- first of lower, then higher animals, and finally the human brain. His research was groundbreaking. He found that the “higher” species develop from the lower forms they presuppose and regress to them again. Proof of this continuity confirmed Darwin´s theory that man is descended from animals (evolution) and was not created as a finished man (creativity theory). >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Helmut Luft from Hofheim, Germany:

Born 1924, Dr. med., expert in neurology, psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. From 1965 to 1998 head of the specialist clinic Hofheim. Teacherand control analyst at the DPV (Deutsche Psychoanalytische Vereinigung- German Psychoanalytic Association). Lecturer at the SFI. Lecturer at the University of Frankfurt. Co-founder of the Mainz Psychoanalytic Institute. For more than 20 years research focus on Psychoanalysis of older patients. Numerous professional and book publications. >> continue

The golden age of Neuroscience has arrived while Psychoanalysis is still struggling with its bad reputation - Is Neuropsychoanalysis a threat or an ally in the fight for credibility? We interviewed Prof. Dr. Ariane Bazan, a leading researcher in Neuropsychoanalysis and professor of clinical psychology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.  >> continue

In 1958, the English pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott wrote an insightful essay named „The capacity to be alone“, in which he puts this precise capacity as the most important sign of emotional development and thereby maturity.

As an adolescent, I thought I would become a man for a while, an adult, once I lost my virginity. Then, I thought the key factor of being an adult would lie in the ability to support myself financially without depending on my parents. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Kamiar-K. Rueckert from Riga, Latvia. >> continue

The ritual as a container or framework to act out the forbidden

The film excerpt documenting the destruction of the Lenin Monument on Maidan 2013/2014 (Techynskyi / Solodunov / Stoykov 2014, 16:37–25:00) focuses on a group of people who gather around the already fallen Lenin statue and start smashing it with a hammer.

The scene is imbued repeatedly with ambivalences.

The first feelings that emerge when watching the film sequence are disgust and revulsion: towards the "nationalist" mob, the nationalist slogans, the violence as a form of protest, the "lynch mob". In the course of the film excerpt, tension builds up, which is perceived partly as physical tremors. >> continue

On the destruction of monuments in times of upheaval, using the example of the Revolution of Dignity 2013/2014 in the Ukraine


Introduction

An old Russian proverb says, "Destroying is not building." To gain life experience, both destroying and being creative, building - are immanent. The problem of the human psyche often and again announces itself as the following problem of punctuation: "Destroy, not build?" Or "Do not destroy, build?".  >> continue

 In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Julia Skip-Schrötter from Vienna, Austria. (English/Ukrainian) >> continue

"I am faithful to memories forever; to people I shall never be faithful"

The countless (1539!) as well as entertaining letters Freud sent to Martha Bernay still enjoy great popularity after their publication in 2011. They shed some light on a different side of Freud that didn’t quite correspond to the popular image. Here, the usually so serious psychoanalyst flirts, compliments and woos his beloved. >> continue

“If you dream of a thief, you will be receiving a guest.”
Popular Egyptian saying


If the dream is a picture puzzle or rebus, as Freud reminds us, what then is the status of collective dreams or popular sayings? The popular Egyptian saying, “if you dream of a thief, you will be receiving a guest,” argued Najib Badawi in 1950, could in fact be aligned with psychoanalysis. Dissecting the saying according to both its symbolism and its predictive power, Badawi argued for an adaptation of Freud’s methodology in the Interpretation of Dreams to the collective unconscious of the popular as expressed in myths or sayings. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Omnia El Shakry from California, U.S.A.:

Undergraduate studies in psychology at the American University in Cairo, followed by a Master of Arts in Near Eastern Studies at New York University and then an MA and PhD in History at Princeton University. My doctoral thesis was revised and published as The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt (2007). Since 2002, a professor at the University of California, Davis, teaching world history and modern Middle East history. Latest books: Gender and Sexuality in Islam (ed. 2016) and The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt (2017). >> continue

"One of the forms in which love manifests itself is sexual love, which, if it is taken separately, gives us a bad sense of real satisfaction" - Sigmund Freud.

"Love" as a concept is a natural phenomenon that has the strength to change the mental state in different ways, which many people usually, considering the power of its impact, try to limit or control. However, in a wider context, Freud saw ´love´ as a unifying force essential to the evolution of civilization. Although in this broader context, he identifies radical discrepancies between the natural role and the importance of love to form civilizations. >> continue

This week we are happy to introduce Arjet Pervizi in our interview series "In Conversation With“! >> continue

Abstract: I offer my reflections on the current state and future of psychiatry from the latest International Conference of Psychiatry and Philosophy celebrated in Madrid (November, 2017). Those who take seriously the philosophical nature of psychiatry are more sensitive to the lingering sense of impasse. Indeed, some openly expressed their frustration. >> continue

This week we are happy to introduce Jose Maanmieli in our interview series "In Conversation With“! >> continue

In his book, „Totem and Taboo” (1913), Freud deemed any attempt to etymologically explain the term as difficult. The word taboo is Polynesian in origin but lacks the idea which it connotes. The search for the term’s origins in ancient languages such as Roman (“sacer” -sacred, cursed), Greek άγος [hagos] – horrifying, ἅγιος [hagios] – sacred) and Hebrew resulted in ambiguous meanings. The word can mean either „sacred and consecrated“ or „prohibited and dangerous“, which Freud compared to the occidental term „sacred shyness”. >> continue

Recognizing the importance of psychoanalytic theory for those who try to study the humanities, I took it upon myself to write a theoretical book that contains widespread notions: the ego, the neurosis, the psychosis, perversion, inversion. All this is summarized in the title: The ego and psychopathology. >> continue

This week we are happy to introduce Darius Wesner Estevenson in our interview series "In Conversation With“!
(English/Français)
>> continue

The status quo of the interplay between psychoanalysis and politics - Dr. David Bell and Dr. Martin Engelberg are familiar with both worlds.

Psychoanalysis in the Public Sphere

The election of Donald Trump has motivated not a few hobby psychoanalysts and journalists to analyze his behavior. Thus far he has been described as narcissistic, megalomaniac, and even fascist. To put political leaders on the public couch is not a new phenomenon. Body language and rhetoric in the context of politics have always been subjected to scrutiny, but are they really part of psychoanalysis? The field has had difficulties finding its place in the modern political debate and being taken seriously. >> continue

Let us take a step back though. I wonder why Souleymane presented us with this story of transformation and rebirth that night. What symbolic value does the story have for Souleymane himself? I do not remember how this conversation started. I may have told him about psychoanalysis and the ethnopsychoanalyst Paul Parin, who works in Dogon Country. >> continue

Prologue
This essay was written in 2011 after spending several weeks in Mali/West Africa. Along with my family, I visited a befriended couple working in Bandiagara. Bandiagara is a small town in southeastern Mali located on the edge of a sandstone cliff area, the Falaise, which was added to the UNESCO list in 1989 with its approximately 300 villages as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The walls of the escarpment around Bandiagara were populated during the 14th century by the Dogon people - ... >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Anita Dietrich-Neunkirchner from Vienna, Austria:

Born 1963 in Vienna, Master of Psychology at the University of Vienna, Diploma thesis on Gesundheitsselbsthilfeinitiativen in Wien – eine qualitative Studie, psychoanalysis training at the Wiener Psychoanalytisches Seminar (WPS), Doctoral studies in Psychotherapy Science at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, dissertation „Vielleicht kann man mit anderen schwesterlicher sein als mit der eigenen Schwester". Women couples as entrepreneurs - a psychoanalytic study of the symbolic sisterhood in a professional context.
Several years as a psychologist and psychotherapist at the psychiatric hospital Baumgartner Höhe, founding member and several years of employment at the Verein Selbstlaut (Association for the Prevention of Sexual Abuse): counseling, supervision, research.
Since 1993 working as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice.
From 2003 to 2011 psychoanalytic teaching at the interuniversity colleague Graz/Seggauberg. >> continue

Understanding without words

Connections. “We cannot not communicate,” said Watzlawick. We communicate with our eyes, gestures, hands and breathing. Through the body we give words a physical form facilitating the transition from the unconscious to the conscious.

SENZANOME: SEI DOTTOR JEKYLL E/O MR. HYDE?
Processi di dispercezione della comunicazione nei social

“Ci capiamo senza parlare”

Connessioni. Non si può non comunicare diceva Watzlawick. Comunichiamo con gli occhi, con i gesti, con le mani, con i respiri. Attraverso il corpo diamo parole a configurazioni psichiche agevolando il passaggio dall’inconscio al conscio. >> continue

Sigmund Freud was a fan of the ancient Greek culture and had an excellent knowledge of the ancient Greek language. He was so familiar with it, that he wrote his diary in ancient Greek as a youngster.

Ο FREUD ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ

Ο Sigmund Freud ήταν λάτρης του αρχαίου ελληνικού πολιτισμού και άριστος γνώστης της αρχαίας ελληνικής γλώσσας. Τόση ήταν η εξοικείωσή του μαζί της, που έγραφε με άνεση στα ελληνικά το ημερολόγιό του, όταν ήταν νέος. >> continue

The famous author Edgar Allan Poe continues to be courted by psychoanalysts across the field´s spectrum. The princess, Marie Bonaparte, herself has written an enthusiastic 700-page psychobiography of the writer with “pathological tendencies” (Freud), Edgar Poe, étude psychanalytique (1933). >> continue

Tatoi: one of the most beautiful forests of Attica at the foot of mount Parnitha, with 47,427 acres, located at a distance of ca. 20 kilometers north of the center of Athens.

MARIE BONAPARTE: Η ΠΡΙΓΚΙΠΙΣΣΑ ΤΗΣ ΨΥΧΑΝΑΛΥΣΗΣ

Κτήμα Τατοΐου: ένα από τα ωραιότερα δάση της Αττικής στους πρόποδες του όρους Πάρνηθα, έκτασης 47.427 στρεμμάτων, που βρίσκεται σε απόσταση 20 περίπου χιλιομέτρων, βόρεια από το κέντρο της Αθήνας. >> continue

Etymologically speaking, the term "family" has its roots in Latin and refers in a figuratively sense to a housing community defined by marriage or ancestry. Frequently in today´s households, only two generations live together. >> continue

The result of an in-depth discussion with the cultural theory of Freud is presented, as it is shown by a deconstructive hermeneutic analysis of the relevant texts. The text of the cultural theoretical writings was deconstructed in the sense that the latent model of human relations was analyzed with reference to Freud (Sandner 2017,31-40). >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Dieter Sandner from Munich, Germany. >> continue

"We don´t change—we take the gravel in the shell and make a pearl. We help other people to change to see more kinds of beauty." (Statement by singer Pink to her daughter at the MTV Video Music Awards, 08/27/2017)

The most anxious patients with regard to their appearance and weight were at the same time the thinnest I have ever met - during my work as a psychotherapist in a department for eating disorders. I had previously given little thought to body satisfaction and psychotherapy.

Eating disorders are terrible. They are among the deadliest mental illnesses. I do not know how many of my patients died. We only treated them in a sufficiently physically stable condition.

In my article, I want to look at the social pressure surrounding the appearance. This pressure has an effect on our children and us. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with" we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the ability to also read the leading article from a different point of view.
This week we have the great honor that one of our Feuilleton authors decided to write a leading article for us.
Therefore, her Introduction is now slightly modified compared to others.
You, dear Reader, can read Lea Dohm interview here!


We are very glad to welcome back Lea Dohm from Stadthagen, Germany:

Lea Dohm, née Peplau, married with 2 children.
Oct. 2000 - Feb. 2006: Study of Psychology at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Sep. 2005 - Sep. 2011: advanced training to depth psychology oriented psychological Psychotherapist in the training center of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Center for Lifelong Learning (C3L).
Aug. 2011 - Jan. 2014: Specialist Journalism by correspondence course Aug. 2011 - Jan. 2014 at the Free School of Journalism Berlin.
Since Feb. 2016: advanced training for psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapist in Göttingen, Tiefenbrunn.
Since March 2012: Settled in Stadthagen with an own psychotherapeutic practice with admission to the care provided under health insurance schemes.
May 2011 - Dez.2014: contributor for Public Relations at the Psychotherapeutic Association of the State of Lower Saxony. Worked previously for several years in three different psychiatric hospitals.
Member of bvvp, IPPNW, the Humanistische Union and Pro Asyl. >> continue

"Freud is upsetting: reducing one to whirlpool; & I daresay truly. If we´re all instinct, the unconscious, whats all this about civilisation, the whole man, freedom &c?” Virginia Woolf was in two minds about psychoanalysis which she perceived not only as threat and competition, but also as reference point. Perhaps Freud´s rational observations of the mind were too close to comfort for the troubled storyteller.

When Freud met Virginia Woolf she was still resisting the raison d´être of psychoanalysis and described the doctor as “a screwed up shrunk very old man” who seemed “inarticulate: but alert”, “an old fire now flickering” with “immense potential”. This ambivalence would remain at the center of Virginia Woolf´s stance on psychoanalysis. The field was too rational, too objectified for the author´s romanticized approach to her work and self-image. To Freud, creativity was not an abstract concept but strongly linked to an artist´s biography. He took the mystery, the unexplained out of the equation and instead tried to interpret the underlying motives of the creative processes. It knocked the artist´s persona off its pedestal and, consequently, the impact wounded the egos of not a few writers. After all, the truth is rarely as exciting as the eccentric stories artists tend to weave around their lives. Virginia Woolf, however, was not only the victim of her own ego: "Virginia´s need to write was, among other things, to make sense out of mental chaos and gain control of madness. Through her novels she made her inner world less frightening. Writing was often agony but it provided the ´strongest pleasure´ she knew" (Psychiatrist Peter Dally, 1999) >> continue

For years, we live with a person in a city and never meet him on the street, while the other one comes to your city only once, and you suddenly come across him at a random place. I suddenly too saw in a train compartment a person whom I had only once seen in my life. This woman gave me her diaries before her departure from Vienna, with the offer to turn them into a book. However, she never mentioned her real name. Now, she was sitting opposite me in the compartment of a train that led us from Moscow to the east. After a few moments of awkwardness, the conversation began as easily as it usual does in trains and only among Russians. She looked good, groomed and happy.

"Oh, I do not have anything to hide from you," she said, "you have worked on my manuscript on the history of my psychoanalysis ..."

"Pity, I did not know we would meet; otherwise, I would have brought a copy of the book for you. It was already published."

"Do not worry, I´ve already seen it. Thank you for not changing my titel."



КТО ХРАНИТ АНГЕЛА-ХРАНИТЕЛЯ?

Что за сюрпризы преподносит порой жизнь! Десятилетиями живешь с человеком в одном городе и ни разу не встретишь его на улице, а другой лишь однажды приедет в твой город, и вот вы уже столкнулись нос к носу в подземном переходе. Так и я, оказалась вдруг в одном купе с человеком, которого видела всего раз в жизни. Эта женщина, уезжая из Вены, вручила мне свои дневники, предложив сделать из них книгу, и при даже не назвав своего настоящего имени. И вот она сидит напротив, в купе поезда, уносящего нас из Москвы далеко на восток. Выглядит она прекрасно – ухоженная, счастливая. После краткой первой неловкости разговор завязался легко и просто, как это бывает только в поездах и только среди русских.

– Ах, мне нечего от вас скрывать, – говорила женщина, – ведь вы работали над моей рукописью, над историй моего психоанализа….

– Жаль, я не знала, что мы с вами встретимся, а то прихватила бы для вас экземпляр. Книга как раз вышла из печати.

– Не беспокойтесь, я ее уже прочла. Спасибо, что вы не изменили ее заглавие. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Sophia Benedict from Vienna, Austria:

Born 1945 in the USSR
Occupation: Journalist for Science, writer, translator, specialist author
Citizenship: Austria (married in 1984 to an Austrian)
Education: University of Kazan, Russia: studies in journalism, German, literature and history; Diploma for journalism
Further Education: Education and Training in Vienna for German, Psychoanalysis, Pedagogy in Adult Education, Communication, Elocution
Languages: a) Russian (mother tongue); B) German (very good) c) Ukrainian (good) d) English (basic knowledge)
Cultural and educational trips: England, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Malta, South Africa, Tunisia, Israel
Work: 08.07.1966 - 15.09.1984 Journalism (newspapers, magazines, radio TV) in the USSR (Kazan, Tbilisi, Moscow)
02.01.1985 - now freelance journalist, translator, interpreter in Vienna
Membership in:
Press Club "Concordia", Austrian PEN-Club, Austrian Writers´ Association (ÖSV), Austrian Association of Translators of Literary and Scientific Works, Wiener Sigmund Freud Society
Interests: Photography (part-time), Painting, Sculpture
Over 20 published books.

DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Sophia Benedict: I come from the USSR, where psychoanalysis has been undesirable since 1925 until the mid-1980s. Everyone knows how sweet the forbidden fruit is. The few works that I have managed to read have aroused my interest and it has grown since then. Later, when I was already living in Vienna, I read almost all of Freud’s works; I attended the lectures on psychoanalysis and even took part in lectures from the university as a free listener. Then I began to translate articles and books on psychoanalysis. I have also written some science journalistic books that have been successfully published in Russia. >> continue

Indonesia is a country with various tribes and traditions. This is what makes this country rich in mythology and symbols of ancient civilizations that we will encounter many of the historic relics such as temples, reliefs, stupas, etc. One of the most famous mythology comes from Sunda, West Java, namely Sangkuriang. It is about a young man who killed his father and fell in love with his own mother. Surely, this Sangkuriang story will remind us of the Greek mythology that is the Story of Oedipus. And indeed it is, the story of Sangkuriang has a similar plot to the story of Oedipus, but also has certain differences. Particularly is the presence of symbolic elements in it. Before we discuss this further, let me invite the readers to a short overwie of the Sunda Mythology entitled Sangkuriang.

In ancient times in West Java, there lived a beautiful princess named Dayang Sumbi. The beauty of Dayang Sumbi makes the princes fight for her, so there is war in many places. It finally made Dayang Sumbi escape into the middle of the forest accompanied by a clever male hunt named Tumang. In the middle of the forest, Dayang Sumbi lives together with Tumang in an old hut. One day while weaving cloth, Dayang Sumbi dropped her loom. Because she feels lazy, she throws words out without thinking about them, "anyone who brings me back my loom, if he is a male I will make him my husband, if it is a women I will make her my sister". And unexpectedly, Tumang takes her loom. Dayang Sumbi had to fulfill her promise, so she married the hunt Tumang. From her marriage with Tumang, Dayang Sumbi gave birth to a son whom he named Sangkuriang. >> continue

Half time, time to make it through
consider the change
take it from a different view
Half time (Amy Winehouse)

Loosing your memory is in part like losing yourself but also living through others

What remains in your memory after a brain trauma? Only what can remain: the mnemic elements that succeed to remain intact are the ones that are probably associated to our emotions. The “strongest memories”, those are the ones that remain, unconscious remains …



7 Tesla: il mio cervello si è addormentato per due giorni e mezzo
Un caso di displasia cerebrale
psicoanalisi e neuroscienze

Half time, time to make it through
consider the change
take it from a different view
Half time (Amy Winehouse)

Perdere la memoria, in parte perdere se stessi ma vivere attraverso gli altri

Cosa resta in memoria dopo un trauma cerebrale? Resta ciò che può restare: il materiale mnestico che riesce a mantenersi integro, quello che probabilmente è legato all’emotività. I ricordi “più forti”, quelli che “ce la fanno”, residui inconscio … >> continue

In the past few weeks, a promising story kept our editorial staff on the edge of their seats!

On a fine spring morning, I was invited out for a cup of coffee by a dear friend of mine at her new house in one of Vienna’s posher districts. At the time, I had no idea that my mind would be occupied with something fascinating in the coming weeks. My acquaintance led me through her new home and pointed to a place in the living area. She told me that this was the place were Freud’s couch used to stand, which had belonged to the previous house owner. Indeed?! I was surprised and wondered what she meant by that, and when that was supposed to have taken place. Completely unaffected by my reaction, she added, "Well, two years ago." My acquaintance is not psychoanalytically inclined and merely knows that I work in the field, which is presumably the reason why she told me about it en passant. It took me a while to process this information, before confiding the story to a trusted expert. Could it be possible that Freud’s Couch did not make it to London? Perhaps only the carpet? Our editorial staff picked up the trail - so what exactly had been in this house up until two years ago? We were determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.



Il divano di Sigmund Freud è veramente a Londra?

Le ultime settimane erano davvero eccitante per la nostra redazione!

Durante una bella mattina di primavera, sono stata invitata per una tazza di caffè nella nuova casa di una amica in uno dei quartieri più belli di Vienna. A quel momento non sospettavo che alla fine di questa visita la mia mente sarebbe talmente occupata nelle prossime settimane. La mia conoscente mi ha guidato attraverso la sua nuova casa e indicò su un posto nel soggiorno. Mi racconto che questo è il luogo dove si trovava il divano di Freud, che era in possesso del precedente proprietario della casa. Davvero?! Ero sorpresa e le chiese che cosa volesse dire, e quando tutto questo era occorso. Completamente ignorando la mia reazione, ha aggiunto: "Beh, due anni fa." La mia amica non ha niente a che fare con psicoanalisi e sapeva solo che io lavoro con essa. Questo è probabilmente il motivo per cui me lo ha raccontato cosi casualmente. Mi c´è voluto un po’ di tempo per digerire queste informazioni, e poi ho confidato la storia a un esperto di fiducia. Potrebbe essere possibile che il divano di Freud non era arrivato fino a Londra? Forse solo il tappeto? La nostra redazione seguì queste tracce. Cosa c’era in questa casa due anni fa? Volevamo andare a fondo di questo mistero. >> continue

The historian and political scientist Dr. Peter Pirker tells the story of Sigmund Freud´s grandchild Anton Walter Freud and his adventurous life as a refugee and SOE agent.


How did you learn about Anton Walter Freud and what made you interested in the topic?

Peter Pirker: I came across Anton Walter Freud while doing research about the role of Austrians in British Intelligence, namely the Special Operations Executive. This included deserters of the Wehrmacht as well as Jewish people, and political opponents that were driven out of Austria by the Nazis in 1938. After detention and deployment in the pioneer corps of the British army, they were recruited by the SOE as they had agreed to undertake dangerous missions behind German lines to support the fight against the Nazis. I was particularly interested in the history of resistance – both from deserters of the Wehrmacht and refugees in exile who decided to make an active contribution towards crushing National Socialism. Initially, I had a list of Austrians who were part of the SOE. Most of them used pseudonyms – cover names they had adopted In British exile for their own safety, so that they wouldn´t be identifiable in case of being taken captive. Among the few agents who didn´t change their names was Anton Walter Freud. For me, he was one of those easiest to identify, and with the help of another refugee, Eric Sanders, I got in touch with Anton Walter Freud. Eric Sanders is now 97 years old and the last living Austrian refugee who was part of the SOE. After 1945, Eric Sanders organized the reunions, if you will, the annual veterans´ meeting, and ran a small archive on the Austrian division of the SOE. That´s how I got in touch with Anton Walter Freud through Eric Sanders in 2003. At the time, I was preparing for a trip to England to interview a number of Germans and Austrians who had joined the SOE. I didn´t get a chance to meet Walter Freud as he had passed shortly before our arranged appointment in 2004. However, after writing him a letter, we had a long phone conversation. Essentially, he tried to assess who I was, my background and my reason for being interested in his story. Both the questions he asked and his opinion on Austria and Austrian society were quite interesting. >> continue

What distinguishes political from economic conduct and is it possible to analyze public figures like Trump? We met the US-based professor and expert on personality disorders to discuss leadership and the fundamental difference between personality and behavior.

In your lecture, you discussed the characteristics of leadership and you also talked about foresight as a form of intelligence. What promotes this foresight and how can one obtain it? Is it formal education, or experience?

Otto Kernberg: Intelligence is a complex concept comprised of various abilities. When we refer to “intelligence”, we are talking about a sum of cognitive abilities, basically measured by the level of abstract thinking. Abstract thinking is the best indication of general intelligence, but one can obtain and integrates knowledge in multiple ways. There is an emotional intelligence, a social intelligence, a mathematical intelligence. These are different concepts. First, intelligence is genetically determinated and related to the structure of the central nervous system, particularly the cerebral cortex.


So intelligence is partly determinated…

Otto Kernberg: Partly yes, partly it depends on the cognitive experiences during the first years of life – especially on how a child develops an interest in his own thinking in an environment that strengthens it, so that the interest in emotional and mental inner life is displayed, and there is the possibility to discuss it with the parents. Thereby, intelligence is developed in multiple ways, and is essentially as important as innate abilities. It really is a combination of abilities that stem from genetics and constitution as well as from environmental influences and interpersonal relationships in the first years of life, which then further develop. The special ability to extrapolate from current behavior to future developments is a special function that can be developed and learned, and as I said yesterday, the longer the span of the influence of current developments on the future, the higher is the institutionally vital intelligence that allows for the development of leadership in organizations and politics. >> continue

Well over twenty-five years ago, the extremely helpful Dr. Solnit and I agreed mutually that the seven-year-process of psychoanalysis was complete. But, just knowing it is for you that I am writing, the thoughts and memories have again started to flow unhampered. Perhaps it is no coincidence that I am back in Connecticut, which is rare in my life, and is where I always saw Dr. Solnit. Of course, I do not mean “saw,” since I was on the couch, and never observed his face during the forty-five minute sessions.

Lying there, I faced only the photo of someone I assume to have been my doctor’s son kayaking in rough water, and, on the back of the closed office door, on a bulletin board, among other things, a postcard of the main street of Skibbereen, in southwest Cork in Ireland. From early in my treatment I talked to Dr. Solnit frequently about that town and its surrounding region, since my wife and I spent our honeymoon in 1976 fishing on the Ilen River near Skibbereen and subsequently created our family’s paradise in a nearby coastal village. It was after at least a year of analysis that Dr. Solnit asked me why I had not identified and recognized the scene of the postcard.

Skibbereen, he explained in his avuncular voice, was where he and Dr. Joseph Goldstein and Anna Freud went to buy groceries whenever they were together in the nearby village of Baltimore, where they collaborated on research and writing. Subsequently, my wife and daughters and I went to find the exact house where Anna Freud and Dorothy Burlingham lived. The only person who could locate it for us was an elderly shopkeeper, a wizened lady who simply said, “Oh, you mean the two German sisters.” >> continue

When a lay person is psychoanalyzed, one of the astonishing surprises is the discovery of the unpredictable way that things happen. You professionals may say that sequences of thoughts and events are, in fact, predictable, or at least understandable, or, if neither of those, analyzable. But those of us who think we are doing unusually well simply when we have sufficient cognition to deduce that, if our opponent at tennis hits a deft drop shot over the net, deliberately manipulating it to fall softly at the front of the forecourt, we have to run like hell in order to reach the ball and still have a chance to win the point, are far less apt to know in our everyday lives why one event or feeling has led to another. If some further intuitive recognition of cause and effect inspires us to return the taunting drop shot at a sharp angle and win the point, we are surprised to discover ourselves that much more astute. We laypeople, you see, are unlikely to know why we respond as we do to a lot in our lives. The reasons for reactions more profound than those in a game of tennis elude us.

You ask, perhaps, why my analogy is coming from tennis. It is above all from your questions, at least in my experience, that those of us who believe in the analytic process make the greatest progress. We will get to the tennis issue later.

When I say “a lay person,” I mean people like me, one of those highly educated, sufficiently fortunate, neurotic individuals who chooses to be psychoanalyzed in the most traditional sense of the word. To amplify on what that sentence means, I will explain my own particularities to you.

Let’s start with “highly educated”: >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Nicholas Fox Weber from Connecticut, U.S.A.:

EDUCATION:
1969-71 Yale University, New Haven, CT M.A., Art History; Fellowship in American Art
1965-69 Columbia College, New York, NY B.A., major in art history
1961-65 Loomis School, Windsor, CT Cum Laude
PROFESSIONAL:
1983 to present Director, Josef Albers Stiftung, Bottrop, Germany
1976 to present Executive Director, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT
1979 summer: Lecturer, 20th Century Art, New School for Social Research, New York
1971-76 President, Fox Charts, Inc., Hartford, CT
1974 Guest lecturer, 20th Century Painting and Sculpture, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
1973 Guest lecturer, Collecting Contemporary Art, Trinity College, Hartford, CT
1970-71 Graduate teaching assistant, Yale University, New Haven, CT


DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Nicholas Fox Weber: My topic, which I came to by chance, is Freud’s trip to Orvieto. In the book I wrote about this, I explain why the subject has such personal significance to me, and what the particular elements were that led me to want to pursue the subject. I am sure that having undergone a traditional Freudian analysis myself, for about seven years, four days a week when the doctor and I were not traveling (as agreed in advance,) and, since concluding it about twenty-five years ago, having had a lot of opportunity to consider its immense benefits and surprising limitations, I was drawn to anything with the name Freud on it. He is, for many of us, one of the individuals of the modern era who has had the greatest impact. I know, for example, that on my first trip to Vienna, made for other reasons, I headed quickly to Bergasse 19. When, some 18 years ago, our younger daughter turned 16, she wanted to go to Freud’s house in London—my wife and I were delighted. Freud, I will admit, is a sort of cult figure for many of us. >> continue

Dear Readers,

Just in time for the summer, we had the spontaneous idea to open a new section: FREUD’S JOURNEYS.

Sigmund Freud and his family travelled a lot. The often groundbreaking insights and theories that Freud brought back with him from these
excursions (or wrote there) created the basis for psychoanalysis.

In this section, we will gradually trace Freud´s journeys and hope to provide you, dear readers, with the one or other suggestion to trace
Freud´s footsteps, and thus approach his work from a somewhat different angle.

Some of the hotels, restaurants and cafés that Freud visited during his lifetime are still in operation today (and still remember his visits). We would also like to use this section to draw attention to them as a way to, perhaps, discover hidden treasures.

Enjoy browsing and good travels! >> continue

Here’s a typical day in Freud’s life. From Monday to Saturday, Freud woke at 7:00. His wife Martha would have already laid out his daily items, from toothbrush to clothing. After dressing, Freud ate breakfast and then sat for the barber who, on daily house calls, trimmed his beard. Freud’s housekeeper, Paula Fichtl, showed patients into the waiting room in his home office at 19 Berggasse, where Freud saw patients from 8:00 or 9:00 until 1:00. At 1:00 Freud ate the big meal of the day, sometimes in the presence of guests, and from 2:00 to 3:00 went for a brisk walk along the Ringstrasse – not quite Kant in his regularity, but close. During these walks, often trailing one of his children, Freud might stop for personal items like cigars and a newspaper, or drop off the mail. And at times his friendly followers, knowing his schedule, would catch up with him along the route. By 3:00 Freud was back at work and would see patients until as late as 9:00. After that it was a late supper, maybe a game of cards or conversation with his sister-in-law, Minna, or maybe he’d take another walk. After that Freud returned to his office where he edited, wrote, read, and researched his ideas, finally closing his day by answering his often-voluminous correspondence. In time Freud’s works would be collected in 23 (actually incomplete) volumes, while his correspondence, estimated to run to 35,000 letters, would appear posthumously in at least two dozen published volumes. Freud’s day ended at 1:00am – and sometimes later. Then he got up again at 7:00. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Todd Raymond Dufresne from Thunder Bay, Ontario:

Academic Qualifications:
1991-1997 Doctor of Philosophy, Social and Political Thought, York University, Toronto.
1990-1992 Master of Arts, Social and Political Thought, York University, Toronto.
1985-1989 Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy, The University of Western Ontario, London.

Professional Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, Lakehead University

DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, especially as it concerns Freud and his achievements?

Todd Raymond Dufresne: From the perspective of practitioners, I came to Freud and psychoanalysis backwards – as an academic. I was introduced to Freud’s work as an undergraduate student in Philosophy, but had no intention of working on psychoanalysis as a graduate student. I thought I’d research the work of American novelist Thomas Pynchon! But my plans shifted in the face of the social and cultural conditions I encountered as a graduate student in Social & Political Thought at York University in Toronto. What I found was that a fair number of my peers were not just working on psychoanalysis but were in analytic therapy. And since some of them were sophisticated and interesting people, I too became intrigued. It was a hothouse environment, in some ways, and I was a classic fish out of water. Although I feel most at home in Toronto today, I was born to a small town working class family in Northern Ontario, attended high school in a small city a few hours away, and then earned my BA at the University of Western Ontario – a big traditional university in London, Ontario. When I went to graduate school in 1990 a lot of ideas in the margins of tradition were at the centre of everyone’s concerns at York. So in addition to not exactly fitting into this culture, I also no longer felt very radical! >> continue

Treat it like a game. The 21st century is marked by a gamification of culture. With ludic technologies, virtual reality becomes real virtuality. From a psychoanalytic view, virtual identities promise complete autonomy at an unconscious level but there is an inherent difference between mere play and the ratio of a game. >> continue

My recently published first book, Needed Relationships and Psychoanalytic Healing: A Holistic Relational Perspective on the Therapeutic Process (Routledge, 2017), has a complex narrative with many moving parts, but, at its core, it is about the deceptively simple idea of meeting patients: in the analytic moment, and cumulatively over time. I am not the first to use this term to characterize analytic engagement. Winnicott (e.g., 1960) wrote about analytic interaction as a “live adaptation to patients’ needs.” He understood that, for many patients, such adaptations required working outside of “standard” analytic technique, at least initially (Winnicott, 1962). More recently, the developmental researcher and theorist, Louis Sander (1962, 1995, 2008), introduced the phrase, “moments of meeting,” to characterize the collaboration and coordination between a parent and infant in service to the child’s developmental and emotional needs. Later, the Boston Change Process Study Group (D.N. Stern et al. 1998), of which Sander was a member, applied Sander’s concept to adult analytic therapy dyads.

Sander’s concept of moments of meeting is one in a matrix of related process concepts and terms he generated in his attempt to capture the movement of a good-enough mother and infant, understood as a non-linear dynamic system, toward progressively effective coordination in the service of the infant’s development. His term for this evolving coordination was relational fittedness: a joining of directionalities which was achieved through progressive specificity of recognition by the caregiver of the infant’s states and needs, and with this recognition, progressive specificity of connection—i.e., the responsive behaviors aimed at meeting the child’s emergent states and needs. Listen to Sander’s (2008) frame-by-frame narrative of, and commentary on, a now often-cited video segment taken of a member of Daniel Stern’s research team—a father holding his baby daughter in his arms—as he is talking informally with other members of the team, standing together on a lawn during a home visit with one of their neonatal subjects: >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Steven Stern from Portland, Maine in the U.S.A.:

EDUCATION:
Amherst College, Amherst, MA (1966-1970)
B.A., Cum Laude
Honors: Independent Scholar in Literature
University of Illinois, Champaign, IL (1974-1981)
M.S. 1979, Clinical Psychology
Psy.D. 1981, Clinical Psychology
University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Psychiatry, Madison, WI. (1978-1979)
Internship in Clinical Psychology
Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago, IL (1992-1999)

PROFESSIONAL CREDENTIALS, AFFILIATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, State of Maine (#PS1128)
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, State of Illinois (No. 071-003158)
American Psychological Association
APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis)
International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP)
Member of the International Council, International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP)

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS
Faculty, Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (Cambridge/Boston) (2003-Present).
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine and Maine Medical Center (2011-Present)
Faculty, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis (2000-2004).
Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Vermont Medical School/Maine Medical Center (2003-2011).

DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Steven Stern: (1) During college, working 3 summers in an analytically-oriented therapeutic camp in New Hampshire. It was trial by fire, alone much of the time with nine 10-year old boys in a cabin in the woods! With the help of skilled analytic supervisors I learned how to convert what could have been “Lord of the Flies” into a deeply therapeutic (though often emotionally raw) milieu; (2) As a psychology intern in Madison WI in the late 1970s, being supervised by a self-psychologically-oriented analyst on the case of a multiply abused, “borderline” young woman and seeing first hand the transformative power of empathic understanding and connection. >> continue

Les années folles. Interwar Paris became a meeting and trysting place for “the lost generation” that laid the groundwork for the modernist movement. Concepts of the subject, the narrative of the self, classicism and sexuality were at the heart of the zeitgeist that influenced psychoanalysis, and vice versa. Hemingway’s iceberg theory represented a new way of thinking in a time of upheaval and transition. >> continue

“I don’t know what you done but I can’t get enough
‘Cause you give me that rush, I don’t want it to stop…”


Tattoos. Do we choose to sign our body with something that can represent our personality, or do we simply choose to embellish our body?

In any case we want that it lasts forever. Symbols that are the results of our loose associations. We freely link a thought or an emotion to a graphic representation or to a memory, and what comes up is a thought that reflects us, a thought that has something to do with Us, with those parts of us we do not want to give up: our authentic and real self. A part of our identity. The false self has nothing to do with tattoos. the sincerest form of our ego as “something that we decide” leaves our mind and turns into reality: you can see it, you can touch it. It’s you. The experience with tattoos is not always a pleasant one. This is because maybe there was a time lag between the irrepressible desire and going through with the plan. 


Tu sei quello che gli altri non vedono: dentro la pelle
Al confine tra psiche e soma

“I don’t know what you done but I can’t get enough
‘Cause you give me that rush, I don’t want it to stop…”

I tatuaggi. Segni che portiamo sulla pelle per sempre. Scegliamo di segnare su di noi qualcosa che ci rappresenti profondamente, oppure scegliamo semplicemente di abbellire il nostro corpo? In ogni caso, scegliamo che sia per sempre. Simboli … Frutto delle nostre libere associazioni. Associamo liberamente un pensiero o un’emozione ad una rappresentazione grafica, un ricordo e quello che ne viene fuori è un pensiero che ci rispecchia, che ha a che fare con Noi, con la nostra personalità, con quelle parti di noi a cui non vogliamo rinunciare: il nostro Sé più vero, autentico. Una fetta della nostra identità. Con i tatuaggi il Falso Sè c’entra davvero poco, forse proprio per nulla. Il nostro Io più intimo sottoforma di “qualcosa che siamo noi a stabilire” esce fuori dalla mente e si trasforma in realtà: lo vedi, lo tocchi. Sei tu. Non sempre, però, l’esperienza con i tatuaggi può essere piacevole, perché magari è passato del tempo tra il desiderio e la voglia irrefrenabile di farlo e il farlo sul serio. >> continue

General information:

From a treatment perspective, respective implicit or explicit human images have an influence on different areas, among other things on the therapist´s self-image, the basic attitude for the method, respectively the relative person (patients, colleagues, etc.), the art and way of the relationship (e.g. symmetrical or asymmetrical communication), diagnostics, theory formation, technology and values, or moral decisions.

If we speak of the concept "human image" or imagine one: what do we see there? Do we see a man, a woman, a transgender person, a child, an elderly person? Is he healthy or suffering? What origin, skin color, clothing, social situation influence it here? Does this image convey something present, past or something from the future?

Is it an idealized image, as we think that a human “is”, or "should" be, or do we believe to recognize in our human image the so-called "nature of man", to spot its quintessence?

Does this human image correspond to our own projections, experiences, fears and ideals? Is this simply unconsciously conveyed and adopted by the family of origin or other important persons or maybe by means of media or a specific method - in this case a psychotherapeutic or psychoanalytic method? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Thomas Barth from Vienna, Austria:

Born 1965 in Vienna.
Studied Psychology at the University of Vienna (1984-87), certificate program in Marketing @ Sales at WU Vienna 1989.
Completed the psychoanalytic training at the Psychoanalytic Seminar Innsbruck (PSI) in 2010 and received the Doctorate in Psychotherapy science at Sigmund Freud University Vienna (SFU) in 2012. Training Analyst (PSI/SFU) since 2017.
Work in the areas music (ongoing) and new media in Vienna, Denmark and New York. Since 2007 (ongoing): Leading the mnemonic training at the “Anne Kohn-Feuermann” day care center in the Jewish home for the elderly, since 2011 psychoanalyst in own private practice in Vienna. Publications, lectures and performances in the fields psychoanalysis, music and cultural studies.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Thomas Barth: There were a couple of factors: My interest in psychological topics - apart from music - had existed since my childhood. In 1982 at the Gymnasium in Tulln, I took psychology and philosophy as compulsory optional subject in 7th grade. Our teacher encouraged by her way of teaching this interest further.

Then in the mid-80s, I studied y psychology with focus on psychiatry at the Vienna University and heard among others lectures by Erwin Ringel, Hans Strotzka, Harald Leupold-Löwenthal and Giselher Guttmann. I did not graduate at that time, but I continued to deal with psychoanalytic topics. After several years in New York, I met Professor Guttmann in Vienna in December 2005. He told me among others thing about the then newly founded Sigmund Freud Private University (SFU), whose dean he was then. I completed my studies there (2009) and the psychoanalytic training (2010, in cooperation with the PSI, the psychoanalytic seminar Innsbruck). >> continue

Royal Visitors! Prince Charles and Camilla pay Vienna a visit on their European tour. With Freud’s emigration to Great Britain, psychoanalysis gained popularity in England. What connects psychoanalysis with the British Monarchy? A story about brave spies and eccentric princesses.


Alice of Battenberg (25 February 1885 – 5 December 1969)

Alice of Battenberg was perhaps Freud’s most famous royal patient along with Marie Bonaparte. Congenitally deaf, Alice was the mother of Prince Philip and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II. She and her husband Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark were forced to flee the country after a defeat against the Turkish army with Prince Andrew escaping execution only by a hair’s breadth with the help of Princess Alice’s royal relatives. The family moved to the outskirts of Paris, where Alice’s behavior became increasingly eccentric. The princess immersed herself in spirituality – religion and mysticism soon became crucial parts of her life. She was convinced she was in touch with Buddha and Jesus Christ and even claimed to have healing powers. She started to practice the art of hands-on healing to the point of exhaustion, was obsessed with occultism and believed herself to be saint-like. Eventually, Alice’s gynaecologist Dr. Lourus was consulted, who said she was showing signs of a psychosis and sent her to Dr. Ernst Simmel, a former colleague of Freud, to Tegel to undergo psychoanalysis – Dr. Simmels diagnosis: Paranoid Schizophrenia. >> continue

Bank Transfer is getting more and more popular among psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. Is the data protected and what are the potential risks? We checked with psychotherapists as well as banks and looked at the current legal situation in Austria.

There are two payment options offered by psychoanalysts and counselors in Austria –cash and credit card. Whilst bank transfer presents the easiest and fastest option, one not only transfers money but also data on who receives the money and to what purpose. The argument that the vitreous human is a phenomenon of the digital age is all too common and serves as a reminder of the careless attitude towards data protection.


Cash register and bank transfer

Since its implementation in 2016, the cash register hasn’t been very well-received by psychoanalysts and counselors. According to the ÖBVP (The Austrian Federal Association for Psychotherapy) there are no exact figures on how many psychotherapists own a register. For many psychotherapists, using a register entails high investment but low revenue. The widespread uncertainty, high effort and lack of information regarding technical requirements and legal status prevent many from obtaining a register. >> continue

I am delighted for the opportunity to describe my experience with participatory research methods in The Vienna Psychoanalyst with the Karen people and I hope for an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas on the subject. For example, I would be interested in how psychoanalysts interpret the children´s drawings ([see figure 1] The author thanks her father, Franz Vogler, for the technical processing of the drawings) in the continuous text. It would also be important to know what ethnopsychoanalysts have to say of the Karen people and their cultural symbolism.

As a PhD social scientist at Oxford University, I have been working with the Karen tribe people for more than ten years. The Karen people mainly live in the highlands of East Burma and northwest Thailand. Due to economic and cultural reasons, they have a marginalized position in Thai society: initially, most Karen people live as rice farmers in the highlands of northwest Thailand, where there are only limited opportunities to earn money through trade or services. Although many young Karen people spend time in urban areas to make money, most of them live in rural areas and have less income than the majority population. Culturally, the Karen people differ from the Thai population because they have their own mother tongue and their everyday life is characterized by other traditional behavior than is common among the majority population. The Karen people also wear different clothes and eat different food than the Thais. However, in everyday practice, there are always overlaps between Thai and Karen culture, not least because the Karen children go to state schools where Thai is spoken. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Pia Maria Jolliffe from Oxford, Great Britain:

She was born in Vienna. She went to the Sacred Heart school and completed a Master in Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna. Then, she went for two years to Geneva, where she also worked as consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2006, Pia went to Oxford where she received her DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) in International Development in 2011. For her doctoral thesis, Pia spent 12 months among the Karen people in the highlands of northern Thailand. She revisited the Karen for her post-doc works several times. In 2016 her book “Learning, Migration and Intergenerational Relations. The Karen and the Gift of Education” appeared with Palgrave MacMillan.

DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Pia Maria Jolliffe: My work with the Karen people, an ethnic minority group in the highlands of Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. The longer I lived with the Karen, the more I was interested in their culturally significant symbols. Eventually these symbols appeared in my dreams. In Chiang Mai, I met Ulrike Gogela. Ulrike is a psychotherapist and a Jungian analyst. It was helpful to talk with Ulrike about my dreams. >> continue

1. Psychoanalysis on the Internet? A controversy

The use of the Internet is integrated into the daily life processes of large parts of society and affects not only social relations, but also areas of mental health and treatment (Eichenberg & Kühne, 2014), as well as psychoanalytic theory and practice (Migone, 2013). The term "e-mental health" focusses on the interrelations of digital media and mental health. Offers include a broad spectrum of clinical-psychological including psychodynamic oriented interventions, from prevention and self-help proposals through on-line counseling and online psychotherapy to rehabilitation measures (Eichenberg, 2011).

In addition to the psychodynamic online interventions and internet-based psychoanalytic treatment (see section 2), psychoanalysis also contains further interfaces on the Internet, which are only briefly discussed below (for a detailed overview see Eichenberg & Hübner, in preparation): 1. Psychoanalytic considerations on the impact of social media on the individual, relationships and society. For example, the importance of the Internet for the individual is elaborated in accordance with Thomas Ogden´s concept of the "third party" (Stadler, 2013), or communication programs such as Skype are interpreted as "the sinister third" (Dettbarn, 2013). 2. >> continue

Dear Readers!

THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST is pleased to present today the first article written by our editor Sabrina Zehetner.

Enjoy reading!

In an age of political conflicts and intense, public scrutiny on the internet, satire as Enfant Terrible has become ubiquitous. Looking back on a long history of ridicule and political dissent, satire - like psychoanalysis - discusses social taboos and human agency – satire on the couch.


Satire 2.0

The John Oliver Show, SNL, The Stephen Colbert Report, The Onion und Kate Beaton’s cartoons, the New Yorker and Charlie Hebdo – the list of modern satire is inexhaustible and multifaceted while the satirists’ motives are as diverse as their targets. It is not surprising that satire as a genre – as is the case with the majority of European cultural history – happens to be another child of ancient Greek poetry. At the English court, it was aristocrats such as the notorious John Wilmot (The 2nd Earl of Rochester) who could afford making fun of English royalty and its lifestyle. In its obscenity, however, these satirical works were in no way inferior to their modern successors. In France, the birthplace of the caricature, satirists the likes of Charles Philipon faced imprisonment for expressing dissent and criticizing royal agency. Later, during the French revolution, the genre played a significant role in empowering citizens through political engagement. As the court ceased to be the cultural center and the readership became increasingly heterogeneous, satire evolved into an independent art form. Finally part of the mainstream media, satire enjoyed great popularity and regular publication. The golden age of grand-scale satire written by the likes of Swift, Pope or Molière belongs to the past and gave way to Memes and Late-night-TV. In the digital age, where politicians find themselves under public scrutiny 24/7, leaders present the perfect target for satirists – paradoxically, the virtual reality both demands and persecutes authenticity. Good satire combines humor with informed critique. An audience only derives pleasure from satire when the irony is understood as such – if not due to opposing political views or misleading social critique, the genre ceases to be effective and even runs the risk of representing the very thing it set out to criticize. Why do we derive pleasure from an art form known for its obscenity and hostility? A number of modern critics refer to Freud, according to whom, the sadistic pleasure is gained through rhetoric violence while others link the release of aggression to the source of pleasure. Surprisingly, psychoanalysis has never properly addressed satire despite its topicality. >> continue

“Come with me”
“Let’s go with the princess”
“Yes, I am a princess”

Landing is not the last effort they have to deal with. It is only one of the many obstacles they have to overcome in order to achieve freedom, their freedom. That freedom, strived for youth, made of freely living without any problems. “I’m an adolescent, I don’t know what´s happening to me. My body, my thoughts, everything is changing. Although changes and war, I must survive!” They are escaping: from war, hunger, thirst, violence, abuses, wiped out hopes and the forthcoming death. They abandon their family and friends. They are no longer safe. Their beautiful cities have been destroyed, overpowered by hate. That kind of hate, that lasts over time and does not make room. No room for anything, not even for corpses. “I could be one of those corpses, it’s better to run away!”. Once arrived, some are disoriented; their eyes are full of terror. That terror, which has infested their minds and hearts during these months lasting trip. Their eyes are lifeless because of physical and mental tortures inflicted both overboard and on land. Others arrive with the dream to rejoin a relative or a friend, which “made it through Europe!”. Sicily, we are almost there! Yes, I saw them. I had the honor to watch and go along with them during their last strain: the post-landing inspections. While they were arriving into the harbor of my city, I remembered all the newscast scenes and I can state that they are as we see them on television.



Trauma senza fine: giovani migranti in “fuga” dalla realtà
“Andiamo con la principessa”

“Venite con me”
“Andiamo con la principessa”
“Si, sono una principessa”
 
Lo sbarco non è l’ultima fatica che devono affrontare, è soltanto uno dei tanti ostacoli che devono superare per raggiungere la libertà, la loro libertà, quella a cui tutti i ragazzi aspirano, quella del vivere liberi dai problemi e godersi la vita: “Perché sono un adolescente, perché non so cosa mi sta succedendo, qui cambia tutto, il mio corpo cambia, cambiano i miei pensieri. Ma c’è la guerra, devo sopravvivere, intanto continuo a cambiare, ma devo sopravvivere!”. Scappano, scappano dalla fame, dalla sete, dalle violenze, dai maltrattamenti, dagli abusi, dalla morte dietro l’angolo, dalle speranze distrutte, dagli affetti, dagli amici, non sono più al sicuro. Le loro bellissime città sono distrutte, annientate dall’odio, quello che persiste nel tempo e non lascia spazio, non c’è spazio per nessuno, non c’è più spazio nemmeno per i cadaveri.  “Tra i cadaveri potrei esserci io, allora, Sì scappiamo!”. Arrivano disorientati, alcuni hanno gli occhi spenti dal terrore, quello che ha pervaso le loro menti e il loro cuore durante i mesi di viaggio, occhi spenti dalle torture fisiche e psicologiche subite in mare e in terra. Altri, arrivano con gli occhi sognanti, sognano di poter raggiungere un parente o un amico che “ce l’ha fatta”, è riuscito ad arrivare in Europa. Sicilia, ci siamo quasi! Si, io li ho visti, ho avuto l’onore di guardarli, di accompagnarli pochi minuti durante l’ennesima fatica, i controlli post-sbarco. Mentre li vedevo arrivare, scesi, dal gommone che dalla nave che li conduce dentro i confini del porto della mia città, ricordavo le scene che che mandano in tv, sì sono come li vediamo in tv. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with" we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the ability to also read the leading article from a different point of view.
This week we have the great honor that an author decided to write a second time for us.
Therefore his Introduction is now slightly modified compared to the first time.
You, dear Reader, can read Gabriella Papadia’s first interview here and Gabriella Papadia’s first article can be found here!


This week we are very glad to welcome back Gabriella Papadia from Palermo, Italy:

She is a childhood Psychologist with a clinical and evolutionary orientation. She obtained a master´s degree at the University of Palermo in Clinical Psychology with a thesis entitled "Preterm birth: parental anxiety and stress within the development paths", qualified to the profession of psychologist with inscription Order of Psychologists of Sicily Region. Continues her path of research on premature birth coming in contact with the Group of Research in Pediatric Psychology. Junior psychologist affiliated with the Italian Society of Pediatric Psychology and graduate student at the "International School of Psychotherapy in the Institutional Setting" (SIPSI). Her fields of interest with regard to research and intervention can be traced in neurodevelopmental assessment of patients with typical and atypical development (both adults and children), neurodevelopmental disorders, specific learning disabilities, psychopathology related to prematurity, parenting at risk. At the same time, she carries out social inclusion projects in the ground of her city moving between schools and hospitals.



Gabriella Papadia è una Psicologa dell’infanzia ad orientamento clinico-evolutivo. Consegue la laurea magistrale presso l’Ateneo Palermitano in Psicologia Clinica dell’Arco di Vita con una tesi sperimentale dal titolo “Nascita pretermine: ansia e stress genitoriale all’interno dei percorsi di sviluppo” e abilitata alla professione di psicologo con iscrizione all’Ordine degli Psicologi della Regione Siciliana. Continua il suo percorso di ricerca sulla nascita prematura entrando a contatto con il Gruppo di Ricerca in Psicologia Pediatrica. Psicologa junior affiliata alla Società Italiana di Psicologia Pediatrica e specializzanda alla “Scuola Internazionale di Psicoterapia nel Setting Istituzionale” (SIPSI). I suoi campi d’interesse per quanto riguarda la ricerca e l’intervento si rintracciano nell’ assessment neuroevolutivo di soggetti con sviluppo tipico e atipico (adulti e bambini), disturbi del neurosviluppo, disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento, psicopatologia correlata alla prematurità, genitorialità a rischio. Contemporaneamente porta avanti progetti di inclusione sociale nel territorio palermitano muovendosi tra scuole e ospedali. >> continue

"Max and Moritz" is the story of two rascals told in "Seven Tricks" by the German poet and illustrator Wilhelm Busch. From the first to the last prank, there is a constant conflict between Max and Moritz and the villagers: nobody is spared from the evil deeds of the two boys. The two protagonists, however, are never there to witnesses their own deeds; the reader is the only one to keep an eye on all events. The author separates the reader from the persons in the story quite explicitly through the language:

“Ah, how oft we read or hear of Boys we almost stand in fear of!
For example, take these stories
Of two youths, named Max and Moritz.” (Busch W. 1978)

The direct form of addresses such as: Seht, da ist die Witwe Bolte [N.T. direct quote: See, there is the widow Bolte in English translation One of these was Widow Tibbets] or “O be joyful! all gone by Is the May bug´s deviltry!” create a distance between the reader, the boys and the villagers.
 
In this way, the reader and the observer of the story are enabled to participate in the evils deeds and to live out their own aggressiveness, without however being punished or even to have a guilty conscience. And that´s the humor about it! The reader, whether a child or an adult, experiences through it a pleasure. >> continue

Dear readers and listeners,

Since May 2015, the psychoanalytic radio show series "UNBEWUSST – die Lust am freien Sprechen" has been broadcasted live on every second Wednesday once a month.
For the last months, the radio team has been searching for other moderators, with the support of THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST.
Here we would like to thank you again for all your emails and applications!

Now it´s time, the radio team has decided and two new moderators have joined the team.
But not only that, through these two new hosts, it is now also possible to invite English-speaking guests to the program, so the radio series will no longer be broadcast only in German, but we will also sometimes broadcast English-language shows.

We are very proud to be able to offer this new feature from now on and all this live from Vienna!

This week we will introduce you to the male new arrival!
Welcome to the team, Kaan ÖZEMEK! >> continue

Dear readers and listeners,

Since May 2015, the psychoanalytic radio show series "UNBEWUSST – die Lust am freien Sprechen" has been broadcasted live on every second Wednesday once a month.
For the last months, the radio team has been searching for other moderators, with the support of THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST.
Here we would like to thank you again for all your emails and applications!

Now it´s time, the radio team has decided and two new moderators have joined the team.
But not only that, through these two new hosts, it is now also possible to invite English-speaking guests to the program, so the radio series will no longer be broadcast only in German, but we will also sometimes broadcast English-language shows.

We are very proud to be able to offer this new feature from now on and all this live from Vienna!

This week we will introduce you to the female new arrival!
Welcome to the team, Valerie MARKO! >> continue

I wish I never played
Oh what a mess we made
And now the final frame
Love is a losing game (Amy Winehouse)


They say "if it does not kill you, it makes you stronger ...” Yes, they say it always, every time. This sentence, at the right time, seems to balance everything. That “All” you thought you were able to hold and handle, that "All" contained in the "Self", made of strong emotions, new odors, deep looks, kisses from afar, just perceived, as if they were growing from distance and as if they were about to die, because nobody had to figure it out, because no one had to see, the punch in the stomach, spreading happiness and sharing it in the air. Your "ego", the loving one, the one you did not know could also be made like this, is not able to hold anymore this "All". That moment when the "ego", which was always "All" becomes "Es" and "Super-ego" at times ... It breaks, shatters, overrules every objections and acquires different forms. The wounded "ego", has only one aim: to go back lovingly and naturally, fighting between the other two instances, remaining "Id" (himself) and to reorganize the structure of the objections and regenerate, returning an "All" completely intact, as far as possible, as much as it is able to. It set up the walls, the objections have to resume their function, maintaining mental balance.      



Sei sufficientemente forte?
Meravigliosamente: ferite dell’anima
una lettura psicoanalitica

vorrei non aver mai giocato
che casino abbiamo combinato
e adesso la montatura finale è che
l´amore è un gioco in cui si perde (Amy Winehouse)


Dicono che se non ti uccide ti fortifica … Sì, lo dicono, sempre, ogni volta. La frase adatta al momento giusto che sembra poter riequilibrare tutto. Quel “Tutto” che tu pensavi di essere in grado di contenere e gestire, quel tutto racchiuso nel Sé, fatto di emozioni forti, di odori nuovi, di sguardi profondi, di baci mandati da lontano, appena percepiti, come se da lontano dovessero nascere e come se così dovessero morire, perché nessuno doveva capire, perché nessuno doveva vedere, di pugni allo stomaco, di felicità diffusa e profusa nell’aria. Il tuo IO, quello che ama, quello che non sapevi potesse essere fatto anche così, non lo sa contenere più quel Tutto. Quel momento in cui l’IO che è sempre stato Tutto, torna ad essere Es e Super-Io a tratti … Si frammenta, va in mille pezzi, prevarica le censure ed acquista forme diverse. L’IO ferito adesso ha un solo obiettivo: tornare amorevolmente e naturalmente a lottare tra le altre due istanze, restare IO (se stesso) e deve riorganizzare la struttura delle censure e rigenerarsi, tornare un Tutto-integro, per quanto sia possibile, per quanto davvero abbia la forza di farlo. Si rialzano le mura, le censure riprendono ad avere la loro funzione: mantenere l’equilibrio psichico. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the ability to read also the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Gabriella Papadia from Palermo, Italy:

She is a childhood Psychologist with a clinical and evolutionary orientation. She obtained a master´s degree at the University of Palermo in Clinical Psychology with a thesis entitled "Preterm birth: parental anxiety and stress within the development paths", qualified to the profession of psychologist with inscription Order of Psychologists of Sicily Region. Continues her path of research on premature birth coming in contact with the Group of Research in Pediatric Psychology. Junior psychologist affiliated with the Italian Society of Pediatric Psychology and graduate student at the "International School of Psychotherapy in the Institutional Setting" (SIPSI). Her fields of interest with regard to research and intervention can be traced in neurodevelopmental assessment of patients with typical and atypical development (both adults and children), neurodevelopmental disorders, specific learning disabilities, psychopathology related to prematurity, parenting at risk. At the same time, she carries out social inclusion projects in the ground of her city moving between schools and hospitals.



Gabriella Papadia è una Psicologa dell’infanzia ad orientamento clinico-evolutivo. Consegue la laurea magistrale presso l’Ateneo Palermitano in Psicologia Clinica dell’Arco di Vita con una tesi sperimentale dal titolo “Nascita pretermine: ansia e stress genitoriale all’interno dei percorsi di sviluppo” e abilitata alla professione di psicologo con iscrizione all’Ordine degli Psicologi della Regione Siciliana. Continua il suo percorso di ricerca sulla nascita prematura entrando a contatto con il Gruppo di Ricerca in Psicologia Pediatrica. Psicologa junior affiliata alla Società Italiana di Psicologia Pediatrica e specializzanda alla “Scuola Internazionale di Psicoterapia nel Setting Istituzionale” (SIPSI). I suoi campi d’interesse per quanto riguarda la ricerca e l’intervento si rintracciano nell’ assessment neuroevolutivo di soggetti con sviluppo tipico e atipico (adulti e bambini), disturbi del neurosviluppo, disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento, psicopatologia correlata alla prematurità, genitorialità a rischio. Contemporaneamente porta avanti progetti di inclusione sociale nel territorio palermitano muovendosi tra scuole e ospedali.



DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements? Cosa ti ha portato a occuparti di psicoanalisi, di Freud e dei suoi successi?

Gabriella Papadia: It might seem a banal story, but as a child, I was intrigued by his thoughts, mainly by the tendency to get in touch and learn this method of treatment (talking cure) “outside the box”. The philosophical and anthropological influences that encounter in his thinking mean that psychoanalysis also configure it as an human care method, closer to people. Potrebbe sembrare banale, ma sin da piccola sono stata attirata dal suo pensiero, soprattutto dalla tendenza ad acquisire ed imparare questo metodo di trattamento "fuori dagli schemi". (la cura attraverso la parola).Le influenze filosofiche ed antropoligiche che si riscontrano nel suo pensiero fanno sì che la psicoanalisi si configuri come un metodo di cura umano, più vicino alle persone. >> continue

To develop an artificial mental apparatus - to make it sound great - is misleading for many, even an affront to some. These are reactions that psychoanalysis has known too since its beginnings. The cause for such opinions may lie in legitimate concerns about a possible misuse - keyword artificial intelligence - or perhaps the fear of revealing valid deep insights about us. The work of SiMA (Simulation of the Mental Apparatus and Applications) at the Vienna University of Technology, initiated by Prof. Dietmar Dietrich and led by Samer Schaat in the last three years, has already shown how useful the cooperation between psychoanalysis and computer technology is. Because of the development of an artificial mental apparatus, i.e., the simulation of a metapsychological model as an information-processing system in the computer, psychoanalytic theories are sharpened, evaluated and subsequently applied to the investigation of socially relevant questions, for example those of cooperative and environmentally friendly behavior. In order to achieve this, both the methods and the theories of psychoanalysis and Computer Science combines - a complement and cooperation, that is actually quite logical. After all Computer science is, on the one hand, the discipline that deals with information-processing systems - and as such, the mental apparatus can be viewed - and, on the other hand, psychoanalysis is the only discipline that offers a holistic model of the psyche.

Even the claim to an integrative and functional model in the development of a computer model of the mental apparatus is achieved by the metapsychology. By showing the causal interaction of basic individual and social (possibly conflicting) demands in a dynamic process, the metapsychological model provides a suitable framework to research the interaction of different factors. This allows not only thorough explanations of human thought and action, but also pointing out its complexity. Theoretically, this is a good prerequisite for a psychological science. Practically, however, psychoanalysis has often been accused of not being able to keep its high promises. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the ability to read also the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Samer Schaat from Vienna, Austria:

Born in Vienna. Working in the interdisciplinary field of simulation of human decision-making. Completion of the pre-clinical study of medicine, however, change to medical informatics to pursue a systemic and systematic method. After working at the Medical University of Vienna, he works at the Vienna University of Technology. There, the management of projects for the translation and application of psychoanalytic and neuro-scientific concepts in computer models. Development of a model for decision-making, application for the research of cooperation and environmentally behavior. Conclusion of the thesis Decision-making in the social context. Initiator of the nonprofit association for knowledge transfer EdelmanSaid (http://www.edelmansaid.net).



DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Samer Schaat: Psychoanalysis seemed to me to be the discipline that takes the role of the unconscious seriously and provides the basis for a holistic model of psychological factors and their integration. >> continue

To talk about psychoanalysis in Indonesia is something very sad. I do not know when exactly psychoanalysis came to Indonesia, but in my opinion, psychoanalysis came along with psychiatry and psychology. However, psychoanalysis is the initiator of psychiatry and psychology.

Despite its incredible popularity and legendary knowledge, psychoanalysis is hardly recognized by Indonesian people. Only a few academics are familiar with psychoanalysis. But this is exactly where the bigger problem comes from. Psychoanalysis has been taught in a wrong way, it was taught with only one theory from psychology and only for less than 2 hours. Yes, there are only 2 hours to understand psychoanalysis. Without practicing, only theory. What make it worse is that the lecturers who teach this theory are not competent enough in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic theory has been mingled with hypnosis. The lecturers incomprehension about psychoanalysis makes it look like black magic because it talks about sexuality and unconscious.

Many defamations are uttered about psychoanalysis and Prof. Freud because of those lecturers incomprehnsion. Lets say, for example, that psychoanalysis as a knowledge is not worthy, not scientific, moreover it is full of pornography. As if this is not enough, Prof. Freud has been maligned, the rumors say that Prof. Freud left the hypnosis because he was not able in making a rapport, the betrayer, the lewd scientist.

We were curious why psychoanalysis in Indonesia is not well-known and be missunderstood in such a way. In our observations, we found 3 aspects that cause those problems: >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with" we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the ability to also read the leading article from a different point of view.

This week we are very glad to welcome Fakhrun Siraj from Indonesia:

Born and raised in Indonesia. He works as a clinical psychoanalyst and is co-founder of the Association of Psychoanalysis Indonesia, where he also works as a Supervisor for young psychoanalysts in training.
He has published various works, among others "Trance Phenomena: uncover phenomena, dynamics, and the pattern of trance in the formation of personality".



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Fakhrun Siraj: I have grown up in Sufism. As such I used it from childhood on to observe myself (sounds like a self-analysis of psychoanalysis does it not?). As a 8 year old I started studying philosophy, especially the philosophy of semiotic. Jacques Lacan is an awesome figure of psychoanalysis. I got to know psychoanalysis from Lacan. It was not until 12 years ago that I started studying psychology, especially psychoanalysis, in depth. >> continue

Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus complex is one of the focal ideas of Sigmund Freud´s theories. Today in particular it is common knowledge (in any event everyone has heard about it). Frequently you can discover the guardians who need to comprehend "endure" if their tyke is doomed to have this complex and how to battle it. To answer these inquiries, we should comprehend in the first place, who Oedipus is. As indicated by old Greek myth, it was the name of the kid, who was conceived by the wife of the Theban lord Laius. Indeed, even before its birth prophets warned Laius, that he will die because of his own child. Subsequently, on the requests of his dad, the hirelings pierced his ankles (Oedipus signifies "swollen foot"), exiled him from the royal residence and abandoned him in the wild.

The youngster, be that as it may, did not bite the dust, but rather was rescued and raised by outsiders, who he until then considered his folks. Oedipus grew up by one means or another until he heard the prediction with which he identifies, and as such he was startled out of the house, not having any desire to fulfill this prophecy. Destiny (as it was by the old Greeks, was constant and all-effective) pushed him out and together with a stranger - Laem, who he killed during the resulting fight. Later, close to the town of Thebes, he could accomplish a great deed by killing a creature that terrorized the townspeople. Excited Thebans elevated Oedipus to the empty position of King, and he, in accordance with the custom, wedded the dowager of Laius, not realizing that it was his own birth mother. The story did not end there and had numerous sad results, which, in any case, are not all that critical for us. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with" we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users thability to also read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Toghrul Salamzade from Istanbul, Turkey:

Born in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. When he was 10 years old he moved with his family to Northern Cyprus. In 2010 he had graduated from high-school and he decided study Psychology in Girne American University. After his graduation he moved to Turkey. In his student period he had trainings and courses on Sex therapy and Hypnosis. Then in 2014 he moved to Istanbul, Turkey. In Istanbul, he developed his knowledge on psychology and got extra 13 trainings and courses on psychology.
He gave seminars and conferences on several topics such as Forensic Psychology, Child Sexuality, Addiction and etc. He read almost all books of Freud and Fromm and works in Istanbul as psychotherapist.



DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Toghrul Salamzade: I love philosophy! When I first to study psychology I began to read books of Sigmund Freud. Freud loves question “Why?” And it is also the basis of psychoanalysis. Freud was different than others: he was radical! He made radical statements and forced me to think about his theories.

For me specifically, the very interesting things in psychoanalysis are dream interpretation and Oedipus complex. Dream interpretation is dogma; and this is what makes it different – I think. >> continue

The addiction to starve, an ailment that grew into a modern disease, whose Latin name, anorexia nervosa, is already known among laymen, is becoming increasingly fashionable. In Austria, about 200,000 women develop an eating disorder, at least once in the course of their lives; At least 2,500 girls and young women suffer from anorexia nervosa.

While the anorexia was known only to an elite circle of physicians until a few centuries ago, it is now regarded as a widespread mental disorder, which is increasingly affecting young girls and women. This is, on the one hand, explained by the pursuit of thinness of industrialized countries, which has a considerable influence on the experience of self-esteem of young girls and women. On the other hand, there is the contradictory role of women with which they are confronted in today´s society.

The anorexia nervosa is characterized by a deliberately caused weight loss due to extreme diets or other weight-reducing measures. The desire to lose weight and the clear fear of gaining weight distinguish them from other forms of undernourishment. It is paired with a distorted image of one owns body: those affected have a distorted relationship to their weight and figure as well as a distorted perception of their own body appearance. In addition, severe physical symptoms occur as a result of the starving.

Behind the superficial non-eating, which at first may seem banal and incomprehensible for outsiders are unconscious psychological conflicts. This makes the anorexia nervosa a complex, neurotic disease which takes its own body as an enemy image. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Valerie Marko from Vienna, Austria:

Born in Graz. Lives and works in Vienna. Independent psychotherapy practice for psychoanalysis/psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy in Vienna.
Before that, she worked psychotherapeutic at the psychotherapeutic outpatient clinic of the Sigmund Freud Private University and at iwik - Verein zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität.
Experience in working with children and adolescents by the Caritas institution "Am Himmel", the umbrella organization of Austrian Autistic Aids and Austrian Diabetic Association.

Education:
Study of psychotherapy sciences at the Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna.
Completion of the first diploma of international business administration at the University of Economics and business Vienna, Austria.

Scientific work:
"Der Nestflüchter" - The psychoanalytic view of a young depressive man
Anorexia nervosa and religious fasting. The symptoms of anorexia with a case study.
The joke as a defense mechanism based on Wilhelm Busch´s "Max and Moritz"



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Valerie Marko: My interest and curiosity of the individual. In dealing with my own emotions and I became fascinated with the unconscious and reach my personal limits. Psychoanalysis allowed me a way, to use my creativity, which I initially tried to live out while studying art history.

Therefore it is my goal, to escort my patients on their way of self-knowledge too and to arouse their curiosity about their own history. >> continue

Pulsion et civilisation is a critical work of psychoanalysis. It shows the considerable influence of the external environment, and civilization, on human beings when they develop mental disorders. Freudian psychoanalysis emphasizes the endogenous aspect of the cause for mental disorders, specifically the repressed and unfulfilled drive. Against the frustration engendered by repression, civilization should, according to Freud, meet the expectations of the subject. Since this task is not successful, the author speaks of Civilization and Its Discontents.

Our position is different. Civilization is largely the cause of misfortune of human beings. Through its ethics, its superego, it breeds frustration. It´s inevitable; humanity is made in and for the frustration.

In fact, our argument is as follows: firstly, it identifies several aspects of the drive concept without forgetting the pseudo-Marxist critique of the death instinct, precisely that of Wilehlm Reich. Furthermore, we are developing two topics of Freud with the aim to understand the phylogenetic superego and its close relationship to civilization.

Moreover, civilization is discussed including its dimension of social cohesion and ethics. Finally, it is the impact of ethics on the human psychic that especially arouses our interest as its product are largely neurosis, perversion and psychosis.

The heart of our problem remains a challenge to Civilization and Its Discontents. Or should we instead of calling it - Civilization and its Discontents call it - Discontents of the civilization?



POUR UNE CRITIQUE DE MALAISE DANS LA CIVILISATION

Pulsion et civilisation est un ouvrage critique de la psychanalyse. Il montre l´influence considérable du milieu extérieur, de la civilisation, sur l’être humain dans la formation des troubles psychiques. La psychanalyse freudienne met en exergue l´aspect endogène de la cause du trouble psychique, précisément la pulsion refoulée et insatisfaite. Contre la frustration qu´engendre le refoulement, la civilisation devrait, selon Freud, combler les attentes du sujet. Puisque cette tâche ne réussit pas, l´auteur parle de Malaise dans la civilisation.

Notre position est différente. La civilisation est en grande partie la cause du malheur de l’être humain. Par le biais de son éthique, son surmoi, elle engendre de la frustration. C´est inévitable, l´humanité est faite dans et pour la frustration.

En fait, notre argumentation se dessine de la manière suivante: d´une part, on cerne plusieurs aspects du concept de pulsion sans oublier la critique pseudo-marxiste de la pulsion de mort, précisément celle de Wilehlm Reich. D´autre part, nous développons les deux topiques de Freud dans l´objectif de comprendre le surmoi phylogénétique et son rapport étroit à la civilisation.

Par ailleurs, la civilisation est abordée notamment dans sa dimension de lien social et de son éthique. Enfin, c´est l´impact de cette éthique sur le psychique humain qui suscite surtout notre intérêt, en ce qu´il produit en grande partie de la névrose, de la perversion et de la psychose.

Le cœur de notre problématique reste une remise en question de Malaise dans la civilisation. Faut – il dire Malaise dans la civilisation ou Malaise de la civilisation? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Darius Wesner Estevenson from Case-Pilote, Martinique:

Born on 09/25/1975 in Port-au-Prince, HAITI
Married, 3 children.
Diplomas
2013-2012: Master 2 in psychoanalysis. University of Paris 8.
2012-2011: Master 2 in Humanities / Philosophy and Critique of Contemporary Culture. University of Paris 8.
2006-2005: Master of French as a Foreign Language. University of the French West Indies and Guiana.
2003-1999: Modern Letters degree at the Higher School of Port-au-Prince.



Né le 25/09/1975 à Port-au-prince, HAÏTI
Marié, 3 enfants.
Diplômes
2013-2012: Master 2 en psychanalyse. Université de Paris 8.
2012-2011: Master 2 en Sciences Humaines/ Philosophie et Critique Contemporaine de la Culture. Université de Paris 8.
2006-2005: Maîtrise en Français Langue Étrangère. Université des Antilles et de la Guyane.
2003-1999: Diplôme en Lettres Modernes à l´École Normale Supérieure de Port-au-Prince.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis? Comment en êtes-vous venu à la psychanalyse?

Darius Wesner Estevenson: I came to psychoanalysis through the transfer more precisely thanks to the influence of my professor Pierre Bayard. He came to teach a course of psychoanalysis /literature at the Higher School of Port-au-Prince during a philosophy master program. Je suis venu à la psychanalyse par le transfert, précisément par l´influence de mon professeur Pierre Bayard. Il était venu enseigner un cours de psychanalyse/littérature à l’École Normale Supérieure de Port-au-Prince dans un programme master de philosophie.
>> continue

Felix de Mendelssohn´s sudden death after a short, severe illness deeply shook relatives, friends, and colleagues. With him, we lose a great European intellectual, a committed psychoanalyst, who during his lifetime has made a strong contribution to conveying Freud´s work in culture and society.

As son of the publisher Peter de Mendelssohn and the cultural correspondent, literary critic and novelist Hilde Spiel, Felix de Mendelssohn was born in 1944 in London. His parents fled Vienna in 1936 because of the anti-Semitic policy of Austria - the consequences of a fate de Mendelssohn dealt with in his 2006 published book Flucht in die Freiheit. After returning to Vienna in the 1960s, Felix de Mendelssohn was trained as a psychoanalyst and group analyst. Over the years he was not only active as a clinical psychoanalyst, but also as a book author and he was also part of numerous institutional functions: de Mendelssohn was a member of the Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Privatstiftung and department head for psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität, he taught in Kiev, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and, of course, in Vienna, here also as a lecturer for role interpretation and aesthetics at the Max Reinhardt Seminar for Performing Arts.

The second residence of de Mendelssohn was Berlin, where he lived with his wife, the American philosopher Susan Neiman. Just this summer I met him there at a book presentation. He read from Der Mann, der sein Leben einem Traum verdankte: Ein Traumforscher erzählt [N.T. The man who owed his life to a dream: a dream explorer talks], and I was once more able to experience him as a captivating lecturer who knew how to draw his audience in his spell with expressive images. Later, at an Italian restaurant in Wilmersdorf, everyone wanted to sit next to him. What was the fascination that emanated from de Mendelssohn? Whoever had to do with him, soon learned the incredible kindness with which, in spite of his disputability, he encountered his fellow-man, and which always gave one the certainty of dealing with someone special. >> continue

This year around 81000 "Taferlklassler" [N.T children just starting school] have just started school in Austria. Smiling, with a "Schultüte [N.T.The School Cone- large cornet of cardboard filled with sweets and little presents given to children in Germany on their first day at school]" in front of a blackboard - one imagines something like this when one thinks about these children on the first day of school. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.
This week we have the great honor that an author decided to write a second time for us.
Therefore his Introduction is now slightly modified compared to the first time.
You, dear Reader, can read Sabine Schreckenthaler‘s first interview here and Sabine Schreckenthaler‘s first article can be found here!


We are very glad to welcome back Sabine Schreckenthaler from Vienna, Austria:

Psychotherapist in training under supervision (psychoanalysis)
Psychotherapy scientists
In private practice at 1010 Vienna and 2412 Wolfsthal
Psychotherapeutic / Psychoanalytic work with children, adolescents, adults and families
Employed at Kinderhilfswerk since 2012
2012 "Bachelor´s degree" (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"The importance of psychotherapeutic childrens games from a psychoanalytical and pedagogical point of view"
2015 Magistra degree (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"Dreams of preschoolers - A qualitative, in-depth hermeneutical investigation according to a psychoanalytical viewpoints"


Illuminating quotes:

“Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, (…).”
(Sigmund Freud, 1908. Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming)

For me this quote is the beginning of my scientific and psychoanalytic work and expresses in one sentence the meaning of the child´s play for the psychoanalytic psychotherapy. >> continue

When I go to the Freiburger Starbucks, I see some zealous medical students who rehearse diligently with thick earplugs in their ears. Then there are the brilliant writers who are still waiting for the appointment to the same and by nose picking, excessive coffee consumption- after all the refill only costs 50 cents – and frequent visits to the toilet, they try to solve their writer´s block. There is usually also always a person who is a bit antisocial: The homeless-psychotics who smells bad, falls asleep and then jumps briefly to defend his table; a little washed up dog owner who lets his furry pet run around, even to the tables of frightened mothers with dog hair-allergic children; lately a young woman who lets out a terrible curse, which sets the teeth on edge every 5 minutes, so that inevitably I begin to fantasizes, what she could do with the men who have her cursing so much. On the other free tables, where no individualists are, sit couples, girlfriends or French families.

And one can have become so accustomed to that one no longer may noticed it: Of those who sit together at the table, at least half at the moment of viewing it, is busy with their cell phones: The young woman with the strict perfume odor types all the time on her I-phone, in between she takes some bites from her muffin and then smiles briefly with her mouth full at her male counterpart, who also types around somewhat listless on his cell phone. There are the twenty-year-old female twins, each of which taps on their phone, each with headphones in the ear. There is the French family, woman, man and the pubescent daughter: the father strokes his I-Phone, obviously searching something on the Internet, the daughter types something into her cell phone, the mother checks her makeup in the mirror of the cell phone.

Talking without a side view to the mobile phone is a rarity in the microcosm of Starbucks. That it is not about an artifact of an underclass-Niche-cosmos, knows anyone who has ever experiences meting young high school students during a school trip in the train: He will find that seventy-five percent are kinda busy with their cell phones. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.
This week we have the great honor that an author decided to write a second time for us.
Therefore his Introduction is now slightly modified compared to the first time.
You, dear Reader, can read Moritz Pohlmann’s first interview here and Moritz Pohlmann’s first article can be found here!


We are very glad to welcome back Moritz Pohlmann from Freiburg, Germany:

Born in Freiburg-Germany. Studied psychology, as main subjects Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology at the Universities of Fribourg and Bern. Pohlmann graduated in depth-psychological-analytical training at the Psychosomatic Hospital Freiburg and after several years of clinical activity – last at the Sigma Clinic in Bad Säckingen – currently working in a counseling center at Freiburg and in an ambulant therapeutic practice.

Quotes to the difficulties which may oppose the person who deals with what might be called (Oedipal) maturity of personality:

“So, like all unsatisfied mothers, she took her little son in place of her husband, and by the too early maturing of his erotism robbed him of a part of his masculinity (Freud S. (1910) Leonardo Da Vinci and a memory of his Childhood).”

Freud´s representation describes a socialization experience that in my observation is becoming much more characteristic for boys: in a pseudo-partnership relationship without paternal limit-putting pivotal word of a third person, they are excessively increased and stimulated, but nobody introduces them into the world. Their battles in the martial computer game worlds of the nursery on the one hand, their staying at home even if they could have already moved out on the other hand, is their compromise to keep the maternal castle and to strike out at the same time, to remain at her bosom while being her man and to prove his warrior status. >> continue

Dear Readers!

We continue to grow!
Starting today Sabine Schreckenthaler will enrich our team in the feuilleton.
Her focus will be to write book reviews in the area of child and adolescent psychoanalysis.

Welcome aboard!



Sabine Schreckenthaler from Vienna, Austria.
Psychotherapist in training under supervision (psychoanalysis)
Psychotherapy scientists
In private practice at 1010 Vienna and 2412 Wolfsthal
Psychotherapeutic / Psychoanalytic work with children, adolescents, adults and families
Employed at Kinderhilfswerk since 2012
2012 "Bachelor´s degree" (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"The importance of psychotherapeutic childrens games from a psychoanalytical and pedagogical point of view"
2015 Magistra degree (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"Dreams of preschoolers - A qualitative, in-depth hermeneutical investigation according to a psychoanalytical viewpoints"



DWP: Dear Mag. Schreckenthaler, in the future you will write in the column "Feuilleton" about selected psychoanalytic books as a critic for our readers.
What can our readers expect?


Sabine Schreckenthaler: I will review books and journals in the field of psychoanalytic infant, child and adolescent psychotherapy.

I want to give the readers a short substantive overview with the reviews and share some thoughts about it. Also, I´ll try to put the reviews in a contextual background. >> continue

The honoree, which died in 2009, would have been, on September 20, 2016 a hundred years old. To commemorate his work and his lovable personality several events are planned in Vienna and Zurich, which deal with the various aspects of his work as a physician, neurologist, psychoanalyst ethno-psychoanalyst and writer. We psychoanalysts, who came afterwards, are grateful to him especially for the renewal of psychoanalysis and for his lifelong socio-critical commitment. He was a fearless fighter against fascism and Stalinism and also a gifted storyteller.

As an adolescent he read Hitler´s “Mein Kampf" on his father´s estate in Nowikloster in Slovenia and henceforth knew what was coming. Shortly afterwards he experienced the first Jewish persecutions at his high school in Graz. Attending the university he studied the classics of Marxist and became an unorthodox Marxist. Clear-sighted he interrupted his medical studies before the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany and moved as a Swiss Abroad to Zurich. Here he frequented antifascist circles and met his future wife, originally from Graz, Goldy Matthèy, who also had to flee after the collapse of the Spanish Republic, where she had joined the International Brigades. It was not long until the two encountered the like-minded young Swiss doctor Fritz Morgenthaler, resulting in a lifelong friendship. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Emilio Modena from Zurich, Switzerland:

Born in 1941 in Naples, since 1950 in Switzerland. Medical studies at the University of Zurich, afterwards five years working as a general practitioner. Psychoanalytic training at PSZ, private practice since 1974, lecturer and supervisor since 1977, founder of the Foundation for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis 1979. Numerous publications on psychoanalytic training drive theory and narcissism, psychoanalysis and politics (see Bibliography www.psychoanalyse-stiftung.ch).



DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Emilio Modena: There have been two motifs during my adolescence and early adulthood. On the one hand the idealization of my grandfather (step-) father´s side, Rudolf Brun, who was a neurologist, psychoanalyst and myrmecologist and a real private scholar and as such an impressive personality. Even today, I still own his research microscope. On the other hand, my curiosity, which was directed towards biology, as well as sociology and politics. I discovered psychoanalysis as a link between the two areas. >> continue

The idea, introduced in Western culture, in Vienna, a little more than a century ago, that a part of our subjective personal life is unconscious, or even that there might be a hidden region somewhere in the space of our psyche, has become widely accepted. Few other notions have given rise to so many controversies and debates throughout the last hundred years, be it on the way we obtain knowledge about the unconscious, on its relation to other layers of the psyche, on its relations to the body and organic processes, or simply on the correct methods used to conceptualize it.

It is of course well known that Freud’s approach to the problem changed throughout the development his work. Moreover, the subsequent generations of psychoanalysts and other psychiatrists and theoreticians have discussed and explored many different paths to continue to make sense of the Freudian ideas. In the present context we witness a relative opening in the psychoanalytical practice towards other methods and conversely an opening of other schools towards psychoanalytical problems and concepts. For example, in the German context, a very interesting debate is going on about the articulation of the two dimensions of the unconscious, the first, classically Freudian, dimension being the “vertical” unconscious concerning the more or less hidden memories of the individual, and the second dimension being the “horizontal” unconscious, concerning the space of resonance in the relation between two people [See Michael B. Buchholz and Günther Gödde, Unbewußtes (Gießen, Psychosozial Verlag, 2011)]. In the therapeutic relation, the issue is to articulate the two dimensions, i.e. to work on the history of the patient and in so doing to use one’s sensitivity towards his/her meaningful movements and expressions in the living present of the therapeutic encounter. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Stefan Kristensen from Geneva, Switzerland:

He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Art History Department, University of Geneva. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the Universities of Geneva and Paris on Merleau-Ponty and the question of expression. He has been a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Heidelberg (2013-2015). He has published extensively on the theory of subjectivity, on the problem of witnessing, on the sources and limits of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy among other topics in contemporary continental philosophy and aesthetics. He recently completed his habilitation thesis at the University of Toulouse with a work entitled “The Sensitive Machine”, an essay of articulating the phenomenological perspective of Merleau-Ponty and the schizoanalysis of Félix Guattari (to be published by Herrman, Paris). His latest book is entitled Jean-Luc Godard Philosopher (2014).



DWP: What led you to deal with psychoanalysis, respectively with Freud and his achievements?

Stefan Kristensen: I have come to psychoanalytical literature through the study of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. I was curious about his use of the Freudian notion of sublimation in his attempts to describe the passage of perceptual sense onto the realm of language (in PhD, published in 2010 under the title Parole et subjectivité. Merleau-Ponty et la phénoménologie de l’expression). This made me familiar with Merleau-Ponty’s quite mysterious idea of an ontological psychoanalysis (in The Visible and the Invisible), in which the unconscious would not be necessarily circumscribed to an individual, but where the unconscious actually is an access to being itself. From such a vantage point, Freud appears as the groundbreaking classic author who made many things possible, but whose ontological prejudices prevented him from going all the way through. But as a genuine classical thinker, his text contains a potential of new questioning at each new reading. >> continue

Dear Readers!

We are expanding our feuilleton, from now you can not only read about reviews of psychoanalytic events but also book reviews.
Today we want to introduce our first reviewer who from now will write exclusively for our readers.

Welcome aboard!


Lea Dohm, née Peplau, married with 2 children.
Oct. 2000 - Feb. 2006: Study of Psychology at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Sep. 2005 - Sep. 2011: advanced training to depth psychology oriented psychological Psychotherapist in the training center of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Center for Lifelong Learning (C3L).
Aug. 2011 - Jan. 2014: Specialist Journalism by correspondence course Aug. 2011 - Jan. 2014 at the Free School of Journalism Berlin.
Since Feb. 2016: advanced training for psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapist in Göttingen, Tiefenbrunn.
Since March 2012: Settled in Stadthagen with an own psychotherapeutic practice with admission to the care provided under health insurance schemes.
May 2011 - Dez. 2014: contributor for Public Relations at the Psychotherapeutic Association of the State of Lower Saxony. Worked previously for several years in three different psychiatric hospitals.
Member of bvvp, IPPNW, the Humanistische Union and Pro Asyl. >> continue

Intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis

As a result of dealing with the theory and technique of psychoanalysis, I came across the "theory of intersubjectivity" which brought me closer to my goal. I want to give a small insight. A definition that I find succeeded puts the patient and analyst at the center of understanding and shows that "psychoanalysis tries to illuminate phenomena that occur within a specific mental field, which through the intersection of two subjectivities - of the patient and the analyst - is constituted" (Atwood and Stolorow in Donna M. Orange et al. 2001, 11).

Subjectivity is presupposed in the theory of intersubjectivity. More precisely, it is about two or more different subjectivities and the interaction between these (cf. Donna M. Orange et al. 2001,11). The point is to understand that we can work and understand psychoanalytically only within the intersubjective field, that means, we "have to check the theories, the prejudices and assumptions that underpin our own subjectivity" (Donna M. Orange et al. 2001, 13). It is argued, "that relational contexts reciprocally constitute each other: As literary theorists sometimes say, the writer creates the reader, and the reader let the writer emerge" (Donna M. Orange et al 2001, 13). >> continue

Ferenczi´s contribution

On the question what psychoanalysis is, Freud once replied: "A conversation between two … people. [...] Nothing else goes on between them they just talk to each other" (Freud in Haynal, 2000, 11).

It soon turned out that this definition was more than insufficient, especially in terms of technique. "Freud has worked passionately for theoretical research, but the technique, the practice and the unique relationship were not always the focus of his interest" (Haynal, 2000, 13).

André Haynal presented in his book that there were problems associated with the technique, and that it had a double ambiguity: "In his technical writings he establishes rules, while he seems to devalue them elsewhere and says those rules are like bridges for > Beginners < [...] The second ambiguity - perceived or real - is in the contradiction between Freud’s practice as we know it by his case reports and from testimonies, and his > official < position as it appears in his writings on the technique" (Haynal, 2000, 1). >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Alisa Bartl from Vienna, Austria:

Studied at the Goethe University Frankfurt (philosophy, education).
2008 trained as an educator, also in Frankfurt.
Since 2012 study of Psychotherapy Sciences (Psychoanalysis) at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna

Psychotherapist in training under supervision in private practice.
Radio host of the radio show UNBEWUSST - die Lust am freien Sprechen!



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Alisa Bartl: My father works as a Gestalt therapist as such the contact with psychotherapy and the unconsciousness was so to speak unavoidable.

I made the decision to become a psychoanalyst, because I wanted to learn the profession from the bottom up and also to challenge my father and because psychoanalysis for me is more than a method of treatment. >> continue

Despite some emphatic claims to the contrary, psychoanalysis was never simply a method for the treatment of mental disorder. Almost from its inception, psychoanalysis was – and to this day, remains – a rich and evolving approach to interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences. It is also, beyond a doubt, a social movement whose growth and decline, fluctuations and internal conflicts warrant careful scrutiny and reflection in their own right, irrespective of how analytic clinicians practice their craft. This dimension of the history of psychoanalysis has traditionally been neglected by clinicians, and is often over-emphasized by critics of psychoanalysis, who sometimes study the history of the discipline in order to discredit, rather than to strengthen or improve it.

A striking feature of the psychoanalytic movement was its odd combination of revolutionary and conservative elements. On the one hand, thanks to Freud, psychoanalysts had revolutionary insights into the nature of human sexuality and psychic functioning; insights that could potentially bestow greater insight and self-knowledge, liberating patients suffering from neurotic symptoms of one sort and another. On the other hand, since the creation of the International Psychoanalytic Association, the IPA’s executive branch often greeted innovations at the level of theory or practice quite warily, being reluctant to deviate from Freud’s own ideas. Indeed, for the first half century or so after the IPA was established, fidelity to Freud was frequently invoked as a criterion of intellectual probity or worth, while disagreements with Freud on fundamental issues were interpreted as signs of resistance or of latent psychopathology. As a result, those who lacked an appropriate amount of Freud piety, or deviated too far from the prevailing consensus among the key players in Freud’s circle could find themselves excluded, or simply left of their own accord. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Daniel Burston from Pittsburgh, U.S.A:

He is an Associate Professor and former chair of the Psychology Department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. He was raised and educated in Toronto, Canada. He received a Hons. B.A. in Political Science from the York University in 1979. He achieved his M.A. in Social & Political Thought at the York University 1981, his Ph.D. in 1985. He also receives a Ph.D. in Psychology at the York University in 1989. He is married with two children. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles on the history of psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, including The Legacy of Erich Fromm, The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R.D. Laing, and Erik Erikson and the American Psyche: Ego, Ethics and Evolution.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Daniel Burston: Two things, primarily. One was adolescent curiosity, another was my parent’s bookshelf, which contained volumes by Freud, Anna Freud, John Bowlby, Erich Fromm, Erik Erikson, etc. The fact that several of my parents’ friends were psychologists, psychiatrists or psychoanalysts who were also lively conversationalists probably had some impact as well. >> continue

The instrumentally rational strong and the weak tragic subject in comparison

The tragic self-understanding thus contains a different idea of the subject than the instrumentally rational self-understanding, in which the (cognitive) behavioral therapy is based on. From the perspective of the tragic self-understanding the subject of the purposive-rational self-understanding is on the one hand overestimated in its self-availability, self-transparency and self-mightiness and on the other hand underestimated in its more subtle forms of expression, overlooked and ignored:

-) The orientation on a strong purposive-rational subject in the behavioral therapy associated with the assumption that the subject flourishes in the pursuit of its conscious goals makes it plausible that behavior and experience pattern would be perceived as disturbance and are attributed to disorders when the subject´s conscious goals are no longer reachable. From the perspective of tragic self-understanding, however, such a separation of the subject from its disturbance seems questionable. By assuming that the person is not the master in its own home and does not flourish in the pursuit of his rational objectives, it expects and admits to the patients to follow with the external disturbance also intentions that may not be identified in the superficially applied significance connection.

-) The instrumentally rational self-understanding creates a reality for the behavioral therapy that is in principle transparent for the subject and thus controllable, it must return the external loss of controllability of the reality on deficits in adequate perception of reality. The tragic subject understanding does not claim such ability to domesticate the world qua Ratio. On the contrary, it leaves it to the subject to respond according to his individual disorder of repressed anthropological sensibilities and needs. Behind what is called in the behavioral therapy as inadequate perception of reality, therefore, is to (2002) to quote an expression of Holzhey-Kunz, the "ontological clairaudience" of the patient. >> continue

Psychotherapies always include an examination of a suffering person, a suffering subject. On how they think about the subject, psychotherapeutic approaches differ. The author contrasts a purposive-rational with a tragic self-understanding. The first he identifies with the behavioral therapy, the second he locates in psychoanalysis, even if it contains a contradictory subject understanding. In contrast to the purposive-rational self-understanding, which defines the subject on self-mightiness and self-availability, the tragic self-understanding sees the subject as weaker, but sums it up further at the same time. Where the behavioral therapy must separate the patient of its failure, the tragic self-understanding admits to the patient, to secretly pursue in its failure also a subversive intention and to respond to otherwise suppressed truths. The author observes a disappearance of the tragic self-understanding in recent psychodynamic approaches and outlines how a re-orientation of the tragic self-understanding could bring among other the expression in the socialization of psychotherapists.


The strong subject in modern behavioral therapy

In modern (cognitive) behavioral therapy, the patient appears to be well presented as a strong subject. It is his right to self-control in rational goals, self-availability and even self-mightiness, from which it emanates.

"The presumption of a concept of man: leitmotif... is the pursuit of self-determination, self-responsibility, self-control." (P.4, Kanfer, Reinecker u Schmelzer., 1990)
>> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Moritz Pohlmann from Freiburg, Germany:

Born in Freiburg-Germany. Studied psychology as main subjects Clinical Psychology and Social Psychology at the Universities of Fribourg and Bern. After his studies he received a psychodynamic training at the Heidelberg Institute for Psychotherapy. Since completion of the 18-month psychiatric psychosomatic activity at three clinics and change to the depth-psychological-analytical training at the Psychosomatic Hospital Freiburg he has worked since 2013 at the Sigma-clinic for acute psychiatry. Starting from July 2016 he will be working in an outreach clinic in Freiburg and in ambulant therapeutic practice. Pohlmann published texts for Aware and the Sigma Academy. In addition to his psychoanalytic training Pohlmann is currently attending a training course for qualifying as a boxing trainer.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Moritz Pohlmann: The time that I spent with a man named Peter, had an important part in it. Peter was "resident" in a house in Ireland, where I spent a year after graduating taking care of formerly homeless people. With Peter, who had crashed after a breakup, I spent many hours discussing the trajectories of our own life, hopes, big issues, the little things and experiences of everyday life. Sometimes we were even silent and listened to the bubbling of the fish aquarium which stood in the corner. To experience the effect of shared closeness and reciprocal listening was for me then a beneficial-happy experience that also led me to the desire to study psychology. During this time, I also began reading intensively psychological writings, at first mainly of existential-oriented authors: Ernest Becker, Viktor Frankl, Irvin Yalom. Their basic idea that neurotic suffering is always also a struggle with fundamental questions of human existence under the conditions of the respective time and the individual history of the patients, has always appealed to me. >> continue

Dear Readers, Dear Guests, Dear Event managers!
 
THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST is particularly happy to introduce you to a new column of its ever-growing online magazine.
The FEUILLETON!
  
In here well-versed psychoanalysis fans can as critics, write for the readers either briefly and concise or long and eloquent of various psychoanalytic events worldwide and thus give the people at home an impression of what they have, or have not missed.
 
THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST remains true to its proven scheme, namely that in the forum everybody can again comment and discuss and that the critics are available for questions.
 
You, dear readers, visitors and especially you, dear event managers, can look forward to see which international psychoanalytic events from now on will end up in the FEUILLETON and are discussed there.
It can start at any time now!
 
Today you will not only be introduced to the FEUILLETON but also to the first critic/correspondent.
 
With pleasure, we present you KAI HAMMERMEISTER from Berlin, the first brave correspondent, who will from now on enrich you with his reports. >> continue

„Only if the mother holds her baby for unique enough and trust it enough to fulfill her conscious and unconscious wishes, will she be able to disregard temporarily her own narcissistic needs after birth, because these desires are now moved onto the baby.“ (Brazelton and Cramer 1991 zit. n. Schleske 2008, 22)

Until now Pregnancy as well as maternity were little to barely investigated in terms of introspection for woman.

Since the mother is subjected to big changes in physical and psychological sense during the time of pregnancy, it is of great importance to pay more attention to pregnancy. For this reason, I conducted a study on dreams of pregnant women for a scientific work. The dreams of pregnant women serve as an aid to reach the unconscious conflicts, wishes, fears and needs in the time of pregnancy. In this article I will only briefly discuss my study and place the emphasis on the importance of pregnancy for woman.

In this very significant change for the woman fantasies over the unborn child start and are often quickly displaced because they trigger anxiety. Likewise occurring desires that are connected to the unborn baby are displaced too, as these can also cause fears of the unknown. During this time, the needs of the mother shift to the baby.

It so happens that during pregnancy many women have more dreams during their sleep. The dream represents the repressed desires and fears that remain unconsciously in the waking life. Jörg Baltzer (cf. 2008, 77), a German gynecologist, writes about this, that more nightmares occur during pregnancy, mainly reflecting the responsibility of the woman to the partner and the child. He is also of the opinion that every pregnancy, regardless of how much it was desired, is never free of conflicts; these conflicts are reflected in the dream. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Katrin Hofer from Vienna, Austria:

Since 10/2015 in private practice, 1090 Wien
Since 10/2015 employment with the Association of Austrian psychotherapists
Since 10/2015 working on her PhD at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna with the working title "Träume in der Schwangerschaft - eine psychoanalytische Betrachtung der Bedeutung der Schwangerschaft für die Frau (dreams during pregnancy - a psychoanalytic consideration of the importance of pregnancy for women)"
2015 Magistra in Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna with "Wünsche und Ängste in Träumen von Schwangeren. Versuch einer psychoanalytischen Interpretation (desires and fears in dreams of pregnant women. Attempt of a psychoanalytic interpretation)"
Since 06/2013 candidate
2012 Bakkalaurea in Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna " Persönlichkeitsstörungen bei Jugendlichen und Kindern. Die Wichtigkeit des frühen Erkennens, um richtig zu intervenieren und die Problematik des Diagnostizierens (Personality disorders in adolescents and children. The importance of early recognition to intervene properly and the problem of diagnosing)"



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Katrin Hofer: At first it was simply a feeling. Through my studies of psychotherapy sciences, which I have also selected because I felt good about them, I was drawn increasingly towards psychoanalysis during the first semesters. I always thought that when I deal already with the psyche, than I should do it deeply. I want to get to the causes of a symptom and not only move the symptom. Understanding rather than explaining. >> continue

Developing his theory of sexuality, Freud made a profound contribution to the reconceptualisation of the process of maturation, as well as of the boundaries that separate the sphere of childhood from the sphere of adulthood. Deriving from the Freudian account of maturation and combining Freud’s models with his own postmodernist philosophy of language, Lyotard further develops a new perspective to deal with those phenomena.

                                                                               ***

In his essay “Emma: between Philosophy and Psychoanalysis,” [In “Emma: between Philosophy and Psychoanalysis” Lyotard deals with Freud’s case of “Emma”. She traces her fear of shops to an incident at age of twelve when she entered a shop, saw two shop assistants laughing, and ran out of the shop in a panic attack. Freud traces this scene to an earlier traumatic event which was repressed by Emma – when Emma was eight years old; a shopkeeper had fondled her genitals through her clothes]. Lyotard makes a distinction between the childhood phrase-affect and the articulated phrases of adulthood. In his own words, the phrase-affect, which is a “pure” affectivity ‘anthropologically speaking, […] is bound up with childhood’ [Ibid., 44].
The childhood phrase-affect not just lacks the instance of “I”, it also lacks the instance of addressee. Thus, the phrase-affect is a “presence” which is addressed to no one, neither as a question, nor as a reply.
Therefore, the phrase-affect lacks the instances needed for the participation in circulation of common sense, which embodies in the adults the capacity to articulate. This capacity is required to link phrases with each other.

The phrase-affect is non-significant, neither destined, nor referenced. Besides the “pure” childhood phrase-affect does not involve a demand, because a demand is an expectation of linking. But, in spite of the fact that it is deprived of all fundamental characteristics of phrase, Lyotard insists that it is sufficient to call this “presence” a phrase, hence to claim that it is a constitutive part of speech. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.
This week for the first time we have the great honor that an author decided to write a second time for us.
Therefore her Introduction is now slightly modified compared to the first time.
You, dear Reader, can read Julie Reshe´s first interview here and Julie Reshe´s first article can be found here!


We are very glad to welcome back Julie Reshe from Wyoming, Michigan:

She is a professor of philosophy at the Global Centre of Advanced Studies (United States), visiting professor at Alma Mater Europaea (Slovenia) and director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis and Neurophilosophy (GCAS). She teaches classes in neurophilosophy (with Catherine Malabou), psychoanalysis, the philosophy of motherhood (with Bracha L Ettinger and Katja Kolšek) and the philosophy of childhood. Reshe completed her PhD thesis under the supervision of Alenka Zupančič at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Reshe has written a number of book entries and academic articles published in top Russian- and English-language journals. She is also the author of more than 80 popular articles on philosophy, neurophilosophy and psychoanalysis.

Illuminating quotes:

"Freud´s thought is the most perennially open to revision...a thought in motion" (Lacan J., The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, p.1.)

Freud himself never claimed thought he express to be an established and proven doctrine. Freud´s theory is a collection of guesses and sketches, that require further research, improvements and confirmation (to what Freud always points himself). For example, from Freud’s biography it is known that, for example, his "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality," he rewrote and supplemented several times. For twenty years, while different versions of this work were published the changes made by Freud increased its size by half. In particular, the sections on infantile sexuality and pregenital development were added only nine years after the appearance of the first version of the work. In 1923, Freud himself confessed that in his research practice it often happened that what was old and what was more recent did not admit of being merged into an entirely uncontradictory whole, so he had to expose his thoughts to ruthless revision. >> continue

If one wants to psychodynamic interpret the sequential process of a bulimia attack, before the actual start the apparent exclusive relationship of the patients with food is already notable and important; here the mental preoccupation with food exceeds every level and becomes the center of their life design. It is almost as if the whole world is actually replaced with food, which is possibly the immense significance that the mother holds in early childhood. It appears to act as a symbiotic relationship between two people, and others are principle excluded from it, which likely indicates a regression in a pre-oedipal phase. This is supported by the growing lack of interest in the social environment, which, according to Fenichel indicates a "depletion of object occupations" [See Fenichel, 1931, 70; zit. n. Ettl, 2001 22] and represents an equivalent to the feelings of emptiness [See. Ettl, 2001 22].

As immediate trigger for binge eating a loss of object can be seen in its broadest sense, "primal scene" and the model of any trigger situations appear to be the "self-separating-mother" or the persistent feeling of the isolated experienced self separated by the maternal object. Consequently, a perceived diffuse separation anxiety is triggered by the affected, which can occasionally extend to outright panic. This anxiety, however, often only perceived as a "bodily discomfort", which often can not be described in detail and remains diffuse. The fact that the trigger situation that caused the separation anxiety is interpreted as a somatic event (hunger), is evidence of the depth of regression, namely in an early, infantile phase in which the distinction between soma and psyche has not yet occurred. Otto Fenichel and Karl Abraham collectively say that the hunger of the bulimic is designate as a mask behind which a "lust for narcissistic [sic] supply" [Ettl, 2001 39] hides which however needs to be hidden from the superego [See. Ettl, 2001 39ff.]. >> continue

Eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa are often treated within specially aligned clinical settings, but in analytical practice, one encounters bulimic patients. I believe that the analytic treatment is an excellent and promising option for a disease like bulimia, not least with a view to the Consumer Reports Study of Seligman {Seligman, 1996, 965}, which indicates that a longer term psychotherapy has a clear advantage over a shorter treatment when it comes to their effectiveness.

Experience has shown that in stationary processes a high focus is placed on the normalization of eating behavior, behavioral interventions occur, structured eating plans are presented and tools of all kinds used. Often one can observe a relatively rapid symptom improvement during the hospitalization, but frequently not as sustainable as desired. Are the patients discharged, they often fall quickly back into their old behavioral model. Taking into account that on the one hand, the defense organization of bulimic patient with the appropriation of a "false self", one can already suspect that they may tend to be "good patients", on the other hand the institutional (and therefore seemingly "maternal") accommodation also plays a role, because the patients are initially provided for and feel safe, but suddenly with the discharge they are "ejected" again and now should do all for themselves what previously the institution regulated for them. Besides, it appears that in focusing on the topics weight (daily weighing), nutrition (pre-meal plans, close supervision) etc. almost as if one gets involved in the patients’ defense mechanism of displacement or to participate in the rationalization. Often one can observe struggles there(for example in terms of increase in weight, food intake, etc.) that are completely out of place in my opinion and miss the goal of treatment altogether.
>> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Tamara Trebes from Vienna, Austria:

Born 1987 in Germany, Upper Franconia.
Academic studies of Psychotherapy Science at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna since 2011.
09/2015 - 02/2016 Co-therapist of a child-obesity group for the project “Enorm in Form” (WGKK)
since 05/2015 psychotherapist in training under supervision with practical work at the Sigmund Freud University outpatient clinic and the Institute for Behavioral Addictions, led by Dr. Dominik Batthyány 
05/2015 Baccalaureate of psychotherapy science, SFU Vienna
Thesis title: “Death by Chocolate: Experimental hermeneutical reflection of the psychodynamics of bulimia nervosa using the Psycho-Text-Puzzle (P-T-P)”
since 10/2014 employment at the World Council for Psychotherapy
08/2014 Practical activities at Bayreuth Regional Hospital (D), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; social therapy acute ward A6
03/2014 - 07/2014 practical activities at Vienna General Hospital, psycho-oncology team
01/2014 - 07/2014 Research Assistant to Univ-Prof. Dr. Alexander Gaiger, Psycho-oncology basic diagnostics
05/2006 - 07/2006 Practical activity at Haus am Rosenberg, Residential Care, Supported Living, and Assisted Living: dormitory and external group homes for mentally ill persons, Kronach (D) >> continue

According to psychoanalysis there is no identity, no ego established in advance. In On Narcissism, where he introduces the term Ichideal as the self-observing intrapsychic instance, Freud writes: »I may point out that we are bound to supposed that a unity comparable to the ego cannot exist in the individual from the start; the ego has to be developed." [Cf. Freud, S. On Narcissism (1914)] The process whereby an ego comes to exists is called the identification. The concept of identification has been evolving along the basic theories of Freud and later, Jacques Lacan. It is one of the most important concepts in psychoanalysis. As Freud writes in the seventh chapter of the Mass Psychology and the Analysis of Ego (1921): »Identification is known to psycho-analysis as the earliest expression of an emotional tie with another person. It plays a part in the early history of the Oedipus complex.” It is also highly connected to the concept of Nachtraeglichkeit, which Lacan took after Freud in the temporal sense means the unusual combination of anticipation and retroaction. The process of identification, elaborated first by Freud and later by Lacan, states that the Ego is basically an object, which according to Lacan completely belongs to the register of the Imaginary. In the beginning there are two different processes which run side by side, until they cross each other and come into conflict with each other in the process of the unification of the mental life, more famously known as the Oedipus complex. In general, the process of identification takes up in the early stages of the formation of the Self (the individual), via a certain kind of process of alienation within the image of one’s own body: In The Ego and the Id, Freud puts the emphasis on this visual aspect. "The ego," he says, "is first and foremost a bodily ego, it is not merely a surface entity but is itself the projection of a surface" (SE, 19:26).«[Boothby, R., Freud as Philosopher. Metapsychology After Lacan, New York and London: Routledge, 2001, p. 140.] >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Katja Kolšek from Ljubljana, Slovenia:

She is currently employed as the researcher at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). She has BA in Sinology (Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana) and PhD in Philosophy (Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana). She worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy SRC SASA in Ljubljana and the Theory department of the Jan van Eyck Academy. The post-academic institute for research and production in the fields of fine art, design, and theory. She has lectured on Introduction to Philosophy and Theory of Ideology at the Faculty of Humanities in University of Primorska in Koper. Her selected bibliography includes the monograph The Other of Democracy. The Concepts of Immanence and Otherness in Contemporary Theories of Democracy (Annales, Koper 2010), the article »The Parallax Object of Althusser´s Materialist Philosophy« in Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought, edited by Katja Diefenbach, Sara R. Farris, Gal Kirn and Peter Thomas (Bloomsbury Press, 2013), and »The Shift of the Gaze in Žižek´s Philosophical Writing« in Repeating Žižek, edited by Agon Hamza, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2015. Her research areas are philosophy, psychoanalysis and modern and contemporary Chinese literature.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Katja Kolšek: My first encounter with psychoanalysis was at the lectures of professor Mladen Dolar at the Department of Philosophy of Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenija. Of course, since Slavoj Žižek is a Slovene, I also grew up with some superficial knowledge of it, from my highschool years on. >> continue

Previous Freud editions

The tradition to publish Freud´s writings in a collected form dates back to the year 1906. At that time, the publishing house Franz Deuticke published a volume in which a collection of small writings of neuroses with some of Freud´s works from between 1893 and 1906.

Between 1924 and 1934 appeared in the International Psychoanalytic Press Freud Collected Writings in twelve volumes. This issue was again the basis for the Complete Works in 18 volumes, published in the Publishing house Imago in London 1940-1952. The S. Fischer used this issue for its photomechanical reprint which in 1987 had added a supplementary volume. These two great editions were organized by a team of editors and under the lead of Anna Freud.

From 1953, the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud appeared. It comprised 24 volumes and edited by James Strachey in collaboration with Anna Freud at the Hogarth Press in London. This edition was complete in 1974.

On the Standard Edition was based 1969-1975 the 10 volume Study Edition of the S. Fischer publishing house, for which Alexander Mitscherlich, Angela Richards and James Strachey were responsible. Ilse Grubrich-Simitis wrote in 1975 a supplement volume with technical literature, and in 1989 as part of a revised edition appeared a Freud-Bibliographie mit Werkkonkordanz by Ingeborg Meyer-Palmedo and Gerhard Fichtner (Frankfurt: S. Fischer Verlag (1989).

None of these here mentioned editions includes - apart from a few writings - Freud´s pre-analytical writings, i.e. the publications that appeared between 1877 and 1893/4. [The first edition, which also includes pre-analytical writings, is “Freud in Kontext” an electronic edition of the year 2010 (InfoSoftWare, www.infosoftware.de).]


Note of editor: There are 3 different Complete Edition of Freud’s Work in German a) Die Gesammelten Werke (in English: Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) b) die Studentenausgabe (Study Edition) and c) Freud im Kontext (Freud in Context). The Sigmund-Freud-Gesamtausgabe is a new Complete Edition of Freud’s Work
>> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Christfried Tögel from Lausanne, Switzerland:


-) Born September 4, 1953 in Leipzig; since 1978 married to Prof. Dr. Dr. Ginka Tögel; one daughter.
-) Publications on the History of Science and Philosophy of Science, publisher of several editions of Sigmund Freud letters and author of several books on dream research and the Freud-biographical (translated in eight languages)
-) After his studies of clinical psychology at the Humboldt University of Berlin and his professional activity as a psychotherapist at the Charité psychiatric clinic, he received his doctorate in 1981 with the theme "The Dream. Historical, philosophical and empirical aspects about "(Humboldt University Berlin) Dr. phil.
-) In 1988 he habilitated with the thesis „Philosophische, historische und wissenschaftstheoretische Aspekte der Entstehung, Entwicklung und Rezeption der klassischen Psychoanalyse” " (Humboldt University Berlin).
-) After several years at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia (Area Philosophy of Science and History of Science, most recently as Director of Research for the Institute of Philosophy) in 1989 Tögel went as a Humboldt-awardee to the Institute for History of Medicine in Tübingen (Director: Prof. Gerhard Fichtner), where he conducted research on the history of psychoanalysis and Freud-Biography.
-) He then supervised research projects for recording and digitizing the archives of the Freud museums in Vienna and London (1991 until 1994)
-) From 2000 to 2015, he directed the Sigmund Freud Centre in Uchtspringe / Magdeburg and was from 2003 to 2015 director of the SALUS-Institute (Magdeburg).
-) Between 1986 and 2015 he organized numerous exhibitions and conferences on "Freud" and "History of Psychoanalysis / Psychiatry".
-) Freud´s grandson Walter Freud said in 1999 about Christfried Tögel: "I do not know anybody who is better informed about the life of my grandfather, or who knows more about the Psychoanalytical development than he does. It is no exaggeration to say did he is a Freudian Encyclopaedia. "
-) Tögel was also committed with his friend Herbert Grönemeyer – who took over the patronage over the exhibition that was conceived by Tögel " Dämonen und Neuronen" the history of psychiatry - as part of an event series to eliminate prejudice against psychiatry.
-) For the ZDF series Giganten Tögel has scientifically overseen the film Sigmund Freud – Aufbruch in die Seele and accompanied the filming in London. The main role was played by Dietmar Schönherr.
-) Since 2015 Tögel lives in Lausanne in Switzerland.



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Christfried Tögel: I have a doctorate in dream research and one can not avoid Freud doing this. Furthermore, my father is psychotherapist, so that even as a child I repeatedly heard the name Freud and terms such as neurosis, repression, unconscious and resistance. >> continue

CASE VIGNETTE

The moment I met with this severely depressed and suicidal patient I was confronted with a difficulty of sitting with her, due to her sad and depressed demeanor, but most of all due to her silence! This patient, let me call her Miss X, did not speak. She made no contact -at least not verbally- and she expressed no thoughts, ideas, wishes; fears or dreams. Being in her presence felt affectless, as if the therapy room had been depleted of oxygen; like a black, empty hole of nothingness.

Miss X, a young woman -23 years of age- had recently graduated from College, moved back home and struggled with finding a new life rhythm. A friend’s counsel had alerted her of the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis therapy center’s services and encouraged her to start therapy. Upon my acquiring the reason for therapy Miss X stated that she felt stuck, that she had nothing to live for, no goal, no direction or any sense of belonging. She claimed to feel hopeless and disconnected and had contemplated taking her own life. She delivered this in a painfully slow voice, while sitting slumped over like a little bundle of misery. Her long, curly hair hid her face, gazing into her lap. Her arms were covered with long sleeves, her hands barely showing, yet she managed to fiddle around with rings on her fingers and twisting and turning a piece of tissue as if she was wringing someone’s neck. I was caught up in this moment of despair finding myself at a loss of words and struggling to gain my own composure. It was dreadful, though somehow we managed to get through the intake session. We agreed on a low fee and she promised to come in for weekly therapy. >> continue

ABSTRACT

A common denominator when working with patients who exhibit primitive mental functioning - cases of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders, schizophrenia or autism-- is the therapist´s difficulty in controlling strong induced counter transference feelings and impulses. The therapist tends to become over active and intrusive. The following case attempts to shed light on this phenomenon.


THE STUDY

This paper presents a study of the extent to which a change in the patient´s self-state in the session  and a change in the therapist´s quality and frequency of interventions may co-occur in the treatment of a severely depressed, silent and schizoid affective patient who exhibits symptoms of primitive psychic functioning. The extent to which the mutual induction of strong transference-counter transference feeling in the session may at times hinder the analytic process is the question in this study. This research was undertaken to study the interface between therapeutic interventions and a patient’s progressive communication in analysis. Is a change in the patient’s pattern of communication a result of a change in the therapist’s intervention style? Is a change in the patient’s psychic state in the room a product of the therapist’s intervention? Does a change in the patient’s psychic stance in the room elicit a different form of intervention by the therapist? These are theoretical and methodological questions that have been entertained in this research. However, given the fact that the study will be using a single case design, the goal of the study is to examine the pattern of interaction between the therapist’s intervention and the patient’s progressive communication with no attempt to make any causal inference at the end. An extensive review of psychoanalytic literature found an absence of studies that have addressed this aspect of therapeutic interaction. This research intends to address this deficiency.


ABBREVIATED LITERATURE REVIEW

Hyman Spotnitz, the founding father of modern psychoanalysis, was born to immigrant parents in Boston. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Gabriele Chorney from Rhode Island, U.S.A:

Education: 
Doctor of Psychoanalysis: Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 2013
Certified Psychoanalyst: Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 2013
MA in Psychoanalysis: Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 2001
BA  in Liberal Arts: Thomas A. Edison State College, 1999                               
Academic Honors:
2014 Gradiva Award Nominee - Student Paper
Professional experience:
Private Practice 2001 - present                                         
Advisor at Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 2001 to present
Clinical Therapist (Doctoral Candidate)
BGSP -Therapy Center - (2001 -2009)
Master’s Thesis: The Meaning of Food, 2001
Doctoral Dissertation: Intervention as Transference – Countertransference Enactment, 2013



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Gabriele Chorney: Back in the 1990’s after having raised two children I was questioning what to do with the “rest of my life”.  My husband and I struggled with supervising our son who tampered with street drugs. In order to afford a meaningful intervention we decided to start family therapy; which acquainted me with my present day analyst. The rest is history. We saved our son and I followed in my analyst’s footsteps to study the very theory that she was applying to our well-being. >> continue

It is becoming common the search of professional help to take care of young people who have deliberately caused cuts on themselves. They are usually – but not exclusively - girls, teens, with cuts on their wrists, arms and even on their faces, brought by parents who are terrified by the scene and do not know what to do.

Besides the cuts, the presence of symptoms such as anorexia and bulimia are common, and some subjective characteristics, such as isolation, the need to call attention and the feeling of being misunderstood. Often, these youngsters have no mood to go to school,  no appetite and they don´t like to hang around with friends. These characteristics are very common and relevant in adolescence, but in these cases they appear on an exaggerated form and are often perceived as a depression.



JOVENS QUE SE CORTAM


É cada vez mais frequente a procura por ajuda profissional, geralmente solicitada pelos familiares, para o atendimento de casos em que jovens têm deliberadamente provocado cortes em seus pulsos, braços e até nos rostos. Geralmente são meninas, adolescentes, trazidas pelos pais, que ficam aterrorizados com a cena e não sabem o que fazer.

Além dos cortes, a presença de sintomas como anorexia e bulimia são comuns, além de algumas características subjetivas, como o isolamento, a necessidade de chamar a atenção e a sensação de ser incompreendida. É comum não haver ânimo para ir à escola, não ter apetite e não ter vontade de sair de casa. Questões muito presentes e pertinentes na adolescência, mas que nestes casos aparecem de forma exacerbada e é muitas vezes percebida como uma depressão. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Bruno Benndorf Mangolini from São Paulo, Brazil:

2016/2017: Master´s degree in clinical psychology at the core of subjectivity (PUC-SP)
2013/2014: Post graduation in Health Management (UNIFESP)
2009/2011: Post graduation in Psychopathology & Public Health (USP) 
2003/2007: Graduate and bachelor´s degree in psychology (PUC- SP)
Groups:
Spinoza Study Group (2010-2011)
Deleuze Study Group (2008-2010)
Lacan Study Group (2005-2009)
Professional experience:
Private office: conducts psychotherapeutic treatments in children, adolescents and adults (since 2011).
Public Health: seven years dedicated to public health, working in primary care and services for people with severe mental disorders (children and adults).
Clinic Maia - Brazilian System of Mental Health
Coordinator of the group of drug addicts and patients with mental disorders using psychodrama and operating group. Creation and implementation of the "Caring Project of caregivers, along with the nurses and staff of cleaning and maintenance. Supervision: Marcia Baptista and Antonio Lancetti - 880 hours
(08/2005 - 12/2007)
Languages:  Portuguese, English and Spanish.


2016/2017: Mestrando em Psicologia Clínica no núcleo de subjetividade (PUC-SP)
2013/2014: Especialista em Gestão em Saúde (UNIFESP)
2009/2011: Especialista em Psicopatologia e Saúde Pública (USP) 
2003/2007: Graduação e Bacharelado em Psicologia (PUC- SP)
Grupo de Estudo de Espinosa: participou de grupo de estudos baseado na obra de Baruch de Espinosa (2010-2011)
Grupo de Estudo de Deleuze: participou de grupo de estudos baseado na obra de Gilles Deleuze (2008-2010)
Grupo de Estudo de Lacan: participou de grupo de estudos baseado na obra de Jacques Lacan (2005-2009)
Experiência Profissional
Consultório particular: realiza tratamentos psicoterapêuticos com crianças, adolescentes e adultos (desde 2011).
Saúde Pública: sete anos dedicados à saúde pública, trabalhando em atenção primária e serviços para pessoas com transtornos mentais graves (adultos e crianças)
Clínica Maia (private Clinic)
Coordenador de grupos com dependents químicos e pacientes com transtornos mentais, utilizando psicodrama e grupos operacionais. Criação e implantação do projeto “Cuidando dos Cuidadores”, com enfermeiros e equipes de limpeza e manutenção. Supervisão: Marcia Baptista and Antonio Lancetti - 880 horas.
Línguas: Português, Inglês e Espanhol. >> continue

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is said to be the greatest potential threat to humanity. Within the last months, several Opinion Leaders stated their fears, spread by the media: Stephen Hawking (6), Elon Musk (5), Bill Gates (7), as well as renowned neuroscientists and philosophers have been warning human society of being doomed by AI. Billions have been invested to keep control of that potentially super intelligent „human child“.

Is humanity really threatened by parricide? Which are the psychological roots of those fears? And what could be the consequences of such a kind of anxiety-driven „education“?


AI – the menacing child of mankind

When Laios, King of Thebes, asked the Oracle of Delphi for a prophecy, he did not like what it predicted: His own son would kill him and get married to his wife. To prevent the prophecy, he marooned the baby, later named Oedipus, and let the baby’s legs smashed. When Oedipus slayed Laios many years later, without knowing it was his father, and then married his own mother, he fulfilled the prophecy.

It seems somehow ironic: Now, that humanity is about to create something like a new wondrous oracle, it becomes afraid of it - Afraid that it could destroy its own creator. AI shall be able to reprogram and optimize itself in the near future, to become super-intelligent, exceeding human intelligence by far, and may become self-conscious.

We expect a lot from AI: Not only in Silicon Valley a lot of effort is put into it, to make AI useful in many sectors – To solve those problems, humans have failed to solve, and in many cases have caused themselves: Amongst them climate change, social injustice, economic crisis, poverty, hunger, cancer, Alzheimer´s. Some even hope death itself can be overcome (1) with the help of AI. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Thomas Heindl from Vienna, Austria:

He is a philosopher, filmmaker and TV-producer. Since 2013 he dedicates himself to philosophy and his studies at the University Vienna. He published numerous texts and essays in newspapers, magazines and on his blog www.interaktionstheorie.org. Heindl is the producer of several TV-Shows on German and Austrian broadcasting stations. His documentary series „Bohemian Life“, about the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism and its co-founder Ernst Fuchs, was published on the online art magazine spykeheels.com.



DWP: What led you to occupy yourself with psychoanalysis or with Freud and his achievements?

Thomas Heindl: I discovered Freuds Interpretaion of Dreams as a teenager on my parents´ bookshelf and read it. The person and the topic attracted me in an almost mystical way. Later, psychoanalysis became interesting to me in the context of interaction theory, which I am engaged with a lot, as well as Constructivism.


DWP: How did you come about the topic of your essay?

Thomas Heindl: The topic of Artificial Intelligence is socially and philosophically highly relevant. The mainly negative approaches which are spread through the media bother me. The actual topic resulted from my ambition to state a more positive point of view – the psychoanalytical connection came to me spontaneously during my writings.


DWP: Why would you like to have a psychoanalytic perspective or rather a psychoanalytic assessment regarding your essay from our readers?

Thomas Heindl: I am convinced, that psychoanalysis can have an important impact on a positive development of AI – this could prove to be crucial for a beneficial coexistence of mankind an AI. >> continue

Many of us know Lou Andreas-Salomé for her relationships with prominent representatives of German intellectual life like Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke and Sigmund Freud. The following quotation of Freud made me realize the fact that she not only practiced as a psychoanalyst, but also rendered contributions to the psychoanalytic theory. Freud wrote on the occasion of her death in February 1937: "The last 25 years of life of this extraordinary woman belong to psychoanalysis, to which she contributed valuable scientific papers and which she practiced."

Similarly esteeming Freud wrote about her work "My Thanks to Freud": "It has certainly not happened often that I have admired a psa. [psychoanalytic] work, rather than to criticize them. I need to do it this time. [...] If it were possible to, what she has been pictured here with the finest brushstrokes make it coarsen to tangibility, one might have taken definitive insights into possession. "

Unlike Freud exceptionally great appreciation of her work, the psychoanalytic contributions of Lou Andreas-Salomé – according to Inge Weber and Brigitte Rempp (1990) were living in the shadows. Wrongly, in their opinion, "... especially since her ideas to narcissism and to femininity resonate in contemporary psychoanalytic literature."

Lorrain Markotic also wrote in the American Imago 2001: "That Andreas-Salomé´s writings have received so little attention is especially regrettable in light of the many ways in which they anticipate current discussions" (p 813). He feels her particular contribution lies in the area in the theory of development of the self.

To give you the opportunity to get a picture of Lou Andreas-Salomé´s psychoanalytic work, I want to present you her - as the most significant contribution regarded work - theory of narcissism. In her 1920 in Imago published essay Narzissmus als Doppelrichtung [“The Dual Orientation of Narcissism”] she writes that for her narcissism was "... our piece of self-love that accompany through all stages...". (Andreas-Salomé, 1920, p.191) She understands narcissism as Freud does, as self-love that transforms into object-love and, if needed, could be focused back on oneself. For Lou Andreas-Salomé narcissism is a limiting concept, over which our understanding and recognition may not be enough. For her narcissism is synonymous with the unconscious. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Elisabeth Höchtl-Wallner from Vienna, Austria:

Psychotherapist (Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis) in private practice, social scientist and economist, 10 years working in the field of leadership training and advanced training for senior staff, working at the counseling center of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2006, a member of the “Wiener Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse”. >> continue

The problem of sexuality is known to be a core issue of psychoanalysis. Philosophers thinking in the context of psychoanalysis are tired of reiterating that theory of sexuality developed by Freud is not intended to solve issues related to human’s sexuality, on the contrary, it is in itself a way of posing a question. In fact, psychoanalytic theory of sexuality says nothing new about sex, Lacan states that “it [psychoanalysis] implies no recognition of any substance on which it claims to operate, even that of sexuality. On sexuality, in fact, it operates very little. It teaches us nothing new about the operation of sex”[1]. According to the theory of psychoanalysis, sexuality is not a hidden sense of our inner life, it is itself deprived of any specific sense.

To clarify the meaning of the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality, we should turn to Freud’s “Three Essays on Sexuality Theory”. Alenka Zupančič sums up the theory stated in this work as follows: “Sexuality is a paradox-ridden deviation from a norm that does not exist [2]”.



Ламелла без кота, или психоаналитическая теория сексуальности

Вопрос сексуальности, как известно, является основным вопросом психоанализа. Размышляющие в контексте психоанализа философы уже устали повторять, что выдвинутая Фрейдом теория сексуальности не призвана разрешать проблемы, связанные с сексуальностью человека, напротив, она сама по себе является способом постановки проблемы. Психоаналитическая теория сексуальности не говорит ничего нового о самом сексе — Лакан утверждает, что “никакой субстанции, на которую он (психоанализ) претендовал бы воздействовать, в том числе субстанции сексуальной, он, даже молчаливо, не признает… О том, как работает сексуальность, мы от него ничего нового не узнали” [1]. В соответствии с теорией психоанализа, сексуальность также не является неким скрытым смыслом нашей внутренней жизни, она сама лишена какого-либо определенного смысла.

Чтобы прояснить значение психоаналитической теории сексуальности, нам следует обратиться к “Трем очеркам по теории сексуальности” Фрейда. Аленка Зупанчич, ведущий представитель Люблянской школы психоанализа, следующим образом суммирует изложенную в этой работе теорию: “сексуальность — это основанное на парадоксе отклонение от нормы, которой не существует[2]” . >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Julie Reshe:

She is an outstanding young philosopher, intellectual and artist. She is presently a director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis (The Global Center for Advanced Studies). Drawing from philosophy, psychoanalysis, neuroscience and art, her multi-disciplinary approach is focused on issues of cultural posthumanism. Articulating the non-human, the trans-subjective and the modifiable, her critique disputes traditional ways of life. Her research interests include evolution of language and culture, education, childhood studies, gender and sexuality. Julie publishes regularly in both mainstream magazines and refereed academic journals. She holds M.A. degree in Philosophy from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Julie also studied cultural theory in National University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy. She received her doctoral degree in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis in Slovenia, where she studied under supervision of Alenka Zupančič at the Institute of Philosophy of the  Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.


Жюли Реше – незаурядный молодой философ, интеллектуал и фотограф. В настоящее время она является директором Института психоанализа Глобального центра передовых исследований. Исходя из философии, психоанализа, нейронауки и теории искусства, ее междисциплинарный подход сосредоточен на теме культурного постгуманизма. Артикулируя не-человеческое, транс-субъективное и модифицируемое, ее критика оспаривает традиционные способы жизни. Ее научные интересы включают эволюцию языка и культуры, теорию образования, а также исследования детства и сексуальности. Жюли регулярно публикуется как в публицистических, так и в научных изданиях. Она имеет степень магистра философии Киевского национального университет имени Тараса Шевченко. Жюли также изучала теорию культуры в Национальном университете "Киево-Могилянская академия" . Она получила докторскую степень в области философии и психоанализа в Словении, где она училась под руководством Аленки Зупанчич в Институте философии Словенской академии наук и искусств. >> continue

The dream narratives of a four-year-old girl

When I, as the project leader [N.T. In the interview below as V], turned on the camera, B already looks at the animals and puts them in the sandbox; she takes out a crocodile and a shrub - the shrub is thorny;

B: "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! "(00:13 min, Interview B)
B shouts when she picks up the tree, and laughs;

She seeks eye contact with me, smiling at me, she always shows me the animal that she takes out of the container; to the crocodile and several spiky trees she puts a bull, which she calls "evil" (00:55 min, Interview B); but the other two animals were friends;
On the first question whether B has ever dreamed something she says approvingly:

B: "Uh-huh" (1:08 min, Interview B)
And without further questioning she says loudly:
B: "Mama is fall into the pool." (1:09 min, Interview B)

She makes swimming movements with the arms and the following dialogue arises (from 1:09 min, Interview B):

B: "And there she sw..sw..swims.[N.T here in German B nearly mentions disappearing “verschwindet” instead of “schwimmen”..swimming ]"
V: "That the Mama fell into the pool and swims there, did you dream?"
B: "And then swims longer."
V wants to say something, B interrupts me: " And then cl..cl..climbs on the waterslide "
V: "The Mama?"
B: "Uh-huh."
V: "What then sliding down?"
B: "Uh-huh. Because there was on the water. "
V: "A beautiful dream?"
B: "Uh-huh."

B continues to play with the figures; she pressed them all firmly into the sand and commented that:
B: "I am very strong. I already throw the D (a boy, note of the author) down. And the E (a girl, note of the author), as she was six. "(Min 1:50 Interview B) >> continue

Sigmund Freud "Interpretation of Dreams" is the centerpiece of psychoanalysis. Much has been written about the psychoanalytic perspective of dream narratives from adults. However, it seems as if dream narratives of children have never been given priority. The following article deals with the question of the importance of children´s dreams and if they are rightly overlooked in case studies and theoretical papers. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Sabine Schreckenthaler from Vienna, Austria:

Psychotherapist in training under supervision (psychoanalysis)
Psychotherapy scientists

In private practice at 1010 Vienna and 2412 Wolfsthal
Psychotherapeutic / Psychoanalytic work with children, adolescents, adults and families

Employed at Kinderhilfswerk since 2012
2012 Bachelor´s degree (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"The importance of psychotherapeutic childrens games from a psychoanalytical and pedagogical point of view"

2015 Magistra degree (Psychotherapy Sciences at the Sigmund Freud University):
"Dreams of preschoolers - A qualitative, in-depth hermeneutical investigation according to a psychoanalytical viewpoints" >> continue

A little background:

I was born in Oslo, Norway in 1966. Both my parents were very much into the hippie movement. My father was a famous musician, Bjørn Morisse, and he started the iconic band The Young Norwegians. He was one of the leading figures in Norway responsible for bringing the sixties to the country, along with folk music, long hair and bell-bottoms pants. He was also bi-polar and somewhat narcissistic.

I grew up dressed like a mini hippy flower child, surrounded with art and listening to Leonard Cohen.  At the time, I was very different from most kids in Norway and I soon realized that there are many different ways of looking at the world.  This made me interested in understanding how people think, including myself.

I knew a little about Sigmund Freud. The common popular knowledge at the time was that he was famous and could look into your mind, and tell you that everything you did was because of your mom, or your penis, or both…

Since a child, I’ve always drawn and painted, it was my way of dealing with the world. A way of having some control, power or influence over what was happening.

I attended the Rudolf Steiner School in Oslo where we did our homework in caran’dache colors. I also spent some time at the controversial English School: Summerhill in Leiston. At 19, I flew to Los Angeles and started to study at the Art Center College of Design.  There I also took classes in meditation, buddhism and psychology. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Andre von Morisse from Oslo, Norway:

Born in 1966 and he came to America in 1978. In 1990, he graduated cum laude from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and moved to New York in 1991. His works were featured in many group shows in galleries and museums in the US, and he had solo exhibitions with McKenzie Fine Art (2005 & 2003), and James Graham and Sons (2000, 1997) in New York, NY. Reviewed in the Art News (2007), Art in America (2005), New York Magazine (2003), Artnet (2000), and Review (1997), his art has also been often featured by Norway’s main dailies Aftenposten and VG, Kunst art magazine (2013), as well as Norwegian-American newspaper, Norway Times. Von Morisse’s paintings are held in prominent private and corporate collections in the US. Current exhibition: Pink Freud & The Pleasant Horizon (NY) >> continue

Subjectivity: founding myths, culture, identification and idealization.

When such violent acting outs occur, apparently detached from the personal history and pretty much non-sense, we think it is not about something forgotten (repressed) in the psyche that is outlined to reality. It is about something more radical, a real splitting, a division in which the affect simply cannot be hold to anything in the psyche. The affect cannot be linked to any representation, to the symbolic references already built, therefore it stands aside in the psyche and explodes in a violent act.

As different psychoanalysts affirm nowadays, in absolute agreement with contemporary philosophers and sociologists, it is possible to postulate that today we are living a crisis in the transmission of values and symbolic references that are crucial to the psyche sustaining and to common life. The symbolic supports serve up as a base to the working through of situations related to Men founding issues: sexuality, death, union, separation, affiliation, kinship, etc. For an example, they are transmitted through the myths about our origins, our forefathers, social projects in common (utopias) or symbolic marks that denotes the belonging to a group.



Violências contemporâneas: de súbito, o ato. (Parte II)

Subjetividade: mitos fundadores, cultura, identificação e ideal.

Quando ocorre uma passagem ao ato tão violenta, descolada da história pessoal e bastante sem sentido, pensamos que não se trata de algo esquecido (recalcado) no psiquismo e que ganha contornos na realidade. Trata-se de algo mais radical, uma verdadeira clivagem, uma separação na qual o afeto simplesmente não tem em que se "agarrar" no psiquismo. O afeto não consegue ligar-se à nenhuma representação, aos referenciais simbólicos já constituídos, portanto fica forçosamente deixado de lado e explode em ato.

Tal como afirmam diferentes psicanalistas hoje, em franco acordo com filósofos e sociólogos contemporâneos, é possível postularmos que na contemporaneidade vivemos uma crise na transmissão de valores e referenciais simbólicos que são fundamentais para a sustentação do psiquismo e da vida em comum. Os suportes simbólicos servem como base para a elaboração de situações relacionadas às temáticas fundantes do ser humano: sexualidade, morte, união, separação, filiação, parentesco, etc. Eles são transmitidos, por exemplo, através de mitos sobre nossas origens, nossos antepassados, projetos sociais em comum (utopias), ou marcas simbólicas que denotem o pertencimento a um grupo. >> continue

Lately we have astoundingly followed a series of violent acts all over our country: Brazil. We refer to violence as aggressions, beatings and murders, as well as extremely offensive words and gestures. The scenes occurred at soccer stadiums, Carnival marches, city common spaces or even inside family household apartments, with apparently favorable social and emotional conditions.

We think it is not necessary to explain each of those violence news, considering the already exaggerated media covering. Besides the shocking factor, those violent acts push us to seek information and share it with our partners. United or by ourselves we perform a psyche work attempting to find representations, in other words, reasons that could justify phenomena that are more similar to movies or nightmares, instead of reality itself. In general, it takes us a few weeks to "forget" that kind of news, except when we are the direct trauma victim, requiring, in that case, a long and laborious elaboration process.



Violências contemporâneas: de súbito, o ato. (Parte I)

Nas últimas semanas, acompanhamos com espanto uma série de atos violentos ao redor do país. Nos referimos à violência tanto no que diz respeito a agressões, espancamentos e assassinatos, como também a palavras e gestos extremamente ofensivos. As cenas ocorreram em campos de futebol, blocos de carnaval, nos espaços comuns da cidade, ou mesmo dentro de apartamentos habitados por famílias de condições sociais e emocionais aparentemente favoráveis.

Pensamos que não cabe aqui recapitular cada uma dessas notícias, já que todos tivemos acesso a elas; além da mídia explorá-las amplamente, o fator chocante presente em todos esses atos de violência nos impele a buscar essas informações e comentá-las com nossos pares. Sozinhos ou coletivamente realizamos um trabalho psíquico na tentativa de encontrar representações,  ou seja, encontrar razões que justifiquem fenômenos que mais se parecem com filmes ou pesadelos do que com a realidade propriamente dita. Em geral, demoramos algumas semanas para esquecê-los – isso quando não somos nós mesmos as vítimas diretas do trauma, pois nesse caso a exigência de elaboração torna-se muito mais demorada e trabalhosa. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Bruno Esposito from São Paulo, Brazil:

Training and professional experience:
Psychoanalyst at personal office (since 2011), working with child, young and adult patients, at São Paulo (Brazil).
Co-founder of Conexões Clínicas (www.conexoesclinicas.com.br), brazilian website about psychoanalysis and mental health.
Group psychologist at Projetos Terapêuticos (since 2014): Private mental health institution attending patients under psychosocial rehabilitation and its families.
CRIA/UNIFESP (since 2012): Psychologist at the Child and Young Reference Center of the Federal University of São Paulo (Brazil). Individual, family and group psychoterapist.
CAPS (from 2010 to 2012): Psychologist at a Psychosocial Attention Center (public service guided for severe mental disorders). Individual, Family and group psychoterapist.
Sedes Sapientiae Institut (from 2011 to 2015): Psychoanalysis Training.
DMPS/UNICAMP (from 2009 to 2010): Multidisciplinary Residence Program in “Mental Health and Collective Health” at State University of Campinas.
PUC/SP (from 2004 to 2008): graduation and Bachelor in psychology at Catholic University of São Paulo.


Experiência formativa e profissional:
Psicanalista em consultório particular (desde 2011), atendendo crianças, adolescentes e adultos na cidade de São Paulo (Brasil).
Co-fundador do Conexões Clínicas (www.conexoesclinicas.com.br), website brasileiro de psicanálise e saúde mental.
Projetos Terapêuticos (desde 2014): Psicólogo de grupo desta Instituição privada destinada ao atendimento de pacientes em reabilitação psicossocial e suas famílias.
CRIA/UNIFESP (desde 2012): Psicólogo do Centro de Referência da Infância e da Adolescência da Universidade Federal de São Paulo. Terapeuta individual, de família e de grupo.
CAPS (de 2010 a 2012): Psicólogo de um Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (serviço público de atendimento a pacientes portadores de transtornos mentais graves). Terapeuta individual, de grupo, de família e acompanhante terapêutico.
Instituto Sedes Sapientiae (de 2011 a 2015): Formação em Psicanálise.
DMPS/UNICAMP (de 2009 a 2010): Residência multiprofissional em “Saúde Mental e Saúde Coletiva” no Departamento de Medicina Preventiva e Social da Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
PUC/SP (de 2004 a 2008): Graduação e bacharelado em Psicologia pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. >> continue

peacecamps have been taking place in Austria since 2004.
They bring together some 40 youngsters and 15 adults in the tranquility of Austrian landscape, away from the hassle, day-to-day business and consumption of modern society. A wood, a field, a hill, a greenfield delimit the transitional space which offers participants manifold opportunities to experience self and other in an unusual face-to-face, to explore and find oneself and the other in the mirror of this encounter. This is an encounter of groups and people who, if at all, meet the ”other” with apprehension and fear: close, foreign, distant, unknown, familiar and feared neighbors, magically magnified into fantasized bogeymen, projections of one’s own disagreeable, obnoxious, dissociated, split-off parts; at the same time real, living, threatening, potentially dangerous others, all of them in need of a screen or container for their own mighty, daunting,  uncontrollable impulses calling for vengeance, retaliation and destruction.

Israelis, Palestinians, Hungarians, Austrians, Slovenes, Moslems, Jews, Christians constitute the participating group of a peacecamp, groups which define themselves by means of including or excluding, delimiting,  de- and appreciating members of the own versus the respective “other” group. The relationships of these groups and people to one another is based on collective narratives, transmitted conscious as well as unconscious ideas of the own as well as the respective other group and marked by fantasized attributions and projections of “good” and “bad” traits or characteristics to one another. There often is a striking polarization and partition in pre-ambivalent, dichotomous perception of self and non-self – representatives,  leading to unequivocal ascriptions  of solely good or solely bad attributes to the own, versus the “other group. These splits in perception and the use of the other as projection screen for one’s own group’s “bad”, unaccepted, unwanted attitudes and characteristics are the basis for xenophobic attitudes and collective acting out in political conflict. They are the motor for recurrent circles of vengeance, retaliation aggression, they perpetuate national, religious and other forms of political conflict, ultimatley leading to violence, war and destruction. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer from Vienna, Austria:

1950 Born as a child of Holocaust survivors.
1968 Matura and Bacchalauréat at Lycée Français de Vienne.
1968-71: University of Vienna (Psychology, Jewish Studies, Romance Studies)
1971-73: Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Psychology). Master of Arts (Hebrew University) and Magistra Phil. (University of Vienna).

Marked by the miracle of survival, Evelyn Böhmer-Laufer refutes the idea that something should be impossible and attempts to reconcile what appears as contradicting.

1971 Emigration to Israel; 1991 Return to Vienna.
1974-76 Training in Behavior Therapy (ÖGVT, Vienna)
1991-95: Psychoanalytic Training (WAP-Wiener Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse)
1970-90: Psychotherapy, child guidance, child and adult therapy, teaching and supervision (Hebrew University).
1992 Founding member of the Psychoanalytic Counseling Service of WAP in Vienna
1992-98: Founder and director of the Böhmer-Laufer Psychosocial Practicum at Maimonides Centre (BLPP/Seniors)
Since 2004: Founder and director of the Böhmer-Laufer peacecamp project (BLPP/Youth)
October 2013: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture >> continue

After doctors the overregulation also threatens the work of psychotherapists

In recent decades medical healing has been transformed into a defensive medicine, and psychotherapy has sat straight off, to do the same. For quite some time lawsuits and media criticisms continued to put doctors, pharmaceutical industry and hospitals under pressure. The doctor prescribes a drug; the patient reads the Patient information leaflets (PILs) and does not take it: he is afraid of the side effects. Exact figures are difficult to obtain, but experts estimate that about half of the prescribed medication goes into the garbage.
But should doctor or pharmacist recommend ignoring the Patient information leaflets of the drug, in order to not succumb to the negative suggestions of the dutifully reported side effects? Probably only under the table. Most bank customers know now too, how annoying defensive advice can be. I want to invest a sum of money, know exactly what I want and need but have to waste a lot of time with the formalities. My consultant by the “Sparkasse” [N.T. name of a bank in Austria] wants to document that he has explained to me all the risks involved and he is a dutiful man.
The friendly ophthalmologist told me that his proposed cataract surgery has a tiny complication rate. I look reassured toward the surgery till his receptionist hands me over a form which receive I have to sign. On it is written that I have been informed about the risk of blindness. I do not sleep quite so well during the nights before the surgery. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Wolfgang Schmidbauer from Munich, Germany:

Born on May 15, 1941 in Munich, the second son of Edward Schmidbauer and Elisabeth Schmidbauer, nee Günther.
1944 bombed out, moved to Passau in Lower Bavaria.
Studies in psychology at the University of Munich from 1960 to 1966. As a student he also worked as a reporter and editor of a medical magazine (Selecta).
Afterwards PhD by Albert Görres in Munich with a scholarship of the Volkswagen Foundation about "Myth and psychology - Methodological problems identified at the Oedipus saga". Moved to Italy, working as a freelance writer. 1971 return to Germany. Founded a psychoanalytic institute in Munich in collaboration with Günter Ammon. At the end of 1972 separation from Ammon; Continue working with a group of doctors, psychologists and "laymen" in a newly designed psychoanalytic training with a strong accentuation of group and family therapy elements.
During this work two clubs emerged where Schmidbauer exerts various functions; He is currently Honorary Chairman of the Society for Analytical group dynamics, where group leaders, supervisors and family therapists are being trained and analyst trainer of the Munich Association of Psychoanalysis, which is by now recognized as a training institute for psychoanalysts of the German Society for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and depth psychology. Since 1973, in addition to his Schmidbauer works as an individual and group therapist in private practice.
1976-1980 he has been a lecturer and examiner in the branch clinical psychology at the LMU Munich; 1986 visiting professor of Psychoanalysis at the University of Kassel.
In addition to specialized books, some of which have been bestsellers, Schmidbauer has written a number of short stories, novels and accounts of childhood and youth experiences. He is a columnist at the “ZEIT” magazine and a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers.

Several important titles:
Publishing house Rowohlt: Die hilflosen Helfer. Über die seelische Problematik der helfenden Berufe; Helfen als Beruf. Die Ware Nächstenliebe; Die Angst vor Nähe; Alles oder nichts. Über die Destruktivität von Idealen; Weniger ist manchmal mehr. Die Psychologie des Konsumverzichts; Eine Kindheit in Niederbayern; Ein Haus in der Toscana; Die Kentaurin. Erzählung
Publishing house Herder: Das Geheimnis der Zauberflöte; Dranbleiben. Die gelassene Art, Ziele zu erreichen; Lebensgefühl Angst; Drei Generationen – Psychogramm der Bundesrepublik
Publishing house DTV: Die einfachen Dinge; Persönlichkeit und Menschenführung.
Publishing house Gütersloher: Das Mobbing in der Liebe; Die psychologische Hintertreppe; Paartherapie – Konflikte verstehen, Lösungen finden. >> continue

The question of subject and object occupied mankind for quite some time. The fact that no subject-independent detection of an object is conceivable was already themed by philosophers like Hegel or Nietzsche.
In the Hegelian dialectic the split between subject and object is also idealistically discussed (master-slave dialectic).

Even the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had pioneering ideas in terms of the dialectic between subject and object: "...That there is no correspondence between subject and object, no causality, no correctness, no expression, but at most an aesthetic behavior." {Nietzsche, F., Zwischen Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinn, In: Ders.: Werke in 3 Bänden. Hg. v. Karl Schlechta, Hanser: München 1956, Band 3, S. 316}

The simple impossibility at this point to plunge into the philosophical terrain of subject-object dialectics, I want to stop and note here, that the dialectic of subject and object - especially in the ontological sense - formerly as well as today is highly topical and always will be.

It may sound like a paradox, if we want to bring Sigmund Freud and the object relations theory under one roof.
But Sigmund Freud used the term object often. He speaks of objects, if he means others and not the subject. How he constitutes the right mechanical concept of object is not entirely clear from his scripts.
Even the most obvious criticism of the terminology ´object´ is agreeable, namely that other people are indeed also subjects, of course.
Those who are repulsed by the circumstance, of designating people as objects, emphasizes the undeniable aftertaste that suggests:
Human, the (research) object. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Anna Schantl from Austria, Vienna:

Born in Leoben, more or less grew up in Rheingau and in Graz.
Studied Philosophy and German language and literature at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz.
Since 2010 study of psychotherapy sciences at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna – specialist training in psychoanalysis. Psychotherapist in training under supervision since February 2015.
Works with patients at the Sigmund Freud University clinic.
Moderator of the psychoanalytic radio show ’Unbewusst – Die Lust am freien Sprechen’. >> continue

In 2001, when I began to build my private psychiatric practice in New York City, I became aware of the paradox that I spent most of my time interacting with many people, yet feeling that I worked in isolation. At around the same time, following a long harbored desire for creative expression, I turned to my other passion, photography, to allow for a spontaneous, artistic counterweight to my highly structured clinical work. I enrolled in classes at the International Center of Photography, hired a photography supervisor to improve my technical skills and began looking for a long term project. I came across photography books on artists and writers in their studios, but I could not find any photographic documentation of therapists in their consulting rooms. This discovery galvanized me as the idea seemed fresh.

I started out by asking my friends and colleagues if I could photograph them in their offices and they readily agreed. The photo sessions were quite mutually enjoyable, and soon I was running around in search of more subjects. Early on, my goal was to create an art book that would not only appeal to professionals but also to the psychologically minded, layperson. I also decided to explore the evolving diversity of our field and resolved to capture a wide range of practitioners of different schools and persuasions - from well known luminaries to motivated trainees. As the circle of therapists whom I photographed widened, I became more curious about the larger community. We are all united by our desire to heal the mind and spirit but what are our differences? And what, if anything, do we have in common beyond the treatment of our patients? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Sebastian Zimmermann from New York, U.S.A.:

Psychiatrist in private practice on New York City´s Upper West Side and an award winning photographer. After graduating from medical school at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin, he relocated to New York City. He trained at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, where he completed a psychiatric residency and child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship. Dr Zimmermann´s book, "Fifty Shrinks" has been featured in numerous magazines and media outlets including The New York Times, The New York Post, Der Spiegel, Wiener Zeitung, Datum, Falter and Marie Claire, Taiwan. >> continue

Through social change traditions and conventions have largely lost their influence. Many things have become uncertain, the future open. Unlike in the past, the working individual is constantly faced with changes, because in order not to become stale, humans must be mobile and flexible (See. Busch, 2009 P.35).

The brave new world offers many opportunities, but it also calls for its toll in the form of massive formation of symptoms:

-) Depression and lethargy: The individual loses his motivation, due to the incessant pressure of having to offer himself on the market. As a result, it is unmotivated, which ultimately brings depression and incapacity as a result in its wake (See. Busch, 2009 P.39).

-) Dullness and apathy: Due to poor relationships, which are felt, there is a promotion of dullness and apathy. Thus it is possible that the working environment is endured without being changed or at least tolerated. "Confronted with diseases and deaths the first thing we often wonder is: What did the person do wrong?" (Ibid. 2009 P.47.)



Современный прекрасный новый мир:проблемы и походы к их решению

В результате изменения обществ традиции и конвенции потеряли их влияние. Многое стало неизвестно, так как и будущее стало открыто. В отличие к прошлому, появилось вынуждение быть мобильным и гибким человеком, чтобы не являться устаревшим кадровым ресурсом (см. Буш, 2009, стр.35).

Прекрасный новый мир предоставляет много возможностей, но он также призывает к их дани в качестве массивного образования симптомов:

-) Депрессия и апатия: Из-за напряжения, которое исходит из-за постоянной потребности предлагать себя и свои услуги на рабочем рынке, человек теряет мотивацию. В результате появляется равнодушие к событиям окружающей действительности, что в конечном итоге приводит к депрессии и к неспособности действовать (см. Буш, 2009, стр.39).

-) Затмение и апатия: недостаток в отношениях вызывает затмение и апатию. Таким образом появляется возможность присутствовать рабочей практики нетронутым, по крайней мере подчиниться под нее. Первый вопрос, который возникает при заболевании/смерти: «что тот сделал не так»(там же, 2009, стр.47)? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Louisa Abramov from Vienna, Austria:

Degree in Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics, degree in psychotherapy sciences at the Sigmund Freud University, training to be a psychoanalyst at the PSI Innsbruck, OPD-2 certification (Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics). Psychoanalyst in private practice, CFO of Academy Löwengasse, Assistant at the Lighthouse - Association for people in need.


Магистр делового администрирования - Венский университет экономики, магистр научной психотерапии - университет Зигмунд Фрейд, психоаналитик - ПСИ Инсбрук, ОПД-2 сертификация (оперативная психодинамическая диагностика). Психоаналитик в частной практике, финансовый директор Академии Лёвенгассэ, сотрудник Лайтхаус Вена - организация для людей, нуждающихся в помощи. >> continue

Dreams have occupied people for centuries - whether for the belief in divine inspirations and visions of the future or, as Freud said it, ‘the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious´. The nocturnal visions affect our lives.

The interpretation and understanding of dream images are especially in psychoanalysis centralized tools. The inner psychological processes that are involved in the creation and design of dreams make - even if they often disguise the true meaning - sense.

One, who devoted part of his life´s work to the function and to the decryption of the dream, was Sigmund Freud, whose writings were at the beginning misjudged and rejected, form now the basic for any research of the phenomenon.


Freud´s Interpretation of Dreams

In his comprehensive work “The Interpretation of Dreams” Freud brings together for the first time essential elements of psychoanalysis. Of particular note here are his theories about the unconscious as well as the awareness of hidden conflicts as a therapeutic method.

He postulated that dreams are not a somatic but a psychic phenomenon and thus capacity and manifestation of the dreamer. To resolve the question for the meaning of the dream he thus makes use of the analysis and asks the dreamer for his own subjective interpretation.

To explain the often confusing and incomprehensible images of dreams, he introduced the terms manifest dream content - the dream as it is remembered – and the latent dream thought - the related material brought forward through psychoanalysis. Freud called the conversion of the latent dream thought into the manifest dream content, for example, by condensation, displacement and symbolization, the dream work. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Michael Wilim from Austria, Vienna:

2015 Bachelor degree in psychotherapy sciences with emphasis on psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna

Professional experience:

Privat practice since 2014
Practical work as a psychoanalyst at the Sigmund Freud ambulance Vienna (since 2015)
Practical work in the psychiatric field in the Vienna General Hospital “AKH” (2014)
Practical work with the elderly in the state nursing home “Landespflegeheim Berndorf” (2013)
Practical work with drug addicts in drug treatment institution "Zukunftsschmiede" (2009)

Analysis:
Psychoanalysis at Mag. Luger (since 2012) >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Tomás Moraes Abreu Bonomi:

2013/2015: Master´s degree in clinical psychology at the core of psychoanalysis. PUC-SP, Brazil
2005/2009: Graduate and bachelor´s degree in psychology from PUC- SP, Brazil
Publications: BONOMI, T; LOTUFO, F. Psychopathology at the comics books. Psychiatry journal Clinical V. 37 N. (6): 291-295 . 2010 .
Professional experience:
Private office: Conducts psychoanalytical private care in children, adolescents and adults. (since 2011)
The House Institute: Part of a team of therapeutic companions and clinical care givers. (Since 2011)
Community IPÊ: Institution of hospital specializing in addiction.
On call duty for 24 hours weekly and responsible psychologist. (02-05 of 2011)
Le Courtil : Institution in Belgium that welcomes children and psychotic adolescents.
Participated in the general framework proposed by the clinic that includes therapeutic groups, individual activities, therapeutic monitoring, clinical conferences and theoretical seminars psychoanalytic . Weekly supervision by Philippe Bouillot ( 05-09 , 2010)
DERDIC- Division rehabilitation education and communication disorders
Children attended and participated in seminars and discussions on the clinical symptoms of children with speech and language disorders with the supervisor Sandra Pavone (02-11, 2009)
Clinic Maia - Brazilian System of Mental Health
Coordinator of the group of drug addicts and patients with mental disorders using psychodrama and operating group. Creation and implementation of the "Caring” Project of caregivers, along with the nurses and staff of cleaning and maintenance. Supervision: Marcia Baptista and Antonio Lancetti - 880 hours (10/2005 - 12/2007 )
Groups:
Lacan Study Group
Freud Study Group
Analysis:
Analytic psychoterapy with André Pinheiro (2002-2008) – Once a week
Psychoanalysis with Beatriz Oliveira (2009) -  twice a week.
Psychoanalysis with Luiz Carlos Menezes (2011-2014) – twice a week.
Languages: Portuguese, English and French.


2013/2015: Mestrado em psicologia clínica no núcleo de psicanálise. PUC-Sao Paulo
2005/2009: Graduação e bacharelado em psicologia pela PUC-Sao Paulo
Publicações: BONOMI, T; LOTUFO, F. Psicopatologia nas Histórias em Quadrinhas. Revista de Psiquiatria Clínica V. 37 N. (6): 291-295. 2010. >> continue

In this article, we want to share our thoughts as to why we have offered in “Maßnahmenvollzug”, a few years ago, a "fairy tales and legends group" and how the forensic psychiatric patients received it and what conclusions we drew from it.

A brief explanation: “Maßnahmenvollzug” (N.T. implementation of control measures) means that patients who have committed an offense and at the time of the crime had a psychiatric disorder are not admitted to a regular prison, but in the “Maßnahmenvollzug”. There they get a multimodal therapy appropriate for their psychiatric illness and after a lasting stabilization and an examination they can be released again by a judge.
The majority of the patients has a schizophrenic diagnosis and is male. All these types of criminal offenses include at least a one year sentence. And cover a range of dangerous threat, to various distinct violent offenses including up to multiple murders.

Our idea was as follows, based on the book "The Uses of Enchantment" by Bruno Bettelheim we considered whether psychotic patients, in our case persons with conviction for a criminal offense, could be encouraged through fairy tales to reach a psychological maturation. If a focused after-ripening could be achieved. If one understands childhood as psychosis and psychosis as a regression, this consideration would not be quite so farfetched. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Severo Orsi and Désirée Prosquill:

Severo Orsi. Born in July 1975, studied psychology at the University of Vienna, with emphasis on Clinical Psychology. After post-graduate training for clinical and health psychologist, he worked in private practice with a focus on sexual disorders; he has taught psychology in a school for nurses and supervised, as part of the acute psychosocial teams, people immediately after a traumatic experience. Furthermore, he has worked over 13 years in law enforcement activities as a psychiatrist for mentally ill prisoners.

Désirée Prosquill. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, studied human medicine (Medical University of Vienna), studies of psychotherapy (Sigmund Freud University Vienna), education completed at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Vienna, at Maßnahmenvollzug (Forensic Psychiatry), and at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Vienna, SFU/PSI, now working as a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapeutic medicine, as well as a psychoanalyst in her own practice. Editor from THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST; co-initiator of the psychoanalytic radio show UNBEWUSST – die Lust am freien Sprechen. >> continue

This week we would like to point out that our column "MOVIES" is now open!

To start we found some audio books from the “Complete works” of Sigmund Freud in English and German.

We have also compiled for you, various movies from the field of psychoanalysis.

If you have/know a video that according to you, should also be offered in our collection, please send it to us.

Good Entertainment!

THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST


>> continue

Introduction

Religious theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung are among the most important and influential in the history of psychology. Both soul researchers did not become tired throughout their lives to engage, extensively and tirelessly in numerous essays, lectures and letters with the phenomenon of religion and the psychological integration of its creation.
This three-part essay covers a topic that has already been discussed numerous times by psychoanalysts, theologians and cultural studies, in the German literature:
There are a number of publications that have separately as content either Freud’s religion critical works or Jung’s religiously colored archetypes. In this work too, the understanding of religion from both is illuminated separately in Parts I and II. Comparative Reflections on the concept of Religion from the two doctors, as they are presented below in Part III were, however, rarely made in the literature - perhaps because of the appearance of a fundamental incompatibility between Freud and Jung, and as such this type of project was often deemed as impossible from the outset. Presentation and comparison of religious understanding from the two protagonists takes place in the way of thinking of each underlying psychodynamic system, with Freud in the sense of psychoanalysis, with Jung in the sense of analytical psychology. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Sonja Lienhart:

Born 1988, studied medicine at the Universities of Freiburg and Vienna. Student assistant, among others in the child and adolescent psychiatry department of the University Hospital in Freiburg (till 2013) and at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (since 2015). Ph.D. on "The religious understanding of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung in presentation and comparison". She is a fellow of Cusanuswerk. >> continue

For a short while, it appeared I had a bright future in psychoanalysis:  Thanks to my friendship with the formidable Kurt Eissler, I was offered a position with the Freud Archives. In fact, I was to take over from Eissler in a year or two.  Meanwhile, he wanted me to work with Anna Freud so that eventually her home could become a research center for Freud studies.

So in 1980 I met Anna Freud and developed a working relation with her and a sort of friendship.  Apart for my work for the Freud Archives, I was interested in researching the reasons why Freud seemed to have changed his mind about child abuse:  at first he believed his patients remembered real abuse; later he changed his mind and decided that almost all sexual abuse, especially if the father was accused, could only be a fantasy, or a screen memory, that is a memory that screened an early desire for the parent of the opposite sex. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson:

Well, I was born in 1941 in Chicago, USA.  I taught Sanskrit for many years at different universities (UC Berkeley, U of Toronto), and trained as a psychoanalyst in Toronto in 1971 and graduated as a full member of the International Psycho-Analytical Association in 1979.  I was briefly Projects Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives.  I was fired in 1981 and my membership in the International Psycho-Analytical Association was taken away.  I published the Assault on Truth:  Freud´s Repression of the Seduction Theory in 1984, and the Freud-Fliess Letters in 1985.  Since then I have published some 27 books some about psychiatry, some about animals, and some about other topics.  I am married to a German pediatrician, and have one daughter from a former marriage who lives in California as a Nurse-Practitioner, and two boys with Leila Masson, Ilan, 18, at the University of Melbourne, and Manu, 13, living with us in Berlin.  We will move to Sydney, Australia, in January, 2016.  I am now writing a novel about the Holocaust, called, tentative, Evian, 1938.  It takes place in Vienna, Geneva, Berlin, Malaga, and Evian. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Jeanne Wolff Bernstein:

She is a practicing psychoanalyst in Vienna. Previously, she was President and training analyst in San Francisco / Berkeley, California on Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, (PINC). In 1985, she earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at The Wright Institute, Berkeley, California and wrote her doctoral thesis on the work of Edouard Manet. She taught at various universities and psychoanalytic institutes in Berkeley and San Francisco, where she worked in private practice as a psychoanalyst. In 2008 she was the Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna. During this time in Vienna, Jeanne Wolff Bernstein gave a lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts of the work of Eva Hesse and wrote her Fulbright lecture on Freud´s access to the modern art. In 2009, she was the scientific advisor for the art exhibition Eros and Thanatos in the Sigmund Freud and Liechtenstein Museum. Since 2010, Jeanne Wolff Bernstein lives and works in Vienna. She teaches and supervised at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, and since 2014 is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Foundation and Museum, Vienna. She regularly participates at discussions over the Film Noir series at the Sigmund Freud Museum. Latter publications include;
Unlocking Diane Arbus, Studies in Gender and Sexuality,  2007,Vol.8, #4, pp.33-336
In Search of her Own Language: Eva Hesse Show, SFMOMA Museum, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Vol. 6, #4, 2002, pp. 345-368.
Beyond the Bedrock in Good Enough Endings, (2010) ed. by Jill Salberg, Routledge Press and The space of transition between Winnicott and Lacan in Between Winnicott and Lacan, (2011) ed. by Lewis Kirshner, Routledge Press. She wrote the chapter on Jacques Lacan, to the (2012) Textbook of Psychoanalysis, Second Edition, edited by Glen Gabbard, Bonnie E. Litowitz & Paul Williams, American Psychiatric Publishing and a recension about Danielle Knafo’s book, Alone Together: Solitude and the creative encounter in art and psychoanalysis., Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2012.
Tattoos/hysteria, Body Image and Identity in Contemporary Societies, (2015) Routledge. Introduction to Narcissus in Mourning, by Paul Verhaege, (2015) by Thuria and Kant. >> continue

Editor´s note:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
This time, on the occasion of the Eurovisions Song Contest Vienna 2015 we publish the leading article by Jeanne Wolff Bernstein, Ph.D. and will therefore post the interview next week!
Enjoy reading!

Conchita Wurst has become a sensation in Austria and Europe since she won the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2014 in Copenhagen. Everywhere you go her portrait greets you in Austria, it was on magazine covers, fashion magazines, or even as an advertisement for one of the largest banks in Austria. How can one understand her immense success and her huge recognition in a country that is not necessarily known to be as open and tolerant towards groups of people who are "foreign" or "strange" in this Alpine republic regardless of whether this strangeness is expressed on a sexual, political or cultural level. But Conchita Wurst happens to be "different" very different. Is she a bearded woman or a boy with false eyelashes. She cannot be put in a preassigned category and at first she confused a lot of people with her appearance, who wanted to know what she is: male or female, Tom or Conchita, gay or "trans", true or false? In which drawer can she be put into, to satisfy the human urge for clarity and security? Despite these many unanswered questions and confusions, she / he has become one of the most idealized figures in the last two years in Europe.

Her own account of the transformation of Thomas Neuwirth (her given name) to Conchita Wurst is an amazingly simple one because with her "fictional character/Persona" she wanted to mainly show the world that everyone can be what he / she wants to be. Conchita Wurst acknowledges her fictional character/persona, and in her she feels the most comfortable and successful. In an English interview in 2014, she described her career/history with the following words: “As a young boy, I always tried to fit in and adapt to the world around me. I wanted to be part of the game, until I realized that it was up to me to create the game and this is how I created the bearded lady.” >> continue

Application, deepening and turning away from the application of hypnosis techniques

Josef Breuer, the creator of the cathartic method, whose name is for that reason indissolubly linked with the beginnings of psycho-analysis. (See Freud1925g) Freud describes him as "a man of rich and universal gifts, and his interests extended in many directions far beyond his professional activities". (Freud 1925g) Freud became acquainted with Breuer in 1881 at the Physiological Institute where they soon became friends. Freud wrote about Breuer

„My friend and helper in my difficult circumstances. We grew accustomed to share all our scientific interests with each other. In this relationship the gain was naturally mine.” (Freud 1925j)

1892 Freud described a "case of Hypnotic Healing," a woman who complained about classical hysterical symptoms such as vomiting, anorexia nervosa, insomnia, over excitation, which prevented her to breastfeed her child. After two treatments, the patient gave up on the symptoms. Freud repeated the same thing a year later, after the birth of her second child. Freud said that with hysteria the patient would not be aware of its resistance. The patient had a permanent exhaustion what Breuer called a hypnotic state. (See Freud 1895d)

1895 Freud published together with Josef Breuer "Studies on Hysteria" afterwards he used for the first time the cathartic method on a certain Mrs. Emmy. (Freud 1895d) There was no thorough investigation and Freud seemed to have actually relied heavily during the treatment on a direct therapeutic suggestion, which he as usual connected together with massage, baths and rest. (Jones 1982) >> continue

In the eighties and nineties of the 19th century both the galvanic and the faradic electricity played an important role in the diagnostic and therapeutic Neurology. Thus Freud occupied himself also with this area:

„In the distance shone the great name of Charcot; so I formed a plan of first obtaining an appointment as University Lecturer on Nervous Diseases in Vienna and of then going to Paris to continue my studies.” (Freud 1925d)

Freud had his first contact with hypnosis as a student:

„While I was still a student I had attended a public exhibition given by Hansen the ‘magnetist’, and had noticed that one of the subjects experimented upon had become deathly pale at the onset of cataleptic rigidity and had remained so as long as that condition lasted. This firmly convinced me of the genuineness of the phenomena of hypnosis.(Freud 1925d)

In 1885/86 Freud went to Paris, where he met Charcot and worked in his clinic for 17 weeks. Charcot made a powerful impression on Freud and the Salpêtrière was rightly called the Mecca of neurologists. (See, Jones 1982) Freud described Charcot with:

„(…) to the magic that emanated from his looks and from his voice, to the kindly openness [...] to the willingness with which he put everything at the disposal of his pupils, and to his life-long loyalty to them.“ (Freud 1925d)

Very soon a close contact was established with Freud due to a translation of a publication of Charcot: >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Juan José Rios:

Born in Perú, Studies: theology and pedagogy, hypnotherapy training: Austrian Society for applied depth psychology and general psychotherapy (Ögatap), Sex Therapy: Institute Ziss Zurich, Studied psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud University (SFU), EMDR (trauma treatment): EMDR Institute Austria, Psychotherapy Science: Sigmund Freud University (SFU), Eating Disorder: Sowhat Medical Institute for People with eating disorder Sozialmedizinisches Zentrum Ost ("Psychosomatic Med Ambulance 2 Dept. SMZO-Donauspital"): Between August 2000 and February 2002 (Internship) Individual and group treatment of depressive, neurotic anxiety, personality disorders Addictions, psychosomatic, chronic pain and severity of psychiatric disorders as well as disturbances in the field of gastroenterology, psycho-oncology. Private practice since 2000 >> continue

Once upon a time not too long ago, Bernhard Staudinger (from Radio Orange) and Désirée Prosquill (from THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST) met and spoke about maybe bringing psychoanalysis on the radio.

After many wrong turns and detours through dark forests and deep valleys, THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST is particularly proud and happy to announce that Vienna will finally be enriched by a psychoanalytic live radio show starting on May 13, 2015.
The radio show will be available in our online magazine THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST for all without radio and for all interested in psychoanalysis worldwide!

How it came to this idea, is not at all that difficult to understand... >> continue

Cultural ideas and ideals, manifested in their narrative form as myths, pervade the innermost experience of the self.  One cannot therefore speak of an ´earlier´ or ´deeper´ layer of the self beyond cultural reach.  As a ´depth psychology´ psychoanalysis dives deep but in the same waters in which the cultural river too flows. 

The questions relating to the ´how´ of this process are bound up with the larger issue of the relationship between the inner and outer worlds that has been of perennial psychological and philosophical interest. Freud´s ´timetable´ of culture entering the psychic structure relatively late in life as ´ideology of the superego´ has continued to be followed by other almanac makers of the psyche. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Sudhir Kakar:

Psychoanalyst, novelist, and a scholar in the fields of cultural psychology and the psychology of religion. He has been Lecturer at Harvard University, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Study of World Religions at Harvard, as also Visiting Professor at the universities of Chicago, McGill, Melbourne and Hawaii. He was also a Fellow at the Institutes of Advanced Study, Princeton, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin and Fellow at Centre for Advanced Study in Humanities at University of Cologne.
His many honors include the Kardiner Award of Columbia University, Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association, Germany’s Goethe Medal, Rockefeller Residency, McArthur Fellowship, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is the president of the Delhi chapter of Indian Psychoanalytic Society and on the Board of the Freud Archives, Library of Congress.
Kakar is the author of eighteen books of non-fiction and five of fiction. His latest book is Young Tagore: The makings of a genius (Penguin-Viking, 2013). His books have been translated into twenty-two languages around the world. >> continue

„La plancha de metal“ ("The sheet panel").

This chapter culminates in a long reflection on the body and perception as an instrument of alienation "... to perceive is to perceive a World-of- almost-rights ...". From this reflection derived the wish after transformation of that body in a vehicle of relationship "by anyone with themselves and with each other and with all other".
In order to achieve the possibility of this transformation he makes a detailed analysis of the terms of this alienation, those used refreshed by the theory, is one of the insignia that decides the course of his work. It is in this analysis, in which he found the consequences of the process of alienation, which forms the inner life of these patients. On the one hand "the metallization of being" the beginning to the way of the wicked (the example he represents is the denunciation of Astier), "to make them of metal" reach "to detach oneself from everything and everyone."


TREINTA AÑOS SIN MASOTTA: Silencio y Comunidad (Parte II)

La plancha de metal

Este capítulo culmina con una larga reflexión sobre el cuerpo y la percepción como instrumento de extrañamiento: “…percibir es percibir un-casi-mundo-de-derecha”. De esa reflexión se deriva un deseo de transformación de ese cuerpo en vehículo de relación “de cada uno consigo mismo y con cada uno de todos los otros y con todos los otros”.
Para alcanzar la posibilidad de esa transformación se lanza a un análisis detallado de los términos de ese extrañamiento renovando esa apuesta por la teoría que es una de las insignias que decide el derrotero de su trabajo. Es en ese análisis donde encuentra los efectos que soporta la empresa de alienación  que conforma la interioridad de estos apestados. Por un lado “la metalización del ser”, el empuje, por la vía del mal (el ejemplo que propone es la delación de Astier), a “hacerse de metal” para alcanzar “desapegarse de todo y de todos”. >> continue

"... from our first contact with the social and the values that arise from the dominant ideology, they found such embedded in the class of our origin, we learn that they, above all else teaches us that everything that comes from the community is justice ... "
                                                                                                                        O. Masotta

Preamble

What follows is nothing more than an attempt to organize a handful of ideas, which takes the form of comments which originates from the project to read all publications of Oscar Masotta. I managed the treatment of text to text, which such a project implies, partly in a cycle of conferences in the library "Homo Sapiens" of the city of Rosario (T.N. in Argentina) in 2009. It gave me the opportunity for a symbolic reduction of the texts, to unfold my understanding, provided after those that left an impression in the practice of psychoanalysis in Argentina.
The title: "Extimado Oscar Masotta" was not my invention, and I owe it to the generosity of the already internationally renowned psychoanalyst Germán García, who among other things emphasized the importance of the external, the central importance of periphery, which tend to worry those "moods" that are close to our homes.



TREINTA AÑOS SIN MASOTTA: Silencio y Comunidad (Parte I)

                                                                      
  “ …desde nuestros primeros contactos con lo social y con los valores que emanan de la ideología dominante tal como ella se encuentra incrustada en nuestra clase de origen, aprendemos eso que se nos enseña antes que ninguna otra cosa, que todo lo que viene de la comunidad es justo…”
                                                                                                                       O. Masotta
                                                                       

Palabras preliminares

Lo que sigue no es más que el esfuerzo de ordenación de un magro puñado de ideas que toma la forma de puntualizaciones, nacidas de un proyecto de lectura de la totalidad  de lo publicado por Oscar Masotta. El tratamiento texto por texto que esto implica, lo realicé parcialmente en un ciclo de conferencias que tuvieron lugar en la librería Homo Sapiens de la ciudad de Rosario a lo largo del 2009. Fue la oportunidad que me di para desplegar una reducción simbólica de algunos entre ellos que a mi entender hicieron una marca en la práctica del psicoanálisis en Argentina.
Su título: “Extimado Oscar Masotta” que no fue invención mía y que debo a la ya internacionalmente reconocida generosidad del psicoanalista Germán García, subrayaba, entre otras cosas, la importancia del exterior, la centralidad de la periferia que tanto inquieta a los “ambientes”, inclinados hacia el calor del Hogar. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Ángel Daniel Fernández:

Born 1970 in Argentina. Lives with his wife in Rosario, province of Santa Fe. Psychoanalyst, psychologist (UNR), professor of psychology at the Universidad Nacional Rosario. Lectures on Psychoanalysis, his interest has always been the teaching of psychoanalysis over the spoken word, whether in conversation, conferences, courses.


Nato 1970, Argentina, Rosario, Psicoanalista, Psicólogo (UNR), Docente de la Facultad de psicología perteneciente a la Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Jefe de Trabajos Prácticos de la Cátedra “Discursos Psicológicos Contemporáneos”, Presidente y Director de enseñanza de La Biblioteca (Archivo, Investigación y Docencia), Conferencista, Ensayista, Dictante del Curso Anual de Psicoanálisis de La Biblioteca (Archivo, Investigación y Docencia). >> continue

Silently he approached me and tried to embrace
me. I tried to free myself but he seized me all the
harder. I screamed, but no one came!                                                                                                                          (Donna Anna in Don Giovanni)

The little rose fought thus and pricked,
No prose of pain could help her,
Alas, she must suffer it yet.
(Little Rose of the Field, Goethe)


Disorder and Early Sorrow: The story is only too well known
In the early 1890s Freud was in his medical practice often faced with patients who talked about having suffered sexual abuse by related parties. First he took this finding, as an indication of an alarming show of domestic violence situation. But then he became skeptical. Maybe some narrators were not victims of male violence? Maybe they´d even felt sexual curiosity as little girls and searched exciting proximity?

Freud´s strange skepticism
Freud´s reserve against the abuse stories seems strange today. Family and sexual violence against children and women were, as is well known, criminally inadequately detected, prosecuted insufficiently and sanctioned; Personal testimonies of victims found insufficient attention. Freud seemed to refuse the victims emotional participation and unbiased feedback on the biographical notice of painful experiences.
Stories of suffered violence can be wrongly ignored or found unbelievable. It is also known that whoever has sexual contact with underage or dependent persons is acting irresponsibly and is liable to prosecution, even if the other person behaves encouraging or seductive.
On the other hand, the so-called abuse with the abuse is also well known, the false accusations the invented abuse or violence Biography and false memories that a narrator thinks to be true.

Why did narrators feature themselves as victims?
A listener can unjustified believe in a story or unjustified not believe. He can wrongly be taken in by the persuasiveness of a consistent and coherent presentation and unjustly deny faith in a strange tale. He can put a fitting and coherent presentation due to its smoothness and transparency under suspicion or wrongly understand a struggle for words as sincere representation.
Freud´s skepticism could - we do not know - have been occasionally justified. But then one must ask why certain narrators portrayed fictitious or partly feigned attacks. Freud now understood some abuse stories in a functional perspective. They are subsequently revisions in the sense of psychodynamic compromise formation. Seen in this way sexual attitudes procured presence in the here and now, in the relationship between patient and therapist, but so that the main female character in the story suffers what she does not want; a male antagonist sexually mistreats her and thus experiences moral disqualification. Thus, the described victims’ situation is ambivalent: it should lead to the moral condemnation of the offender and is at the same time a fascinating phenomenon. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Brigitte Boothe:

Prof.em.Dr.phil., Psychoanalyst (formerly DPG, DGPT), Psychotherapist FSP

Professor emeritus (since 1.2.2013) of Clinical Psychology at the University of Zurich, Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
By 2013, Head of the psychotherapeutic psychoanalytic praxis at the psychotherapeutic center of the University of Zurich.
By 2015, Head of postgraduate education Master of Advanced Studies in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of the University of Zurich.
By 2012, Director of the Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic Forum of the University of Zurich and the ETH.
Since 2013 Psychoanalyst and Psychotherapist in the group practice "Psychotherapie Bellevue".

Scientific interests:
Theory and empirical research of desire
Theory and practice of oral storytelling in psychotherapy and everyday life as well as the biographical and literary writing (continuous lectures and seminars)

Selected book publication:
Boothe, B. (Hrsg.) (2013). Wenn doch nur - ach hätte ich bloss. Die Anatomie des Wunsches. Zurich: Rüffer&Rub. >> continue

Abstract

The multimedia teaching and training database of psychoanalysis (PA-Database) is a contemporary tool for both, students and teachers of psychoanalysis. It comprises more than 1500 sequences of motion pictures and documentaries, as well as 4000 labels, available in twelve languages, reading classifications and codings of the scenes in psychoanalytical perspectives. Codings refer directly to the knowledge of five major encyclopedias of psychoanalysis. Personalization of use regarding contents and functions make the individual usage of the PA-Database even more attractive.

Introduction

The idea to illustrate basic knowledge and principles of psychoanalysis in their perspectives as interpretative as well as abstract terms was a simple one. When I was invited to speak introducing words at a gathering in honor of Prof. Dr. Shaked, I found that anything unexpected and cheerful could do best. However, I did not know much about his personal life apart from his appearances as supervisor in individual and group-supervisions. Finally, a colleague of mine, Dr. Regina Hofer, told me a little detail of his life. During a stay in New York for study purposes Prof. Shaked frequently attended movie sessions, preferring Hitchcock movies to brush up his English. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Karl Golling:

Born 1951 in Gars am Kamp, Lower Austria. Long stays in Asia, Australia and Africa as a child.
After the Psychology - Philosophy degree (Dissertation about ´Arbeiterbewußtsein in Tirol´) in Innsbruck, long internship at the Binswanger clinic (Switzerland), Training as a psychoanalyst in New York.
Returned to Austria 1992, then studied at the Tavistock Institute in London. Since then, (mainly self-employed) active as an organization developer, psychoanalyst and university lecturer in Vienna. Study of the psychotherapy science (Dissertation about ´Neue Wege des Erlernen der Sprache der Psychoanalyse´) in Vienna. Currently: Head of  the Departement of Psychoanalysis at the Sigmund Freud PrivatUniversität. >> continue

My inquiry is a return to the thinking Freud presents as the origin of desire and guilt in the myth of “the killing of the father” through out all his oeuvre but especially inTotem and Taboo and Civilization and its Discontents. I ask whether Freud bases his understanding too strongly on contemporary scientific blindness to the too human desire of separating human from nature. In Totem and Taboo Freud argues that the primordial formation of the human collective psychic can be accessed by psychoanalysis through readings of myths, religion, pathology, biology and contemporary anthropology of the late 19th and early 20th century (1) which has bred and fed a psycho-social interpretation of animal studies as overtly focused on domination, functionalism, kin-ship (as in modern sized families) and guilt as the human interaction with its outside: nature. For concepts of desire this provides a “nature” of aggressive and destructive behavior, which needs to be tamed by shame/culture to form a new “natural” (the premise of Civilization and Its Discontents’ main argument).

The myth of “the sons killing the father” is picked up through a variety of sources, but most important for me is how he borrows the hypothesis of a “primal state of human society” from Darwin and J.J. Atkinson (p. 287, Freud’19). A hypothesis that makes for a narrative in line with a, at the time, very normal structure of hierarchy in the animal kingdom where one alpha male dominates the herd/family (2).  Such is the narrative derived from studies of monkeys, horses, cattle, apes, chickens and almost all larger mammals who live in flocks or herds. This highly competitive interpretation of Darwin’s evolution is compared with studies of myths of origin in Greek and Christian thought and anthropological studies of tribal societies. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Malte Tellerup:

Born 1989, Masters Student in Comparative Literature from University of Copenhagen and New School of Social Research currently working on my thesis about animal desire and desiring the animal. I have earlier written an article about and translated unpublished notes by performance artist Rudolf Schwarzkogler and have edited the literary journal TRAPPE TUSIND for several years. >> continue

Dear Readers!

Unfortunately due to scheduling reasons, Prof. Alfred Pritz was unable to release his article.
"It is postponed but not canceled!"
THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST therefore is glad to present an article of its editor Désirée Prosquill.
We hope you are not too disappointed in this change of plans and we hope you will still enjoy the new article.
In this article, you can read about the relationship between Felix Salten, the author of "Bambi. A Life in the Woods", and Sigmund Freud.
For a week, the author too will be available in the forum for questions and discussions.

Kind regards
DWP



Felix Salten and Sigmund Freud


The article, which Felix Salten wrote in the journal Neue Freie Presse on January 1st, 1925, is chronologically considered the first evidence that Salten knew of Sigmund Freud for sure and that he had at least roughly knowledge of his theories.

“In future, when world history is not written after the bloody wars, but according to the intellectual achievements of the people, it must be, that neither the Marne battle nor the battle of Tannenberg, but the theories of Freud, Einstein´s theory, the research results of Steinach, the invention of insulin as great victories praised. Then one will be able to measure in such findings and achievements, such as the airplane or the radio, the growth of human power, in such events one will be told the history of mankind. Then one will be able to call the first quarter of the twentieth century a great time, or at least one can say that it was the interesting start of a new great era." {Salten, Felix: in: NFP vom 1.1.1925, S. 2. Morgenblatt.}

Even though Beverley Driver Eddy indicates without further explanation in her book, that Salten had only a "passing interest" {Eddy, Beverley Driver: Felix Salten: Man of Many Faces. 2010 Ariadne Press. S. 152.} in Freud’s theories, this passage nevertheless shows how highly Felix Salten thought about the Freudianism at that time, in fact so highly that he even uses them in the first place in the ranking of the "modern miracles". >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Alfred Pritz:

Born October 31, 1952 in St. Lorenzen near Scheifling in Styria, Austria.
Studies in psychology, psychopathology and pedagogy in Salzburg.
Full professor and rector at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna.
Secretary General of the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP);
President of the World Council for Psychotherapy;
Author and editor of 20 books of psychotherapy, such as dictionary of psychotherapy, Springer, 2000, Globalized Psychotherapy, Facultas., 2002; Intoxication without drugs, Springer, 2009, etc. >> continue

For those who are looking to find a partner, the internet will more than likely be the main space in which they are going to try their luck. One cannot but realize that the majority of today’s flirt and marriage market takes place in the World Wide Web. The eight-figure revenues of dating portals are impressive, even more so the amount of registered members: Parship counts over eleven million members, eDarling up to fifteen million (Baltzer, 2015). Main target group of the leading dating portals are‚ serious single men and women (in other words: single, love-seeking, potent academics who would like to complete their otherwise successful life with a well-functioning and monogamous relationship). The strategy seems to work: A current study (Cacioppo et al., 2013) analyzed a representative study of 19,131 US-citizens and the results do not only show that a third of Americans marriages started online, but that they even present a slightly positive correlation of Internet love with future marital satisfaction, and a slightly negative correlation with separation or divorce in comparison to couples who met in everyday life. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Dragica Stojković:

born in 1988, has studied psychology and comparative literature at the University of Zurich and has completed her PhD on suicide notes. She is a practicing psychoanalyst and does her training at the Freud-Institut Zürich. She contributed to various editorial boards (aware, delirium, Journal für Psychoanalyse, Psychoscope), numerous publications and she is the editor of the internal magazine of the Lacan-Seminar-Zürich, called “che vuoi?” Research interests: Suicide notes; structure, process, and function of wish(ing) and dream(ing); theory of language, rhetoric and poetology. >> continue

Dear Readers!


At the end of 2014, just before the beginning of 2015, we want to point out two poems by Sigmund Freud, which he wrote to Wilhelm Fließ.


The first poem was written on December 29, 1899, due to the birth of Conrad, the second son of Wilhelm Fließ, who coincidentally shared the birthday with his older brother Robert. >> continue

BEST OF FREUD


„Unluckily an author’s creative power does not always obey his will: the work proceeds as it can, and often presents itself to the author as something independent or even alien.”

(Moses and Monotheism, 1939)

“If we cannot see things clearly we will at least see clearly what the obscurities are.”

(Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, 1926) >> continue

Dear Users!

Christmas and the end of the year are near.

Time to pause and so it is a good opportunity to thank you, our dear Users, for your interest in our online magazine and for your numerous feedbacks.
Today, we use the end of the year to respond to your most frequently asked questions.


FAQ


Why is the magazine named THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST?

The online magazine THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST attempts to create a context between the great psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the city Vienna in which the Psychoanalysis was born.
THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST can, of course, be personalized, but it would be better figuratively, it should be understood as a messenger or courier for international psychoanalytic contributions directly from Vienna. >> continue

First of all I would like to say how glad I am about this psychoanalytic online magazine. Finally there is an adequate online platform to draw attention to the relevance of psychoanalysis.

With this in mind and according to the season I want to express some thoughts on money and gifts.
At the first sight the connection between economics and psychoanalysis doesn’t appears to be a particularly strong one. There is only a small psychoanalytic discussion of this topic even if it concerns all of us. Freud operated with some economic expressions, and more than this, they constitute an essential part of his metapsychology. The psyche works in Freud´s models also largely based on economic principles.

On the other hand, few economists have occupied themselves with psychoanalysis. Is this surprising? Maybe not so much, because this fact can be understood as a form of resistance. It costs too much to overcome, to deal with psychoanalytic theories that relatively shame free assume links between feces, money and gift. (K.Gourgé, 2001, Psychoanalyse: Perspektiven einer psychoanalytischen Ökonomie) >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Nassim Agdari-Moghadam:

Born in Tehran, raised in Vienna, study of European economic and corporate governance, study of psychotherapy science. Psychoanalyst in private practice and at the outpatient clinic for children and adolescents psychotherapy of Sigmund Freud University in cooperation with the Vienna Health Insurance. Publications and lectures on compulsive hoarding. >> continue

The concept of narcissism is a very complex and often confusing topic in psychoanalysis. If it is used as a stage of development, it refers to the primary narcissism. Freud described this as a stage where the child is self-sufficing for itself. (Freud, 1921) The infant has no ego boundaries and it lives with his environment as one, in other words, there are no boundaries between self and object representations. For Freud this is also the original stage of the oceanic feeling. (Freud, 1930) This regeneration is a lifelong effort and the development of the ego consists in a distance from the primary narcissism and thereby generates a desire to obtain this original state again. (Freud, 1914) A desire to lift the boundaries and a merging with another person represents an essential part in the life of an individual. >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Michaela Heger:

Born in Vienna in 1979, completed her studies at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna, as well as in the Psychoanalytic Seminar Innsbruck. She works in private practice, at the outpatient clinic for children and adolescent psychotherapy of the Vienna Health Insurance and as an consultant psychotherapist in the orthopedic hospital in Gersthof, Vienna. >> continue

It is truly gratifying that from now on there will be an online magazine called "The Vienna Psychoanalyst". At first, I gladly accepted the request to write a leading article for it. However, when I tried to answer the questions, especially the first one - "What fascinates you about psychoanalysis? c- I soon realized that I do not know the answers to some of the questions. For the first question, "What fascinates you about psychoanalysis?", I have no appropriate response, because I believe that it no longer is “the psychoanalysis”, whatever that was or should be. This made me think..
Back to "Der Wiener Psychoanalytiker"-Who other than Sigmund Freud should it be?
But, why still and again Freud? >> continue

In our interview series "in conversation with“, we will briefly present the authors of the leading articles. We want to give our users the opportunity to read the leading article from a different point of view.


This week we are very glad to welcome Thomas Aichhorn:

Psychoanalyst in private practice; Member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, the International Psychoanalytic Association and of the “Société Européenne pour la Psychanalyse de l´Enfant et Psychanalyse de l´Adolescent”, Paris.
Archivist of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and Vice-Chairman of the "Archives of the History of Psychoanalysis".
Publications and lectures on the theory and history of psychoanalysis, the "theory of the general seduction" by Jean Laplanche, adolescent psychoanalysis and on the biography and work of August Aichhorn. Editor of the correspondence Anna Freud - August Aichhorn. >> continue

Warm welcome to the homepage of the first psychoanalytic online magazine straight from Vienna.
About time too ...!

The Psychoanalytic Vienna can show definitely more than just being a Guardian of its rich history, and our online magazine would like to prove this from now on too.

THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST wants to send a clear message, namely accompanying psychoanalysis in modern times, by providing a platform on which all psychoanalysis interested worldwide are well informed and are able to share them with each other in a private forum. That´s why, from the start, we offer the contents in German and English. Other languages are already in preparation.

What could be better than a place where like-minded people can get in contact with each other at all times?

Whether it be psychoanalysts (Freudian, Kleinian, Lacanian, ...,), candidates, historians, collectors, ... you should all be excited because we have Lots prepared for you! >> continue