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 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).



DWP: What brought you to psychoanalysis?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: The main motive was my own suffering. It seems to me that almost all who deal with psychoanalysis basically reach it through the neurosis. Afterwards you can approach it from one direction or another like philosophy, literature, medicine, but the main/basic motivation remains the status of one’s own suffering. Similarly, there was a big wish of mine to find a way to express my suffering in a differently than I could before. I found this possibility in psychoanalysis.


DWP: If you had the opportunity to talk with Sigmund Freud, what would be the topic?
Are there any specific questions?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: I would find it great if I had the opportunity to talk with Sigmund Freud even if it’s only 10 minutes. A specific question I have would be how he would position himself today regarding politically institution. In other words, how would he design the institutional psychoanalysis today, so that it ensures the practice of psychoanalysis as it was originally meant by him.


DWP: Fabric or leather couch?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: Fabric, but could also be leather. Doesn´t matter ...


DWP: According to Bruno Bettelheim and 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?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: If it should go according to Bettelheim, I think of a children’s fairy tale ... Perhaps a passage from "Hansel and Gretel" which I always liked; in particular the place where they marked their way with small pieces of bread so that they could later easier find their way out. To me the Psychoanalysis appears similar. In my opinion it is also a possibility to find a way out. The psychoanalysis allows not only a way out but it also enables you to create breadcrumbs on the way. It is possible to highlight the important parts on the way and you can distinguish the way one has taken. Find a way out through the spoken word.


DWP: I dream,….

Ángel Daniel Fernández: For psychoanalysis I dream that it will become much more popular and widespread than now. I wish that psychoanalysis was better understood and more integrated into the university discourse and much more clearly in it. I also hope, which relates to the question that I would ask S. Freud, for an organization that represents the psychoanalysis in this way. Not that there are not enough organizations, but I believe especially on the institutional level, is still much room for improvement....


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

Ángel Daniel Fernández: My favorite is the practical application in my work with patients. For me, this is a wonderful work. It is something very special, very entertaining, varied, also funny and fulfilling. I do not think that there is something in psychoanalysis that I do not like. Of course there are things I do not like, either in my colleagues or in other psychoanalysts. This is indeed also true in return, but in psychoanalysis itself, I could not find anything in particular, that I do not like.


DWP: What challenges did you have to face during your analytic training?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: It´s a long story, but I´m trying to be brief here. The hardest thing for me was to find good teachers. During my training, it was important to understand the discourse of J. Lacan, who just started to be appreciated in Argentina. The discourse was so far from what we knew and even further away seemed all the places where you could acquire knowledge about it.  Masotta once said: "Argentina is a country without teachers.", and it was really very difficult to find someone who was really genuinely interested to share/teach some of the practice of analysis. What we had to do, at that time was therefore to find a position between two opposites. On the one hand we had the very serious university and on the other side were the "lunatics" who dealt with such a strange and different discourse, that of J. Lacan, who was so far away from what we had otherwise understood as psychoanalysis and seemed extraordinarily incomprehensible and encrypted. Here we had to laboriously seek people out to help us to approach and to acquire this discourse. That was the biggest challenge.


DWP: Do you have a favorite Freud - quote?

Ángel Daniel Fernández: I like to quote Freud because I found out that I can quite easily remember the things I´ve read, as opposed to the things that I have experienced. I admire all the writings of Freud, but in particular, I am fascinated by quotes in which Freud defined psychoanalysis. They define contours and shades of what psychoanalysis is as a theory as a method and as a procedure. There is a phrase which I think is almost universal, I think it comes from the Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis: "Nothing in the world must cease to exist, so that psychoanalysis can exist." That seems to me almost the main motto of psychoanalysis, since it does not need something else to disappears so that it can exist. And a second one shows why money does not bring us happiness "Happiness is the fulfillment of children´s wishes" and children do not want any money, the penis is more likely. I can think of many more, but I´m going to exercise restraint. I just suggest reading the works of Freud.


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



Contact information of the author:
Ángel Daniel Fernández