Review of Self inquiry.

Reviews the book, Self inquiry by M. Robert Gardner (1983). Gardner's fundamental insight is "that the psychoanalyst's main aim, now as in Freud's time, is, or might well be, to advance his or her own self inquiry to help his or her patients to advance their self inquiry to help him or her to advance his or hers. And so on. And so on" (pp. 7-8). Consequently, one of his key concepts, when describing the psychoanalytic work, is mutuality. It should be noted that what Gardner terms "self inquiry" is a rather humble activity, whether it is carried out by analysts or other human beings. Still, this kind of humble activity is ubiquitous, unavoidable, and pervasive. Self inquiry turns out to be written by a psychoanalyst of the purest water, in spite of the author's unconventional way of reasoning. I think that most experienced analysts will find such paradoxical formulations provocative but, above all, profoundly true. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The continuing presence of psychoanalysis: A reply to Robert F. Bornstein (2001).

R. F. Bornstein (2001) implies in "The Impending Death of Psychoanalysis" that he holds the only truth about psychoanalysis. However, his reasoning seems to be based on 2 inaccurate hypotheses or prejudices: (a) that there is a division between psychoanalysis and the rest of the world and science and psychology and (b) that the rest of the world is hostile to psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is imbedded in the same values as are evidenced in any humanistic-democratic society, and hostility expressed toward psychoanalysis comes from a variety of sources including disillusionment in the unconscious fantasy or wish that psychoanalysis can prevent the eventual death of the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anna Freud (1895–1982).

Presents an obituary for Anna Freud. No one would have been more surprised than Anna Freud herself to find a memorial tribute to her in the pages of the American Psychologist. She never took a course in psychology and always referred to her field as psychoanalysis, not psychology. It is perhaps a sign of the changing face of American psychology that this obituary has been requested. Anna Freud was born on December 3, 1895, and was the last of Sigmund Freud's six children and the third of his daughters. None of the other children went anywhere near the practice of analysis. With the death of Anna Freud on October 9, 1982, at the age of 86, the last direct link to the founder of psychoanalysis has disappeared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Requiem or reveille: A response to Robert F. Bornstein (2001).

The most common error in debating psychoanalysis is confusion between method and theory. From the perspective of operationalism, the touchstone of science, any science should be defined by its method first and theories second. This is the thrust of the author's response to R. F. Bornstein's (2001) condemnation of psychoanalysis as nonscientific. Empirically, psychoanalysis is a method and a technique of observation--of the analysand and analyst's interactions, both verbal and nonverbal, in the psychoanalytic situation; of reciprocal free association; of the dynamics of dream psychology and unconscious intrapsychic and interpersonal processes; of transference--and this results in the special nature of psychoanalytic interpretation. A further source of confusion is the politics of the psychoanalytic movement and its component organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Helene Deutsch: A psychoanalyst's life.

Reviews the book, Helene Deutsch: A psychoanalyst's life by Paul Roazen (see record 1992-97543-000). In this biography of over 391 pages, Paul Roazen describes the life of Helene Deutsch, seen by many historians of psychology as one of Freud's best-known and favourite students and a major contributor to psychoanalysis in her own right. Each of the three sections in the book concentrates on a major episode and station in her life: Poland, Vienna, and finally Massachusetts. Roazen carefully describes Helene's family background, her circle of friends, her romance with Felix Deutsch, and of course her relationship with Freud. The book reads much like a shortened psychoanalysis of Helene Deutsch herself. A good biography should not only describe an individual's contribution to a profession, but also this contribution should become understandable as an outgrowth of the cultural heritage, the Zeitgeist, and the unique life history of the individual. Roazen has clearly succeeded in doing that. (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)     

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)     

Response to Gargiulo (2007) and Mills (2007).

Replies to comments made by G. J. Garguilo (see record 2007-16468-013) and J. Mills (see record 2007-16468-014) on the current author's original article (see record 2007-00135-012). The author responds to her critics, who feel she was accusing them of being unethical and even immoral by having a home office. She clarifies that at no time did she use any of this language, nor was this her intent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impending death of psychoanalysis: From destructive obfuscation to constructive dialogue.

The disconnection between psychoanalysis and mainstream psychology has reached the point that the long-term health of psychoanalytic theory is in serious jeopardy. "The Impending Death of Psychoanalysis" (Bornstein, 2001) was intended as a wake-up call to the author's psychoanalytic colleagues who choose not to use relevant research findings from within and outside the discipline in their theoretical and clinical work. However, some of those who responded to the article misperceived it as an attack on psychoanalysis. This article points out factual errors in the responses of these critics, corrects some of the distortions and misrepresentations that characterize their critiques, and places the debate within an appropriate historical context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reexamining the psychoanalytic corpse: From scientific psychology to philosophy.

Historically, psychoanalysis has been marginalized as being pseudoscientific, incoherent, incongruent, and unverifiable and, consequently, has been marginalized from mainstream scientific psychology. Recently, Robert F. Bornstein (2001) added to this criticism by predicting the demise of psychoanalysis unless it jumps on the academic-empirical bandwagon. Throughout this article, the author challenges Bornstein's central arguments and attempts to show how philosophically informed approaches to theory and method provide a viable and equally privileged alternative to substantiating psychoanalytic thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The identity of psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts.

Psychoanalysis has been in a constant uninterrupted debate about its identity as a discipline and as a social institution. This article considers the place of science in psychoanalysis, on the one hand, and the hermeneutic nature of our discipline, on the other. The aim is to articulate a typology of psychoanalytic knowledge that characterizes psychoanalysis as a form of therapy, an intellectual movement, and a theoretical system. This typology considers psychoanalysis as a thought collective that influences its members by exchanging and maintaining ideas. To be a well-rounded psychoanalytic thinker or practitioner one must be able to move easily among three realms of knowledge--the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Each realm has its own criteria of truth and the challenge is to know when to employ which criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Partners in thought: Working with unformulated experience, dissociation, and enactment.

Reviews the book, Partners in thought: Working with unformulated experience, dissociation, and enactment by Donnel Stern (see record 2009-17014-000). Following Stephen Mitchell’s untimely death, Donnel Stern is rightly seen as the doyen of Relational Psychoanalysis (RP). In a series of publications he has eloquently and passionately expounded its theoretical-clinical principles in an accessible yet never oversimplified way. This latest volume, mainly a compilation of papers published over the past 10 years or so, further explicates and consolidates his earlier views (Stern, 1997). Relational Psychoanalysis (RP) is perhaps best seen as part of a dialectic, an antiphone to establishment psychoanalysis—if such a thing there still is in an increasingly pluralized world. From a relatively uncommitted perspective, it remains unclear whether RP is a genuinely new set of ideas and practices or a primarily political turn in which traditional ideas are restated in contemporary, and sometimes deliberately contrary, terminology. It is probably both. Reading Stern provides an opportunity to come to a balanced view about this. Whatever conclusions are drawn from his bold assertion of the relational paradigm, listening to Stern’s authentic and enjoyable voice is an experience from which all but the most theoretically blinkered therapists can learn and benefit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Islam and Its Effect on My Practice of Psychoanalysis.

Religion is an important constituent of a person's identity, whether it be a personal identity or an ethnic one. The ethnic religious identity is the seat of deep narcissistic attributes and could be a source of basic character flaws. Analysts and patients enter the analytic relationship with identities that have religious backgrounds, and their religions can have noticeable impact on their relationships. Although each religion has its own characteristics, all religions share some common features that affect the analyst and the analysand's reactions. The author approached Islam as a text that requires and invites a hermeneutic analysis. This approach distinguished it from psychoanalysis and lessened its impact on his practice. However, the author's approach to Islam was instrumental, in a profound way, in clarifying aspects of the classical theory of psychoanalysis, which would not have been easy to reach without taking Islam seriously as a subject of study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stephen A. Mitchell (1946–2000).

Memorializes Stephen A. Mitchell, a teacher, administrator and practitioner in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Mitchell was a leading proponent of an integrative, relational perspective in psychoanalysis. Mitchell was sympathetic to the plight of psychologists and others excluded from established organizations, and he helped them to establish their own innovative training programs not only in the US but also abroad (e.g., Canada and Israel). (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)     

Psychological testing and analyzability: Breathing new life into an old issue.

The construct of analyzability (i.e., selecting for psychoanalysis) has been with us for 101 years. It has been extensively discussed and extensively debated. Most recently, it has been proposed that the construct has expired, due to the shrinking pool of people interested in undergoing psychoanalysis and the expanding meaning of what psychoanalysis is. The present authors briefly summarize the life and near-death of the construct, and suggest resuscitation, but only with revamping. More specifically, we insist that thoughtful treatment planning is always essential for focus, safety, and effectiveness of any treatment, including psychoanalysis. If we transition to a paradigm of "mapping" the patient's structural strengths and weaknesses, via a particular approach to psychological testing outlined in this article, we pay respect to the unpredictable and complex array of shiftings, moment-to-moment, within the psychoanalytic relational encounter, and thereby offer the analyst a chance at foresight that is relevant, intelligent, and attuned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Framing the question: Psychoanalytic process, the unconscious, and home offices--An alternate perspective.

This essay is a personal reflection on articles by Karen Maroda (see record 2007-00135-012) and Robert Langs (see record 2007-00135-013) that concluded that home offices were an example of a self-serving and possibly unethical frame violation on the part of the therapist. In contradistinction to Maroda and Langs, I argue that such an approach misconceives the essence of psychoanalysis in both its practice and in its theory, particularly at issue is Langs' understanding of the unconscious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

浅谈国企管理中的误区

根据我国国有企业改革和发展现状,从企业管理的角度,通过对国有企业的战略管理、企业制度管理、知识管理三方面的简要分析,论述了国有企业发展过程中在管理理念、方法、认识上的偏差与管理工作存在的一些问题。     

Countertransference temptation and the use of self of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training: A discussion for beginning psychotherapists and their supervisors.

Most recent articles on self-disclosure have addressed advanced questions of theory and technique related to self-disclosure in psychoanalysis. This article, however, takes up issues related to the use of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training. Rather than arguing categorically that beginning psychotherapists should or should not use self-disclosure, the focus here is on the factors influencing the decision of whether or not to make a self-disclosure. Illustrated by 2 case examples, it is argued that because of their relative lack of experience in working with transference and countertransference, beginning therapists are especially susceptible to the temptation to use self-disclosure and nondisclosure to close off--rather than to analyze--a patient's intense transference feelings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)