Showing papers in "International Forum of Psychoanalysis in 2014"
TL;DR: Freud's pre-1914 texts demonstrate why he consistently asserted that his free-associative method was the sine qua non of his discipline as discussed by the authors. But after 1914, he became more speculative in this thinking and writing; his models of the mental apparatus and its functioning drew increasingly on conceptual sources other than his experience with free association.
Abstract: Freud's pre-1914 texts demonstrate why he consistently asserted that his free-associative method was the sine qua non of his discipline. Prior to 1914, Freud's theorizing was intimately and inextricably connected to his lived experience with the discovery of this method. After 1914, he became more speculative in this thinking and writing; his models of the “mental apparatus” and its functioning drew increasingly on conceptual sources other than his experience with free association. The four fundamental coordinates of his discipline (the methodical disclosure that self-consciousness is repressive, the nonlinear “time of the mind,” the significance of our sensual embodiment or libidinality, and the formation of the repression barrier by the incest taboo) are all closely tied to free-associative experience. By contrast, post-1914 theoretical preoccupations (from object relations to the structural-functional model, and other formulations generated after Freud's life) are comparatively divorced from su...
27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, repetition-compulsions both in making war and in the diagnosis and treatment of war trauma are documented, and parallel tracks in the development of military history, neurology, and psychoanalysis are traced.
Abstract: War is a uniquely human scourge with complex biological, psychological, social, and political determinants. In this paper, repetition-compulsions both in making war and in the diagnosis and treatment of war trauma are documented. The diagnosis and treatment of war trauma are reviewed from the Napoleonic wars until the present, and parallel tracks in the development of military history, neurology, and psychoanalysis are traced. A personal history of the author and a clinical case history are included to demonstrate the effect of war on both family members and soldiers. Prevention of war through political negotiation is emphasized.
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present and adapt six broad-based families of internationally relevant supervision competence areas for use in psychoanalytic supervision: (1) knowledge about/understanding of supervision models, (2) knowledge of the supervision model, (3) understanding of the model, and (4) competence of supervision model.
Abstract: What are the competences required to satisfactorily practice effective or “good enough” psychoanalytic supervision? In this paper, I would like to consider that question. Over the past approximate 15-year period, increasing attention has been directed toward more specifically identifying and defining the components of competent psychoanalytic practice. But any parallel attention toward identifying and defining the components of competent psychoanalytic supervision practice has, in comparison, been sorely limited if not virtually absent. If we are to best practice competent psychoanalytic supervision and best train future psychoanalytic supervisors for competent practice, effort needs to be made to concretely delineate the competences that are requisite for such practice. In what follows, I present and adapt six broad-based families of internationally relevant supervision competence areas for use in psychoanalytic supervision: (1) knowledge about/understanding of psychoanalytic supervision models, ...
12 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the contribution of ego psychology, object relations and attachment theories, self-psychology, and group experiences to understanding resilience is discussed. But the authors focus on psychoanalytic approaches to resilience, from factoral components to views of structures and processes, including the new ideas that place resilience and depletion as phenomena at the two ends of the same continuity of structural dimensions.
Abstract: How did psychoanalysis find its way from “traumatic progression” or “precocious maturity,” as described by Ferenczi at the beginning of the 1930s with its background in the “wise baby” phenomenon, to research on resilience? The paper focuses on psychoanalytic approaches to resilience. What was the contribution of ego psychology, object relations and attachment theories, self-psychology, and group experiences to understanding resilience? Results concerning resilience are based on longitudinal studies of early hospitalized or traumatized but “resilient children,” child survivors of genocides, wars, and communal violence, populations of children and adult refugees. The paper shows the different approaches to resilience, from factoral components to views of structures and processes, including the new ideas that place resilience and depletion as phenomena at the two ends of the same continuity of structural dimensions: psychobiological and object relational.
11 citations
TL;DR: In this process, "others" are chosen by us to establish comparisons with our tribe, helping us through a mirroring process to shape our own image as mentioned in this paper. But these attributions tend to be very similar, regardless of which specific groups are involved.
Abstract: An individual's identity is gradually built upon a lifelong process of maturation. Sexual life and how our desire is channeled and expressed represent a key area of that global identity. Also, the nation to which we feel we belong constitutes another cornerstone of that complex structure. The obvious attraction that nationalism awakens in many parts of the world might be related to the facilitation of a valuable identity acquired by just belonging to a idealized group instead of through a tiresome and continuous effort. In this process, “others” are chosen by us to establish comparisons with our tribe, helping us through a mirroring process to shape our own image. We project upon those “others” all kinds of undesirable traits. Those attributions tend to be very similar, regardless of which specific groups are involved. The “others” are always lazy, dishonest, untrustworthy, dirty … . Interestingly, there are a specific set of “positive” attributions that are almost always present: the “others,” an...
11 citations
TL;DR: Ferenczi's discovery of trauma was labelled by Freud as a return “to errors that he himself upheld he had committed before 1897" as mentioned in this paper, and Freud wrote to numerous correspondents (among them Jones, Eitingon, and his daughter Anna) complaining that Fereczi's latest theoretical elaboration corresponded to a simple return to the origin of psychoanalysis and was also a symptom of a serious psychosis.
Abstract: Ferenczi's discovery of trauma was labelled by Freud as a return “to errors” that he himself upheld he had committed before 1897. During the dramatic period running from the Wiesbaden Congress (September 1932) to Ferenczi's death (May 1933), Freud wrote to numerous correspondents (among them Jones, Eitingon, and his daughter Anna) complaining that Ferenczi's latest theoretical elaboration corresponded to a simple return to the origin of psychoanalysis and was also a symptom of a serious psychosis. The theme of this paper is that Freud's opinion concerning Ferenczi's concept of trauma is a result of misunderstanding: the trauma as described by Ferenczi is not the one that preceded (in Freud's theory) the desertion of the seduction theory, but is something that is much deeper and mortifying, where the sexuality role is less central. The author pauses to ponder and reflect on the importance of the concept of Erschutterung as a cause in losing basic trust, a perspective that moves far from Freudian se...
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore psychosocially the intergenerational transmission of aspects of working-class masculinities through the shaming, embarrassment, and bullying of young unemployed men, when faced with taking up service work they describe as embarrassing and "feminine".
Abstract: This paper explores psychosocially the intergenerational transmission of aspects of working-class masculinities through the shaming, embarrassment, and bullying of young unemployed men, when faced with taking up service work they describe as “embarrassing” and “feminine.” The context is the closure of a steelworks in a town in the South Wales valleys, in which the men's resistance to service work is mediated by father–son relationships that dictate what counts as proper manly work. In this study, young men, as well as their mothers and (where possible) their fathers, were interviewed. The interviews reveal a community suffering the effects of intergenerational trauma and riven with complex feelings about masculinity and femininity. These feelings are projected onto the young men, who feel bullied and shamed by their families, peers, and others in the community because they are unable to find gender-appropriate work. The implications of these findings for understandings of youth male unemployment a...
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the psychoanalyst's reverie as it appeared in analytic work with a child patient who had suffered an early trauma is described. And the author tries to show how impressions in art can help the analyst to understand the patient and develop their sensitivity to the human condition.
Abstract: This article illustrates the psychoanalyst's reverie as it appeared in analytic work with a child patient who had suffered an early trauma. According to Bion and later Ogden, the analyst's reverie can take many forms, including different sound images. During the analysis of the traumatized child, the analyst's reverie developed from a simple tune derived from an aria belonging to a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, to a more tangled journey through the music of Bach and the story of the child. Bion's theory of containment and reverie, and its further development by Ogden and others, is described. The author tries to show how impressions in art can help the analyst to understand the patient and develop his or her sensitivity to the human condition.
8 citations
TL;DR: The trial period as discussed by the authors is considered one of many opening moves in psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, and Freud advocated the trial period to help the therapist take a "sounding" when he knew little about the patient and when the patient knew very little about psychoanalysis.
Abstract: Just as there are many roads to Rome, the trial period may be considered one of many opening moves in psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. The responsive – and responsible – therapist must be many things to many patients, some of whom know nothing about the psychotherapeutic/analytic process. Freud advocated the trial period to help him take a “sounding” when he knew little about the patient and when the patient knew little about psychoanalysis. R.I.P.? This brief communication laments the apparent demise of this promising procedure and makes an effort at resurrection by describing the hitherto unmapped latent structure of the trial period. Even if there are fewer patients in psychoanalysis today, there may be a number of reasons to recommend a trial period, no matter what we name this period of optimistic uncertainty at the beginning of every treatment. Even if “consultation” is the term de jour, the psychoanalytic psychotherapist cannot escape certain role responsibilities at the beginning of every ...
7 citations
TL;DR: The Milan Associazione di Studi Psicoanalitici (ASP) as mentioned in this paper became a member society of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) in 1989.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to show how the life, personality, and scientific work of Gaetano Benedetti and Johannes Cremerius shaped the original form and structure of the Milan Associazione di Studi Psicoanalitici (ASP), which they founded together with their pupils in 1971 and which became a member society of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) in 1989. The training analysis was substituted by a personal analysis to be finished before the beginning of the training proper; group supervision had and still has as much importance as individual supervision; transference and countertransference analysis are fundamental dimensions of both psychoanalysis and psychotherapy; and psychoanalysis can survive only in a context of interdisciplinary dialogue, empirical research, and social commitment. The author thinks that all these ingredients, which Benedetti and Cremerius contributed to the life of the Milan Scuola di Psicoterapia Psicoanalitica and ASP, could represent important r...
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, ways of contemplating and accommodating the unfamiliar, especially the "other" of spiritual experience, are considered, and interesting and rather remarkable confluences in these concepts from psychoanalysis and from Tibetan Buddhism (bardo) and cultural anthropology (liminality) are considered in their functions of both enabling and comprehending these extraordinary and often life-enhancing experiences.
Abstract: In this paper, ways of contemplating and accommodating the unfamiliar, especially the “other” of spiritual experience, are considered. Some concepts from psychoanalysis, such as Winnicott's “potential space” and his notion of “holding,” are helpful in comprehending spiritual experiences that can easily be misunderstood, or “flattened out” to use Bion's phrase. Interesting and rather remarkable confluences in these concepts from psychoanalysis and from Tibetan Buddhism (bardo) and cultural anthropology (liminality) are considered in their functions of both enabling and comprehending these extraordinary and often life-enhancing experiences.
TL;DR: The boundary concept has been central to discussions on ethics and psychoanalysis over the past few decades as discussed by the authors, and the main distinction has been between less malignant boundary crossings and more harmful violations.
Abstract: The boundary concept has been central to discussions on ethics and psychoanalysis over the past few decades. The main distinction has been between less malignant boundary crossings and more harmful violations. More recently, the concept has been criticized as not discriminating between technique and ethics. The author argues that these problems are connected to the way the boundary concept is defined. He suggests that it is specified to indicate a delimitation of an analytic area of conduct. In an analogous manner, an area of ethical conduct is framed by a boundary between ethical and unethical actions in the treatment situation. The analytic area has a narrower limitation than ethics and a stricter articulation of its concept of attitude; not all unanalytic actions are unethical. This simple model of interpersonally specified boundaries allows us to discriminate between different kinds of transgression in analytic work. In addition to violations and crossings, a third instance is described denoti...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors advise supervisors to take into account the gap in power and interests between their supervisees and themselves, and the temptation that may arise within them to use their supervizees' regression in order to avoid resistance.
Abstract: The centrality of the supervisory relationship to the professional development of supervisees may encourage dependency needs and regressive wishes. This process may undermine the delicate balance in supervision between an optimal didactic tension and an atmosphere of calmness and security. The present paper advises supervisors to take into account the gap in power and interests between their supervisees and themselves, and the temptation that may arise within them to use their supervisees' regression in order to avoid resistance. Such awareness will help them make controlled and appropriate use of such analytic powers and maintain the balance between supervisees' “regressive selves” and “mature selves.” In addition, a perception of supervisory relations as a space of mutual alternating regressive states is offered as an important aspect of supervisor–supervisee communication.
TL;DR: Kenny as mentioned in this paper is a professor of psychology at the University of Sydney and a member of the Australian and American Psychological Societies (APS) who specialties are developmental psychology and develo...
Abstract: Dianna T. Kenny is a professor of psychology at the University of Sydney and a member of the Australian and American Psychological Societies. Her specialties are developmental psychology and develo...
TL;DR: The Hellenic Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (HSPP) as mentioned in this paper was founded by five Greek psychoanalysts and psychotherapists trained abroad, after three decades of fruitless attempts at establishing psychoanalysis in Greece.
Abstract: The authors attempt to outline the historical course of the Hellenic Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (HSPP). They put forward several hypotheses concerning the dynamics of its foundation and evolution. The HSPP was founded in 1977 by five Greek psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists trained abroad, after three decades of fruitless attempts at establishing psychoanalysis in Greece. The authors sustain that the foundation of the HSPP addressed the complex problems of Greek society in the 1970s. The request for the founding of an institution for psychoanalytic therapy and training can be linked to a search for new orientations in thought that would enhance the working-through of traumas that had marked Greek society in the previous decades; these traumas played a role in the insurmountable problems in establishing psychoanalysis in Greece and in the difficulties met by the emancipation of Greek psychiatry from asylum-centered practice. The HSPP remained the only psychoanalytic ins...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors illustrate two clinical situations of traumatized children and adults and try to show how these kinds of patient are not able to give voice to and symbolically represent their archaic anxieties connected with their having been Ferenczian “unwelcome children.
Abstract: Starting from the concept of confusion of tongues between passion and tenderness, the authors illustrate two clinical situations of traumatized children and adults and try to show how these kinds of patient are not able to give voice to and symbolically represent their archaic anxieties connected with their having been Ferenczian “unwelcome children.” Therefore, in the therapeutic situation, they often make use of the language of “passion” and sexualization in order to communicate to the analyst their early broken intimacy and their traumatized “tenderness,” related to a lack of parental libidinal involvement and of maternal permeability to their raw emotions, which gave rise to their “passion of death.” Sketching out two clinical cases (an adolescent and an adult), the authors describe how, in their opinion, this confusion of tongues may be the only way for some patients to represent and share the traumatic events of their past, while at the same time it may become a deep-rooted, strong, rigid, a...
TL;DR: The Institute for Psykoterapi as discussed by the authors is a nationwide training institution offering postgraduate studies in psychoanalytic psychotherapy for physicians and psychologists, and it is also a membership society aiming at safeguarding and disseminating the psychoanally oriented perspective in mental health care.
Abstract: The Institutt for Psykoterapi is a nationwide training institution offering postgraduate studies in psychoanalytic psychotherapy for physicians and psychologists. It is also a membership society aiming at safeguarding and disseminating the psychoanalytically oriented perspective in mental health care. The Institute was founded in October 1962 as a result of cooperation between the psychologists Einar Dannevig and Per Mentzen and the psychiatrist Endre Ugelstad. At that time, the only systematic training in psychotherapy for physicians and psychologists in this country was provided by the Norwegian Psychoanalytic Society. The training took place in Oslo alone, the teaching capacity was limited, and only psychoanalysis was taught. It is a demanding form of treatment that many patients with mental disorders are unable to carry through. The great majority of patients in institutions needed other forms of psychotherapy, but there was at that time no systematic training for this purpose. In a letter of ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the impact of ego-oriented social character formation in regard to clinical and therapeutic issues, and discuss the role of such characters in the development of mental health disorders.
Abstract: Particularly due to technical innovations, we are witnessing an unbounding of reality that is increasingly reflected in an inner striving to get rid of the limitations and boundaries of our own personality by reconstructing it anew. This pursuit of de-limitation, dissolution, and blurring of boundaries is seen as a central character trait of the ego-oriented social character. Such a fabrication of a limitless personality doubtless results in a weakening of such psychic abilities as experiencing one's self as a consistent and ambiguous entity, being emotionally attached to oneself and to others, feeling one's own strivings, affects, and emotions, and being guided by one's internalized norms and values. Finally, the impact of this character formation is discussed in regard to clinical and therapeutic issues.
TL;DR: The case of Dana at the International Sẚpndor Ferenczi Conference in Israel has been analyzed in this paper, where the authors argue that hope and despair make up a dynamic dialectic underlying all human development, and therapeutic change is created in the space between them.
Abstract: Many relational analysts believe that hope and despair make up a dynamic dialectic underlying all human development, and therapeutic change is created in the space between them. Twelve years have passed since I presented the case of Dana at the International Sẚpndor Ferenczi Conference in Israel. Since that time, there have been more International Ferenczi's conferences. In the intervening years, I began to rethink Dana's case from a different perspective. Simultaneously, I was trying to make new sense of the then-described “temporary” emotional upheaval I had thought I left behind. In this process of reflection, I realized not only that I was as resistant as Dana to surrendering to my despair, but also that this resistance on my part led to an impasse and might have closed some possibilities for Dana in dealing with severe trauma. This newly found emotional awareness has helped to transform my work with subsequent trauma patients. Through “getting into mud,” to use my patient Gary's words, I was ...
TL;DR: Neutrality is a most important concept, yet a controversial one as mentioned in this paper, leaving behind them a legacy of disparate and often contradictory formulations of the concept, and the author points out how unacknowledged discrepancies among these ideas get in the way of understanding and so complicate analytic discourse, and argues that useful work with this concept requires that analysts differentiate between operational neutrality and intentional neutrality.
Abstract: Neutrality is a most important concept, yet a controversial one. Theorists of different analytic schools have defined it in their own terms, leaving behind them a legacy of disparate and often contradictory formulations. In this paper, the author reviews briefly some of these ideas about neutrality. Then, from a contemporary interpersonal/relational perspective, the author takes a new look at the idea of neutrality. The author points out how unacknowledged discrepancies among these ideas get in the way of understanding and so complicate analytic discourse, and argues that useful work with this concept requires that analysts differentiate between two aspects of neutrality, specifically operational neutrality and intentional neutrality. The theoretical discussion is followed by a case vignette illustrating the clinical usefulness of this differentiation.
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of truth is considered as an integral element of the patient's unrepresented, subjective self-experiences, particularly in respect to traumatic aspects, and truth is also conceptualized as a process of exploration of traumatic elements emerging dynamically in the context of transference.
Abstract: Conceptualizing intersecting psychical dynamics taking place within the analytic relationship, the concept of truth is considered as an integral element of the patient's unrepresented, subjective self-experiences, particularly in respect to traumatic aspects. Truth is also conceptualized as a process of exploration of traumatic elements emerging dynamically in the context of transference.During such processes, it is possible that the patient's traumatic truth may collide with certain aspects of the analyst's mental life affecting deeply his/her phantasy and stirring strong feelings and representations of traumatic self-experiences of personal and subjective meaning. These instances are vital intersubjective aspects of the analytic relationship. They facilitate the exploration of the patient's unconscious inner truth and are signified as internal moments of meeting, emphasizing a psychical interchange between the analytic dyad and creation of a mental-cradle, a space for exploring and representing ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the nature and function of the analyst's communication to the patient and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, linking it with Sandor Ferenczi's theory of trauma.
Abstract: Discussing Charles Rycroft's seminal paper “The nature and function of the analyst's communication to the patient,” presented in 1956 at the Freud Centenary, the author reflects on Rycroft's theory of what constitutes a healthy and a pathological communication and of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, linking it with Sandor Ferenczi's theory of trauma
TL;DR: The International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) as discussed by the authors was founded by Erich Fromm, who was one of the founders of the IFPS, and his motives and interests in establishing the federation were presented in the context of Fromm's very specific personal situation as well as the situation of psychoanalysis in Mexico 50 years ago.
Abstract: Erich Fromm was one of the founders of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS). His motives and interests in establishing the federation will be presented in the context of Fromm's very specific personal situation as well as the situation of psychoanalysis in Mexico 50 years ago. Fromm personally practiced psychoanalysis in a way that still can be seen as a legacy and guideline for the identity of the IFPS 50 years later. Here, I try to describe the sense of identity of the IFPS at the time of its foundation 50 years ago. To do this, I will first portray the interests that motivated Erich Fromm to found the IFPS. I will then address the question of what meaning this former sense of identity might have for the IFPS today.
TL;DR: The controversy over the Confusion of Tongues paper marks a crisis in the personal relations between Freud and Ferenczi and a turning point in the psychoanalytic relationship as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In a letter of May 31, 1931, Ferenczi sent Freud a set of “Preliminary Communications” containing the substance of a lecture that he was planning to give at the International Psychoanalytic Congress to be held later that year Although the Congress was postponed until the following year, the ideas contained in these communications form the basis for the controversial “Confusion of Tongues” paper that Ferenczi delivered, over the protestations of Freud and his closest associates, at the Twelfth International Psychoanalytic Congress in Wiesbaden, Germany, in September 1932 With reference to primary sources, chiefly letters, original papers, and commentaries, my paper will chart the course of the intensifying dispute between Freud and Ferenczi over the conception of psychic reality contained in their respective views on the nature of trauma Although the controversy over the “Confusion of Tongues” paper marks a crisis in the personal relations between Freud and Ferenczi – and a turning point in the
TL;DR: Ferenczi's view is influenced by a number of metapsychological conceptions that occasionally are quite different from Freud's approach, especially as regards the economical and topical points of view as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In Ferenczi's view, dreams have a traumatolytic function that is anterior to and more primary than the wish-fulfilment function considered by Freud. This view is influenced by a number of metapsychological conceptions that occasionally are quite different from Freud's approach, especially as regards the economical and topical points of view, which Ferenczi clearly set apart in posthumous works. In these conceptions, he “dismisses” pondering a so-called death instinct and advancing towards the notion of an unconscious other than repressed. Otherwise, as Ferenczi considers that in dreams there is an “optimistic counterfeit,” the present article reflects on how to overcome this hypomanic solution in order to turn the traumatolytic potential of dream into a fully therapeutic function. A dream taken from a film is used to illustrate Ferenczi's point of view.
TL;DR: Ferenczi's legacy in contemporary psychoanalysis was discussed at the 2012 International Forum of Psychoanalysis in Budapest as discussed by the authors, where the authors presented a selection of the papers that were presented at the previous edition of the conference.
Abstract: The papers of this Special Number of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis are a selection of the papers that were presented at the International Sándor Ferenczi Conference held in Budapest from May 31 to June 3, 2012. Other papers stemming from the same conference have been published in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Vol. 73, Issue 4, 2013) and in Le Coq-Héron (No. 212, 2013). The best way to introduce the papers is to briefly outline the corpus to which they belong, that is the contemporary Ferenczi legacy. There are essentially two elements that have favored the revival and spread of Ferenczi’s legacy in contemporary psychoanalysis. The first is the publication in 1985 of The Clinical Diary, which was written by Ferenczi in 1932, shortly before his premature death in 1933. The publication of the Diary was continually postponed because of the negative atmosphere that surrounded Ferenczi, and was in the end made possible by the courage and determination of Judit Dupont, who had in 1970 become Ferenczi’s literary representative after the death of his most important pupil, Michael Balint. According Michael Balint’s plan, the Diary had to be published at the same time of the publication of some chosen letters from the Freud–Ferenczi correspondence, but this turned out not to be possible because of a veto by Anna Freud. Therefore, only after the death of Anna Freud and the publication of the Diary did the plan to publish a complete edition of the Ferenczi–Freud letters become achievable, thanks to the efforts of André Haynal and of a group of young editors, among which were Ernst Falzeder and Eva Brabant. The first volume of The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi, which included the letters between 1908 and 1913, was first published in 1992 in French. During the following decade, the three volumes of the correspondence were progressively published in various languages, fostering a new interest in Ferenczi and his work. The second crucial element in reviving Ferenczi’s legacy in contemporary psychoanalysis is the International Sándor Ferenczi Conferences, which have been a place of encounter for psychoanalysts coming from different schools and orientations, and which have in time created a space of thought inspired by Ferenczi’s ideas. The conferences have been: “The Legacy of Sándor Ferenczi,” New York, 1991; “The Talking Therapy: Ferenczi and the Psychoanalytic Vocation,” Budapest, 1993; “Sándor Ferenczi,” Saõ Paulo, 1995; “Sándor Ferenczi y el Psychoanálisis Contemporáneo,” Madrid, 1998; “Sándor Ferenczi: The “Mother” of Modern Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy,” Tel Aviv, 1999; “Lost Childhood,” Trilogy, Part 1, Budapest, 2001; “Lost Childhood and the Language of Exile,” Trilogy, Part 2, London, 2001; “Mother, Motherland Mother Tongue,” Trilogy, Part 3, Paris, 2001; “Clinical Sándor Ferenczi,” Torino, 2002; “Conferenczi. Hungarian Psychoanalytic Ideas Revisited,” London, 2004; “Psychoanalysis and Psychosomatics: Mind, Body and the Bridge Between,” Baden-Baden, 2006; “Sándor Ferenczi Returns Home,” Miskolc, 2008; “Introjection, Transference, and the Analyst in the Contemporary World,” Buenos Aires, 2009; and “Faces of Trauma,” Budapest, 2012. Further important conferences have been held in Florence (1999, 2005, 2012, 2013), London (1999, 2013), Paris (2007, 2010), Turin (2009), Berlin (2010), and Vancouver (2011), and many Ferenczi panels have also been organized within other international psychoanalytic conferences. In addition, many Special Issues of psychoanalytic journals have been devoted to the work of Ferenczi. Here we provide an incomplete list: Le Coq-Héron (No. 85, 1982; No. 125, 1992; No. 127, 1993; No. 149, 1998; No. 154, 1999; No. 155, 1999; No. 167, 2001; No. 174, 2003; No. 178, 2004; No. 212, 2013), the Revue Française de Psychanalyse (Vol. 38, No. 4, 1974; Vol. 47, No. 5, 1983; Monographie, 1995, PUF, Paris), International Forum of Psychoanalysis (Vol. 5, No. 3, 1996; Vol. 7, No. 4; 1998, Vol. 13, No. 1–2, 2004), the American Journal of Psychoanalysis (Vol. 58, 1998; Vol. 59, 1999; Vol. 67, No. 3, 2007; Vol. 71, No. 4, 2011; Vol. 72, No. 1, 2012), American Imago (Vol. 66, 2009), Psychoanalytic Inquiry (Vol. 17, No. 4, 1997; and in press March 2014). Other Special Issues can be found in the journals L’Évolution Psychiatrique, Etudes Freudiennes, International Forum of Psychoanalysis, 2014 Vol. 23, No. 1, 1–2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0803706X.2014.886780
TL;DR: The history of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis is described in this article, with special reference to its values, organization, and relation to technical developments, that is, the use of information technology in the handling of its manuscripts.
Abstract: This paper outlines the history of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis, with special reference to its values, organization, and relation to technical developments, that is, the use of information technology in the handling of its manuscripts.
TL;DR: The International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) was founded as a reaction to the exclusive politics of the International Psychoanaliatical Association (IPA) in the postwar years as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The foundation of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) in 1962 was – from the author's point of view – a reaction to the exclusive politics of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) in the postwar years. It was a political act of self-assertion, and only secondarily a science-related initiative. But meanwhile, the field of international psychoanalysis has changed fundamentally, and the former identity of the IFPS, which was defined from its differences from the IPA, has come under increasing pressure. Meeting this challenge, the question arises: what is the contribution of the Federation to psychoanalysis in the contemporary world? The author believes that the future lies in the exploration of identity-creating relations in all areas and periods of life. To deal with this huge challenge would be a shared task for the whole psychoanalytic community.
TL;DR: In this paper, the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS) is depicted through a young man's eyes and some viewpoints are given on the importance of the IFPS's existence.
Abstract: Against the background of a condensed sketch of the psychotherapeutic tradition in Sweden, I indicate my own path to the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS). The 1962 Forum, held in Amsterdam, at which the IFPS was founded, is depicted through a young man's eyes. Some viewpoints are given on the importance of the IFPS's existence. The development of the journal International Forum of Psychoanalysis is also described and commented on.
TL;DR: In this paper, the author presented case material from the psychoanalysis of a man with social anxiety, where the analyst came to be perceived as a version of a blank screen and noted a discrepancy between the patient's attitude on and off the couch.
Abstract: The relationship between psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalytic practice is highly complicated. In this paper, the author presents case material from the psychoanalysis of a man with social anxiety. In the process, the analyst came to be perceived as a version of a blank screen. At the same time, the analyst noted a discrepancy between the patient's attitude on and off the couch. Further work revealed that this splitting in his attitude had its root in the patient's relationship with his parents during his childhood. It was crucially important that the analyst did not take his perceived blankness as a technical success but that he understood the patient's reaction contextually, taking his past relationships with his parents into consideration. The author then discusses theoretical issues related to the blank screen concept. Finally, the author discusses the importance of understanding the two aspects of analytic theorizing, that is, the prescriptive and descriptive aspects.