One With the Wind: A Comment on Strenger's (2004) "Of Potholes and Bends: A Meditation on Psychoanalysis and Motorcycle Riding".

Rightly, I believe, does Carlo Strenger (see record 2004-21113-014) focus on the need, in life and in psychoanalysis, to look forward and not backward, to trust that good and competent teachers will guide individuals until they can guide themselves. In motorcycle riding, such guidance, as Strenger makes clear, has its roots in a caring desire to help the neophyte motorcyclist--not unlike what a therapist must bring to his or her work. And, as is obvious, whom one selects as a coach, or analyst, is crucial; in motorcycling, one trusts one's very life to a teacher. Rightly does Strenger relate this capacity to trust to Winnicott's (and, I might add, Erikson's) understanding of a child's earliest relationships. In this short yet interesting meditation, Strenger takes us through the developmental stages of learning to master the motorcycle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis: Legitimate and illegitimate concerns.

R. F. Bornstein (2001) points to real problems but underestimates what is going on now clinically and scientifically, exaggerates the past acceptance, and undervalues the scientific value of clinical observations. He ignores the role of economic factors in determining the status of psychoanalysis. He rejects repression, castration anxiety, penis envy, free association, and dream analysis. Clinical observations from World War II, ordinary clinical practice, and experiments amply demonstrate the phenomena of repression (painful memories, fantasies, impulses, feelings, or connections being kept out of awareness). Free association and dream analyses are powerful therapeutic techniques. Castration anxiety and penis envy (not innate) can sometimes be observed. Psychoanalysis includes powerful ideas and effective therapy as experienced by patients and reflected in research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction: Psychoanalysis and sexuality.

Articles originally presented at the 18th annual spring meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association collected in an issue of Psychoanalytic Psychology are introduced. The title of the conference was "Psychoanalysis and sexuality: Reflections on an old love affair," and articles selected address aspects of this theme. Included in the issue are contributions from R. Schafer (1999a, 1999b), O. Renik (1999), D. Kriegman (1999), D. Schwartz (1999), M. O. Slavin (1999), H. G. Russ (1999), and J. K. Ogden (1999). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Relying on Metaphor: What Psychoanalysts Might Learn From Wallace Stevens.

The poetry of Wallace Stevens offers lessons for psychoanalysts--especially in regard to the postmodern concern that there is no single true way of telling the human tale. Stevens was preoccupied with the impossibility of grasping reality through language. Nevertheless he made beautiful, true poems. Psychoanalytic concepts too may be only language, "merely" metaphors. But in collaborative metaphor making there is the possibility of finding provisional truth, that is, other, better ways of telling our experience and playing out our life stories. We can continue to rely on an interpretative process that organizes experience without expecting or needing to pin it down in any final sense. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism: Book review.

Review of book: Agnes Petocz (Au.) Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 284 pp. Reviewed by Nigel Mackay. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Marital Status of Psychoanalysis and Learning Theory.

The union of psychoanalytic and learning theory, so strenuously promoted in recent years, may prove to be not much more compatible in certain respects than many another shotgun marriage. Through some peculiar phenomena of isolation, repression, or fixation upon goal object, fundamental areas of disagreement have been enthusiastically neglected. This comment provides a closer look at these areas of contention. Two levels of disagreement are evident here: (a) the factual disagreement as to where the punishments and rewards occur; (b) the theoretical disagreement as to whether the immediate or the long-term consequence has the determining effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of Potholes and Bends: A Meditation on Psychoanalysis and Motorcycle Riding.

Psychoanalysis has recently turned attention to the importance of the patient's developing a sense of the future. Yet many patients cannot envisage a rich and worthwhile future, because their attention is focused on the dangers, real or imagined. This scenario is analogous to difficulties motorcyclists have in detaching their gaze from sources of danger and developing depth of vision. The author relates some experiences he has had in being coached in motorcycle riding and demonstrates their relevance to psychoanalytic processes. It is shown that both in motorcycling and in life, it is important to keep focus of vision on one's long-term goals while being aware of dangers in peripheral vision. The development of harmonious movement is shown to be a function of a combination of maternal care and paternal guidance in life as in riding motorcycles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis in the undergraduate curriculum: The treatment of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts.

Reviews 4 books on the topic of psychoanalytic theory in abnormal psychology texts. The purpose of this review is to encourage this process by evaluating some of the resources available for academic psychologists to teach psychoanalysis to undergraduate psychology students. The reviewer reviews several texts commonly employed in teaching undergraduate abnormal psychology and psychopathology courses, with the aim of evaluating the extent to which they accurately reflect the breadth and complexity of psychoanalytic thought as it applies to these areas of inquiry. The books reviewed here were chosen on the basis of two criteria: (a) They are popular, widely used undergraduate abnormal psychology texts; and (b) they represent a range of perspectives on psychoanalysis, with some books written from a psychodynamic perspective, and others generally opposed to the psychoanalytic view. Each text is reviewed in three general areas. First, the reviewer evaluates the extent to which each thoroughly and accurately discusses basic psychoanalytic theory as it presents various models of mental functioning. Treatment of key psychoanalytic concepts such as ego development and defenses, compromise formation, symptom substitution, fixation and regression, and the psychosexual stages is evaluated, as is the extent to which each work attempts to integrate the object-relations perspective into its discussion. Second, the reviewer reviews each text's presentation of the psychodynamic model for selected areas of psychopathology (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, addiction and addictive behaviors, character pathology, and sexual disorders). Finally, the extent to which each work discusses the relationship of basic psychoanalytic theory to the use of projective tests such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is considered, as is each text's treatment of psychoanalytic concepts underlying the development of the medical model and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III, 1980). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis as the Idiosyncratic Science of the Individual Subject.

The author examines the scientific status of psychoanalysis from a new angle. Two questions guide the inquiry: what a science is and what psychoanalysis is the science of. If it is supposed to be a global science of mind, where mind is shared by and generalizable over the population of human individuals, its status as science is vulnerable to challenge. The challenge can be circumvented by reconceptualizing psychoanalysis as a set of local theories (metatheoretically linked) applicable to idiosyncratic cases. Every patient is a new world, whose laws it is the task of the analyst to establish and apply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Dispatches from the Freud wars: Psychoanalysis and its passions and Truth games: Lies, money and psychoanalysis.

Reviews the books, Dispatches from the Freud wars: Psychoanalysis and its passions by John Forrester (see record 1997-08548-000) and Truth games: Lies, money and psychoanalysis by John Forrester (see record 1997-36555-000). Although psychoanalysis has been attacked since its inception, the nature of the assaults has varied. Right now, it is being assailed in terms of the new trinity of race, class, and gender, to say nothing of its problematic position as a science, in a world that increasingly values technology. Even as a narrative system, it is accused of lacking credibility and causing damage more than cures. In Dispatches From the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions, John Forrester, the philosopher and historian of science, provides a welcome cease-fire. Although his title refers to the current Freud wars, Forrester does not engage in any violent skirmish himself. Rather, he stands on the edge of battle, sending back reports from the defense as well as the enemy camp. His position is civilized rather than combative: balanced, measured, and a triumph of reason over id, perhaps too much so. Although the passions of Forrester's subtitle refer to the passions within psychoanalytic theory itself, the passions that it treats, and the passions that it arouses in its defendants as well as its opponents, Forrester himself is calm. Yet it is clear whose side he is on. Not that his book is only about the wars—in this sense, the title is misleading—for it treats such varied subjects as envy and justice, Ferenzi's love relationships, and Freud as a collector of artifacts as well as dreams. Readers coming to Forrester's most recent book, Truth Games: Lies, Money and Psychoanalysis, hoping to learn about the lies psychoanalysis reputedly tells (or the money it wrongly accrues) are going to be disappointed. This book grounds itself on the integrity of psychoanalysis. It never raises the question so prominent today of whether psychoanalytic theory is itself based on deception and fraud. While accepting that human beings lie and that patients' lies are somehow connected to psychoanalytic truth (insofar as they are revealing), it ignores the possibility of the lying analyst. In relation to truth, lies, and memory, Forrester writes that recognition of the importance of the transference led Freud to conclude that "success was achieved whether patient and analyst worked with memories or with impulses in the here and now" (Forrester, 1997, p. 77). He found "in free association and the analyst's withholding of belief and unbelief a means of isolating his practice from the problem of lying and deception" (p. 79). Following Lacan, Forrester notes that although psychoanalysis is predicated on the patient's telling the truth, its very techniques, such as free association, encourage the opposite. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis, feminism, and the politics of exclusion: A rejoinder.

In a book review published in this journal, Fine (see record 2003-05429-013) criticized Lerner's (see record 2006-00700-000) The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships and raised broader concerns about the popularization of psychological ideas and about feminist psychoanalytic theory. This rejoinder takes issue with his criticisms, arguing that there is a legitimate place for careful popular presentation of psychological knowledge and that feminist psychoanalytic writings represent a serious and thoughtful body of theoretical work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Figuration of Reality: Psychoanalysis, Animism, and the "Pathetic Fallacy".

The author explores the concept of the pathetic fallacy as it relates to animism and psychoanalysis. First J. Ruskin's (1856/1902) seminal concept is reviewed in light of Freud's general regard for animism, both of which are situated relatively and subordinately to the natural science paradigm. After this, the author looks at the pathetic fallacy through the lens of a contrasting, Romantic epistemology. A reconsideration of the concept of projection illuminates some differences between the 2 traditions and is used to clarify the author's argument that the concept of figuration may more accurately reflect the action of transformation in psychoanalysis. A clinical vignette illustrates the ideas presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture: Book review.

Review of book: Nancy J. Chodorow (Au.) The Power of Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis, Gender, and Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999, 320 pp. Reviewed by L. M. Zabarenko. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some Controversies Regarding the Teaching of Psychoanalysis: Comment on Mendelsohn (2005).

Eric Mendelsohn (2005) emphasizes the value of analysts' learning from patients, optimal ways of working with them psychoanalytically. He exhibits a healthy skepticism about traditional methods of learning to be a psychoanalyst, with particular caution about identifying with strong teachers or all-too-clear systems of thought. He fears this may inadvertently create a kind of fundamentalism and a parallel loss of analytic spontaneity. The author agrees with much of Mendelsohn's thesis but has some concern about going too far in the direction of promoting spontaneity, as this ethos too can reflect an inclination to idealize charismatic teachers who specialize in breaking the rules. He suggests that an emphasis on analytic spontaneity is best acquired after some reasonable period of working as at least a somewhat reserved and cautious young analyst. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "ins and outs" of enactment: A relational bridge for psychotherapy integration.

Patients' enactments--their reflexive attempts to influence interpersonal interactions in particular ways based on their psychodynamics, both with the therapist and with others outside the psychotherapy setting--provide an important avenue for advancing the complex task of integrating action-oriented techniques with in-depth exploration. This article, written from a relational psychoanalytic perspective, shows how enactments create a valuable bridge for thinking about and practicing psychotherapy integration. To be most effective, psychotherapists must deal both behaviorally and psychodynamically with enactments, using integrative interventions that simultaneously encourage constructive new and adaptive behaviors, promote important new mutative relational experiences with therapists and with others, and facilitate deep insight. Acting together, these processes contribute to structural, including behavioral, personality reorganization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Critique of Relational Psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis today is largely a psychology of consciousness: Post- and neo-Freudians form a marginalized community within North America in comparison to contemporary relational and intersubjective theorists, who emphasize the phenomenology of lived conscious experience, dyadic attachments, affective attunement, social construction, and mutual recognition over the role of insight and interpretation. Despite the rich historical terrain of theoretical variation and advance, many contemporary approaches have displaced the primacy of the unconscious. Notwithstanding the theoretical hairsplitting that historically occurs across the psychoanalytic domain, one is beginning to see with increasing force and clarity what S. Mitchell and L. Aron (1999) referred to as the emergence of a new tradition, namely, relational psychoanalysis. Having its edifice in early object relations theory, the British middle school and American interpersonal traditions, and self psychology, relationality is billed as "a distinctly new tradition" (Mitchell & Aron, 1999, p. x). What is being labeled as the American middle group of psychoanalysis (C. Spezzano, 1997), relational and intersubjective theory have taken center stage. It may be argued, however, that contemporary relational and intersubjective perspectives have failed to be properly critiqued from within their own school of discourse. The scope of this article is largely preoccupied with tracing (a) the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary relational theory, (b) its theoretical relation to traditional psychoanalytic thought, (c) clinical implications for therapeutic practice, and (d) its intersection with points of consilience that emerge from these traditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commentary on "The 'Ins and Outs' of Enactment: A Relational Bridge for Psychotherapy Integration" by Frank.

This commentary reviews and critiques Kenneth A. Frank's (2002) article, in which he discusses the concept and nature of enactment and its power as a tool for integrating action -oriented, cognitive-behavioral treatments and insight-oriented psychodynamic treatments. Frank convincingly shows how enactments-both in and out of therapy-are pervasive, play a central part in personality difficulties, and can be used to effect change. Additionally, the concept of enactment is a valuable tool for psychotherapy integration. Suggestions are given for further, increasing the power of the concept through incorporation of the family systems perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The foundations of psychoanalysis: A philosophical critique.

Reviews the book by A. Grünbaum, a work of importance in the current, apparently ever-widening, debates about the "scienticity" of psychoanalysis. Grünbaum makes it clear that the inquiry moves toward a verdict of unproven with respect to the scientific claims of psychoanalytic clinical theory, perhaps even the stronger verdict of unprovable in the terms in which it is traditionally cast. Yet Grünbaum is not hospitable to the promiscuous reconstructions that set psychoanalysis apart from the mainstream of scientific endeavor, whether on subjectivist or phenomenological or hermeneutical grounds. As Grünbaum sees it, Freud rightly claimed that psychoanalysis was to be judged as a science in its study of human processes. Grünbaum's respect for Freud is given body by examining how Freud at various stages of his development formulated the logic of his own position and the structure of objections which he was setting out explicitly to answer. The first third of the book deals with broader philosophical foundations, the remainder with the specific critique of psychoanalytic clinical theory. Grünbaum's critique taps the deeper issues of the comparison of the sciences of nature and those of man, of the relation of science and the humanities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and Its Discontents.

There are only 5,000 patients in psychoanalysis with members of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), and these analysts are often viewed as arrogant and insular. As a laboratory for psychoanalytic institutions the APsaA provides crucial lessons for the future across the field. What ingredients are needed for psychoanalysis to be a vibrant discipline? What factors have prevailed where psychoanalysis is successful? The author explores the cases of Argentina and France, where psychoanalysis is relatively popular, and then returns to the U.S. situation. Insular mind-sets led to many missed opportunities for cultural and academic engagement in the United States. As an example, the author explores responses to the making of John Huston's film Freud: The Secret Passion. To become revitalized, psychoanalysis needs to be a cultural asset. Psychoanalysts need to build bridges, engage in partnerships, and emphasize the exciting method of philosophical probing of the human mind and the nature of human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)