Leading articles

THE VIENNA PSYCHOANALYST wants to give not only already internationally established psychoanalysts, but also still unknown psychoanalysts the opportunity to post a self-written and not yet published article on the FrontPage of our online magazine!

Our Users then can leave comments, ask questions or discuss the articles in our forum. Our aim is to provide an international platform where for the first time anyone interested in psychoanalysis can exchange ideas on certain topics.
Articles are welcome in German and/ or English.

If you are interested, please send your article to
leadingarticle@theviennapsychoanalyst.at


(For reasons of readability, the male form is used with personal names, however the female form is also always intended.)

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.

He is currently in his 6th year of Medical School. In 2016, he founded www.psgriga.org in order to establish a foundation for students to learn about emotions in healthcare and psychosomatic concepts. He likes Hummus, continental philosophy, smoked Blutwurst and Poetry. His previous articles were published in the printed version of the Latvian student magazine semperanticus.lv and the American online magazine in-training.org.



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

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: I recollect dinners with my family during which my mother, an assistance physician in psychiatry, shared stories about her work. Without knowing the terminology, I started to wonder about topics such as motivation, desire, trauma and the unconscious. A few years later, I found a book on Freud’s theories, which seemed to offer a conclusive explanation for these topics.


DWP: Have you ever undergone psychoanalysis?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: Unfortunately, not yet. In the coming year, I hope to apply to a psychoanalytic institute in Germany and start my training and begin my training analysis.


DWP: If you had the opportunity to talk to Sigmund Freud, what would be the topic?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: I would probably discuss art and mass psychology. The interest of psychoanalysis, seems to me, lies mainly with dictators and their rise to power. What would be his opinion on North Korea and the Soviet Union? What happens to people, their unconscious and their dreams if they live  in self-declared utopias?


DWP: Fabric or leather couch?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: Leather.


DWP: Bruno Bettelheim pointed out the importance of fairy tales in childhood. Will you tell us your favorite fairy tale? And do you see parallels to your own adult life?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: I forgot most of Grimm’s fairy tales, yet I remember the German “Nibelung” and the Persian “Rostam” saga from Schahname. The battles are more vivid than the love scenes. I noticed some parallels.


DWP: I dream, …

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: Currently, my dreams are built around the question of migration and my wish to move back to Germany.


DWP: What do you find good or particularly good about psychoanalysis and is there anything you do not like about it?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: On one hand it still amazes me to see this institution still alive despite society’s aversion to it. I would like to see psychoanalysis embedded within an academic framework, especially in medical faculties. It should not be exclusively bound to institutes.


DWP: Do you have a favorite Freud - quote?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: It can be found in the Sigmund Freud Park, Vienna.  I do prefer the full quote, but there is a simple beauty in a stone with that message.
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one"


DWP:  Are there other psychoanalysts, in addition to Sigmund Freud, who you like to study?

Kamiar-K. Rueckert: I started to read Lacan, Winnicott, Klein, Kernberg and McWilliams over the last two years. With the exception of Kernberg and McWilliams, I miss an academic setting in order to explore them more thoroughly.


Thank you very much for this conversation, we are already looking forward to your leading article!