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The Development of Psycho-Analysis
Abstract
After an Editorial Note, the complete Italian edition, with a new translation, of Sándor Ferenczi & Otto Rank's essay of 1924 The Development of Psychoanalysis, written in 1923, is published (only chapters 1, 3, and 5, had been previously translated into Italian). Also an Afterword written by Michael Turnheim for a German edition of this essay published in 1996 by Turia & Kant of Vienna is translated. The Development of Psychoanalysis represents an important milestone of the debate on the theory of psychoanalytic technique, and shows how already at the beginning of the 1920s some issues that today are discussed within the psychoanalytic movement were already well known.
... These are Otto Rank, Sandor Ferenczi, and Franz Alexander. Both Rank and Ferenczi were concerned that long-term therapy could reinforce regressed overdependent aspects of the client's personality and that the goal of psychoanalytic research through the in-depth exploration of the patient's psyche may at times conflict with the immediate aim of addressing the abnormal dynamics of the patient's mental life (Ferenczi & Rank, 1925, p. 52). Ferenczi was particularly keen to discover ways in which the process of symptomatic cure could be accelerated. ...
... Ferenczi 's aim in these and other elaborations was to accelerate the process of change. Neither he nor Otto Rank shied away from the possibility of using techniques from other therapeutic modalities (e.g., hypnosis) if these were going to advance their underlying aim of enhancing the curative emotional experience of psychodynamic therapy (Ferenczi & Rank, 1925, pp. 63±64). ...
... Who can deny that, historically considered, interpreting means providing edifying information? But I remind you that already in 1923Ferenczi and Rank (1923/1925 reported that playing teacher was a well-known error. Were they, then, the rare exception? ...
... Who can deny that, historically considered, interpreting means providing edifying information? But I remind you that already in 1923Ferenczi and Rank (1923/1925 reported that playing teacher was a well-known error. Were they, then, the rare exception? ...
Some think that current theory breaks new ground by challenging the dogma that interpretation is the sole force in treatment. The author argues that there never was such a belief at any time in the history of psychoanalysis, and that the current challenge is better understood as denying the analyst's ability to control his thinking, intention, and action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Therapist self-disclosure (Jourard, 1958), the revealing of personal information by therapists to clients, is a regularly visited subject of debate within the psychotherapeutic community. Since Freud (1912) introduced the stance of a blank screen, successive practitioners have questioned it; for example, his close colleagues Ferenczi and Rank (2012) proposed that this stance risks re-traumatising clients. ...
Intention
This study considers the effect on counsellors and psychotherapists when their sexual orientation is discovered and introduced into the therapeutic relationship by their clients.
Method
Using a narrative inquiry approach, four qualified and experienced counsellors/psychotherapists share their stories by means of unstructured conversations. The findings are presented and analysed through a reconstructed conversation illustrating the similarities and differences between these participants' stories, considered alongside my own.
Findings
Through this reconstituted dialogue, the process of unintended revealing of the participants' sexual orientation and the perceived effect on the client and on the therapeutic relationship are explored, and how these experiences altered the practitioner's view of themselves, clients in general and wider society.
Implications for practice
These stories suggest clients' curiosity into the lives of their counsellor/psychotherapist is inevitable with the growth of the availability of personal information in the public domain, and as such, practitioners are encouraged to take ownership of their narratives of their sexual orientation.
... In the psychodynamic clinical and theoretical literature, the debate on the relative importance of insight versus affect awareness is as old as psychoanalysis itself. Ferenczi and Rank (1924) were among the first to criticize the "classical" analytical attitude that favored insight and theoretical understanding as the main mechanism of therapeutic change. Many theorists have maintained that cognitive insight needs to be linked to appropriate affect. ...
Objective: Insight and affect awareness are correlated with outcome in a number of studies across different treatment orientations. In this study, we perform a full mediational analysis to examine whether improvement of both cognitive insight and affect awareness are mediators of the specific effects of transference work in dynamic psychotherapy. Method: This was a dismantling randomized controlled clinical trial specifically designed to study long-term effects of transference work (exploration of problematic patterns in the therapeutic relationship). One hundred outpatients were randomly assigned to 1 year of dynamic psychotherapy with and without transference work interventions. The outcome variables were the Interpersonal Functioning scale (clinician rated) and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (patient self-report). Quality of Object Relations was moderator. Using structural equation modeling, we tested change during treatment (1 year) of Insight and Tolerance for Affects as mediators of long-term outcome (over the 1-year study period). Results: For both outcome measures, the best model supported a mediated moderation model where the effects of transference work, for patients with low Quality of Object Relations, were mediated via both change of Insight and Tolerance for Affects. The effect of Insight on outcome was significantly reduced due to an indirect effect via Tolerance for Affects. A number of alternative models allowed us to rule out alternative pathways with some confidence. Conclusions: Both improved insight and affect awareness seem to be mechanisms for long-term effects of transference work. Our results bridge the gap between mainstream clinical theory and empirical research.
... Where Freud emphasized the Oedipal conflict, Groddeck was especially interested in pre-Oedipal relationships and development (Hristeva and Poster, 2013). Groddeck was most interested in the early maternal transference, as were Ferenczi and Rank (1923). Groddeck recognized that the glorification of women by men also might conceal a secret dread. ...
The life and works of Georg Groddeck are reviewed and placed in historical context as a physician and a pioneer of psychoanalysis, psychosomatic medicine, and an epistolary style of writing. His Das Es concept stimulated Freud to construct his tripartite model of the mind. Groddeck, however, used Das Es to facilitate receptivity to unconscious communication with his patients. His "maternal turn" transformed his treatment approach from an authoritarian position to a dialectical process. Groddeck was a generative influence on the development of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Erich Fromm, and Karen Horney. He was also the mid-wife of the late-life burst of creativity of his friend and patient Sándor Ferenczi. Together, Groddeck and Ferenczi provided the impetus for a paradigm shift in psychoanalysis that emphasized the maternal transference, child-like creativity, and a dialogue of the unconscious that foreshadowed contemporary interest in intersubjectivity and field theory. They were progenitors of the relational turn and tradition in psychoanalysis. Growing interest in interpsychic communication and field theory is bringing about a convergence of theorizing among pluralistic psychoanalytic schools that date back to 1923 when Freud appropriated Groddeck's Das Es and radically altered its meaning and use.
... Andre perspektiver på motoverføringen ble fremmet i psykoanalytiske kretser, men de hadde ikke samme gjennomslagskraft. Ferenczi og Rank (1924), elever av Freud som senere brøt med ham, argumenterte for viktigheten av relasjon mer enn Freuds objektiv teknikk. De uttrykte bekymring for at analytikere som fulgte Freuds anbefalinger ville vaere for reserverte og tekniske og ikke gi tilstrekkelig følelsesmessig respons, noe de mente er nødvendig for å muliggjøre emosjonell utvikling hos pasientene. ...
Hvordan vi kan forstå, bruke og arbeide med motoverføringen er noe som ofte diskuteres i veiledning, kliniske seminarer og i teoretiske artikler. Til tross for dette refereres det lite til empiriske studier av motoverføring i disse sammenhengene. Mange setter nok spørs-målstegn ved hvorvidt det er mulig å studere noe så mangefasettert som motoverføring ved hjelp av kvantitative metoder på en måte som er klinisk nyttig. Frem til nylig har det også vaert publisert få studier som undersøker motoverføringsfenomenet, men dette er i ferd med å snu. Artikkelen viser til uenighet rundt hvordan motoverføring har blitt forstått opp igjennom historien, og hvordan de ulike definisjonene preger forskningen på mot-overføring i dag. Forfatteren presenterer noen av studiene fra feltet og er selv nysgjerrig på om du som terapeut finner dette inspirerende og nyttig for tanken.
... Davanloo's method, built on over 40 years of analysing videotaped sessions , is immersed in Freudian theory, addressing the unconscious and feared 'taboo' emotions towards attachment figures, thus also owing a great debt to Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1989). It echoes with the short-term, body-oriented work of Alexander and French (1946), Ferenczi and Rank (1925) and Gestalt therapy (Smith, 1976), and builds upon the short-term approach of Davanloo's mentor, Peter Sifneos (1987). David Malan has been instrumental in the history of short-term dynamic psychotherapies, and since the late 70s has been a great advocate for ISTDP (Gustafson, 1986). ...
... The treatment identifies a core psychodynamic formulation for panic and other anxiety disorders, and describes modified psychoanalytic approaches to panic and other anxiety symptoms. Notable within the history described above (Ferenczi and Rank 1925;Mann 1973) is the view that psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be an effective intervention for separation anxiety in that a brief treatment of necessity focuses on separation from the therapist. PFPP-XR provides a manualized approach that can be used to more systematically identify and assess these interventions. ...
Separation anxiety, long an area of interest for psychoanalysts, has been included in DSM-5 among general “anxiety disorders” that span across age groups. The syndrome of separation anxiety has been shown to correlate with nonresponse to treatments for anxiety and mood disorders (Milrod et al. 2014). It is therefore of public health importance to develop targeted treatments for this syndrome. Some psychoanalysts have suggested that brief psychoanalytic interventions may be of particular value in addressing separation anxiety. Our clinical work with patients with anxiety disorders with high levels of separation anxiety indicates that they have such intense anger and ambivalence in fraught intimate relationships that they feel stuck and helpless, almost eliminating more positive feelings. This ambivalence and associated unconscious conflicts inevitably emerge in the therapeutic relationship and can threaten to disrupt treatment efforts. We propose a set of focused psychodynamic psychotherapeutic interventions to address separation anxiety, developed as part of Panic-Focused Psychodynamic Psychotherapy–eXtended Range (PFPP-XR; Busch et al. 2012). We present a case from our research study of treatment nonresponders with anxiety disorders and separation anxiety. The patient was successfully treated with PFPP-XR in a 21-session treatment.
... What would become Rank ' s new approach was present in nascent form while he held a place of high regard within psychoanalysis. With his closest colleague, S á ndor Ferenczi, he proposed an active therapy ( Ferenczi and Rank, 1924 ) that emphasized the importance of emotional experience over intellectual insight, and encouraged the analyst " to distinguish between what is infantile and what is justifi ed by the here and now " ( Lieberman, 1985, p. 210 ). Ferenczi and Rank also " taught that remembering, while important, is not the only therapeutic element. ...
Otto Rank's approach to psychotherapy, developed after his separation from Freud, encourages living life fully in spite of death and limitation. In his emphasis on the here and now, new experience in the therapeutic relationship, and collaboration and creativity in the therapy process, Rank was ahead of his time. As a theorist of personality and of creativity, his work is well known, but his influence on the practices of humanistic, existential, and post-psychoanalytic relational therapists is largely unacknowledged. Rank's creative legacy is an approach to psychotherapy that calls forth artistry and collaboration between therapist and client.
... Rank and Ferenczi are not only linked in their lasting rejection by the psychoanalytic community, but they often worked together and wrote a book together, Entwicklungsziehle der Psychoanalyse [ Development of Psychoanalysis ], published in German in 1923[1924. Both Rank and Ferenczi introduced the theory of object relations and what is called nowa-days " relational therapy " , described by Michael Balint (1951) as a " twoperson psychology " replacing the " one-person psychology " , where a therapist observes and tries to understand and enlighten the observed patient, while striving to neutralize everything going on in himself or between the two of them. ...
... These ethnographic renditions of the daily behaviour of infants were influenced by the Southem Nrfcan Journal or ChIld And Adolescent Mental Heath Vol 9 No 2 1991 naturalistic observational methodology of Darwinian evolutionary biology. At roughly the same time, Freud wasbeginning to articulate what was to become one of the most influential psychological theories of the 20th century, a theory which supported infancy as a critical period in the formation of personality and emotional development (Freud, 1909). Today, we are more likely to attribute significance to the first few years of life because of dynamic, emergent. ...
... What would become Rank ' s new approach was present in nascent form while he held a place of high regard within psychoanalysis. With his closest colleague, S á ndor Ferenczi, he proposed an active therapy ( Ferenczi and Rank, 1924 ) that emphasized the importance of emotional experience over intellectual insight, and encouraged the analyst " to distinguish between what is infantile and what is justifi ed by the here and now " ( Lieberman, 1985, p. 210 ). Ferenczi and Rank also " taught that remembering, while important, is not the only therapeutic element. ...
Otto Rank's work has had an indirect influence on much of existential‐humanistic psychology, yet his contribution has been unevenly acknowledged. Seeing Rank as a developing artist helps to put his creative contributions to psychoanalysis, post‐psychoanalytic critique, and existential‐humanistic psychotherapy, in perspective. After his separation from Freud, Rank's innovative thought blossomed; his later works have deep and lingering humanistic import. A look at convergences and divergences between Freud and Rank shows that Rank's art (of living, of theorizing, and of practicing therapy) is an uncannily familiar and inspiring model of humanistic practice in the world. The continuing relevance of Rank's ideas about art and artists is explored, and Rank is re‐introduced to humanistic psychologists who may recognize aspects of his work as consonant with their own.
In this duet of two voices honoring Jeremy Safran’s legacy, the authors celebrate some points of resonance between Sándor Ferenczi’s groundbreaking relational interventions and Safran’s approach to the therapeutic relationship as the heart of healing. Karen Starr first highlights Ferenczi’s now well-known creative experimentation with technique and his emphasis on and care for the relational dimension of psychoanalytic treatment. Jill Bresler then links Safran’s career-long dedication to the therapeutic alliance to Starr’s introductory remarks, honoring Safran and Ferenczi’s shared dedication to expanding options in clinical practice through focus on the relationship. Recalling Safran’s naming Ferenczi as a key figure in psychotherapy integration’s origin story, Bresler reflects on her own learning from Safran’s groundbreaking transtheoretical research into the mutative aspects of psychotherapy and his translating a psychoanalytic focus on the therapeutic relationship to CBT researchers and practitioners.
RESUMEN Se ha pasado por alto la filosofía de la naturaleza como trasfondo de Jung, a pesar de su relevancia para comprender las raíces de la psicología analítica. El psicoanalista alemán Georg Groddeck compartió esos antecedentes, por lo que es posible una comparación entre su visión clínica y la de Jung. Se muestra que los filósofos naturales Paracelso, Johann von Goethe y Carl Gustav Carus tuvieron un gran impacto en Jung y Groddeck. Ambos siguieron la teoría de Carus de un inconsciente creativo, supraindividual y compensatorio-continuando la tradición de la Naturphilosophie y rechazando la medicina biofísica reduccionista. La perspectiva holística de Groddeck y Jung los llevó a defender la curación natural, el análisis dialéctico cara a cara y la singularidad de cada tratamiento. Por lo tanto, ambos estaban en contra del uso de técnicas y, en cambio, establecieron métodos generales para la terapia analítica. El pensamiento de Groddeck estaba más cerca del de Jung que del de Freud tanto en la teoría como en la práctica. Por lo tanto, se deben considerar dos corrientes alternativas dentro del psicoanálisis: la teoría clásica de las pulsiones de Freud y la alternativa psicología bipersonal de Groddeck. Así, los descendientes analíticos de Jung y los psicoanalistas relacionales que surgieron de las ideas de Groddeck podrían ser considerados como "primos" debido a las similitudes derivadas de su origen común en la filosofía de la naturaleza. ABSTRACT The philosophy of nature as Jung's background has been overlooked, despite its relevance for understanding the roots of analytical psychology. The German psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck shared such a background, so that a comparison is possible between his clinical view and Jung's. It is shown that natural philosophers Paracelsus, Johann von Goethe and Carl Gustav Carus had a major impact on Jung and Groddeck. Both of the latter followed Carus's theory of a creative, superindividual, and compensatory unconscious-continuing the Naturphilosophie tradition and rejecting reductionist biophysical medicine. Groddeck and Jung's holistic perspective led them to advocate natural healing, face-to-face dialectical analysis, and the uniqueness of each treatment. Thus, they were against using techniques, and instead established general methods for analytic therapy. Groddeck's thinking was closer to Jung's than to Freud's in both theory and practice. Therefore, two alternative strands should be considered within psychoanalysis: Freud's classical drive theory and Groddeck's underground two-person psychology. Thereby, Jung's analytic descendants and the relational psychoanalysts who stemmed from Groddeck's ideas could be regarded as 'cousins' due to the similarities arising from their common origin in the philosophy of nature.
The philosophy of nature as Jung's background has been overlooked, despite its relevance for understanding the roots of analytical psychology. The German psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck shared such a background, so that a comparison is possible between his clinical view and Jung's. It is shown that natural philosophers Paracelsus, Johann von Goethe and Carl Gustav Carus had a major impact on Jung and Groddeck. Both of the latter followed Carus's theory of a creative, superindividual, and compensatory unconscious – continuing the Naturphilosophie tradition and rejecting reductionist biophysical medicine. Groddeck and Jung's holistic perspective led them to advocate natural healing, face-to-face dialectical analysis, and the uniqueness of each treatment. Thus, they were against using techniques, and instead established general methods for analytic therapy. Groddeck's thinking was closer to Jung's than to Freud's in both theory and practice. Therefore, two alternative strands should be considered within psychoanalysis: Freud's classical drive theory and Groddeck's underground two-person psychology. Thereby, Jung's analytic descendants and the relational psychoanalysts who stemmed from Groddeck's ideas could be regarded as ‘cousins’ due to the similarities arising from their common origin in the philosophy of nature.
This article is an examination of the history of Strachey’s work as the editor of the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, work that was shaped by the internal strife within British psychoanalysis and the great international conflict of the Second World War. From the primary sources it has been possible to give an account of how he came to be in charge of the Journal, why he was suited to the role, and also to provide an example of what he was like as an editor dealing with colleague-contributors. It is argued that due to his long-held belief in free speech and candour, and because he was committed to resisting to the utmost a split within the British Psycho-Analytical Society, James Strachey wanted to make both the papers and the ensuing discussions of the Controversies public through the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. As described here, that did not happen in a simple way but he succeeded in publishing papers directly related to the debate by fostering investigation into the subject of internal objects. He also gave space in the Journal to new writers and a plurality of theories, including the nascent object relations theories of D.W. Winnicott and John Bowlby.
After hearing Ferenczi’s talks on theory and practice in New York in 1926, psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan urged his friend and colleague Clara Thompson to get analyzed by Ferenczi so they could learn his technique. After saving for 2 years Thompson was a patient of Ferenczi for three summers and then moved to Budapest full-time for analysis until Ferenczi’s death. Two years after she returned to New York she attempted to analyze Sullivan. Analysis was broken off in anger by Sullivan after 14 months. Before the promised Ferenczian analysis began Thompson discovered Wilhelm Reich’s Character Analysis (1933) and she tried an aggressive attack on character with Sullivan rather than Ferenczian trauma-oriented “relaxation” and “neocathartic” therapy. Sullivan could not tolerate this. Because of their own unhealed trauma both individually and in relation to each other, neither Thompson nor Sullivan was able to advance Ferenczi’s views on trauma or its healing in America.
Developments in Object Relations provides a highly accessible account of how British Object Relations developed in the second half of the twentieth century, focusing on the generation who took up where Klein and Winnicott left off. Complementing and building on its predecessor, An Introduction to Object Relations, it gives an overview of the development of Object Relations with special reference to the Independent and Kleinian traditions. An introductory chapter defines the key features of Object Relations. The emergence of Object Relations is is then described theoretically from some of Freud's papers and clinically from the controversial work of Sandor Ferenczi. Similarities and divergences between Kleinian and Independent approaches are considered in detail through the close examination of the work of a key practitioner from each approach, and other significant contributions. Gomez brings clarity to a complex field, discussing what is powerful and problematic about the two main strands in British psychoanalysis. Kleinian and Independent approaches are consistently compared and contrasted, so that readers can develop a clear idea of each. Rather than preferring one to the other, they are presented as different approaches to what is fundamental in psychoanalysis. Chapters on Bion and Masud Khan bring the work of each tradition to life in a fascinating and informative way. Gomez concludes by summarising the claim of psychoanalysis to offer a new way of understanding human reality, particularly useful for readers interested in her second book, The Freud Wars. Developments in Object Relations will be of great help to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who work psychoanalytically, particularly those in the process of training, those who have recently qualified and those who are rethinking their position on the different, strongly-held views they encounter. This book is particularly timely when psychoanalytic approaches are under attack from treatments claiming to offer quicker and easier solutions.
In discussing Joyce Slochower’s paper “Going Too Far: Relational Heroines and Relational Excess,” (this issue) the author welcomes its self-critical emphasis, suggesting that analysts from all schools of thought benefit more from noticing the risks and pitfalls in their own approach—thus becoming able to improve their own clinical work—than from polemically highlighting what is faulty in other, competing approaches. Such polemics run a risk of their own: turning our theoretical homes into theoretical fortresses, and blocking richer communication among analysts. He shares the concern about some specific attributes of relational and intersubjective clinical work but relates many of the issues raised by Slochower to tensions and dilemmas present in older models of the analytic relationship as well, offering examples from the work of Freud, Ferenczi, Balint, Winnicott, and Racker.
Beginning in the 1920s, Freudian psychoanalytic theory had a deep impact on social work practice and education and helped to professionalize clinical social work. Not as well-known was the role that Freud’s patient and colleague Sándor Ferenczi played in this evolution. Through a review of the relevant literature and primary sources—some presented here for the first time—I will explore the ways in which Ferenczi’s work directly impacted the development of clinical social work.
Psychoanalysis Beyond the End of Metaphysics offers a new paradigm approach which advocates reengaging the importance of metaphysics in psychoanalytic theorizing. The emergence of the relational trend has witnessed a revitalizing influx of new ideas, reflecting a fundamental commitment to the principle of dialogue. However, the transition towards a more pluralistic discourse remains a work in progress, and those schools of thought not directly associated with the relational shift continue to play only a marginal role. In this book, Robin S. Brown argues that for contemporary psychoanalysis to more adequately reflect a clinical ethos of pluralism, the field must examine the extent to which a theoretical commitment to the notion of relationship can grow restrictive. Suggesting that in the very effort to negotiate theoretical biases, psychoanalytic practice may occlude a more adequate recognition of its own evolving assumptions, Brown proposes that the profession’s advance requires a return to first principles. Arguing for the fundamental role played by faith in supporting the emergence of consciousness, this work situates itself at the crossroads of relational, Jungian, and transpersonal approaches to the psyche. Psychoanalysis Beyond the End of Metaphysics will be of significant interest to all psychodynamically oriented clinicians, alongside scholars of depth psychology and the philosophy of mind. It will also be helpful to advanced and postgraduate students of psychoanalysis seeking to orient themselves in the field at present.
The author shows how Ferenczi's ideas from the 1920s and early 30s are being revived in interpersonal-relational thinking and how they have become integral to her work with a World Trade Center survivor. She specifically looks at Ferenczi's ideas about the importance of reliving, the healing power of new experience, the commingling of suffering, and the shared unconscious in psychoanalysis.
In this special edition of Psychiatric Annals, readers will be introduced to the theory and technique of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. A variety of researchers and practitioners will detail their personal experience learning ISTDP and integrating it into their own psychiatric practice, as well as presenting the data on clinical and cost-effectiveness across a wide spectrum of patients. References to the use of ISTDP across settings will also be included. An original article describing a treatment program for patients in a specially designed ISTDP residential program in Norway is presented. The cost-effectiveness of this modality will be delineated. Finally, the unique aspects of teaching and training practitioners in the application of ISTDP, along with some preliminary data on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of this training for psychiatric residents is presented.
The transference/countertransference (third space) analysis is considered to be central in the therapeutic effectiveness of the analytic process. Less emphasis has been placed on the actual experiences of analyst and analysand in the conflictual reenactment of third space experience and its resolution. This paper recounts the shared experience of a patient who was silent throughout most of the analysis, and my reaction, in fantasy and enactment, to this disturbing experience-both for him and for myself. I argue that it is the affective re-experiencing of past repressed trauma in the analytic space that has a therapeutic impact, leading to growth in the patient and also the therapist. I contrast Freud's emphasis on insight, making the unconscious conscious, with Ferenczi's suggestion that the therapeutic impact lies in the repetition of past traumatic experience in the analysis but with the possibility of a different outcome with a more benign object, leading to symbolic representation of repressed trauma. Re-experiencing and symbolization, in the third space, of past traumatic experience can be an exit point from the endless repetition of trauma in internal and external object relations, leading to a new beginning in the patient's life. Immersed in the experience of deadness in the analysis, which had become a dead womb, the struggle to remain alive and thinking led to a rupture out of the dead womb, like the Caesura of birth, into aliveness and the ability to mentalize what had previously remained unmentalized.
This text discusses the evolution that has taken place since the beginning of psychoanalysis and that continues into contemporary practice. It focuses specifically on the causes and modalities of this evolution and its possible assessment in relation to the teachings of Freud. Addressed to a consulting patient, early psychoanalysis was constructed around successive discoveries in the research process, and the importance of the analyst's personality for the therapeutic process has been increasingly recognized. Due to the discovery of transference and countertransference, as well as the study of the analyst–analysand pair, current psychoanalytic practice can be described as intersubjective. Contemporary psychoanalysis entails no longer the study of a specific subject, but rather that of the relationship between the two participants and their joint work as a means to deduce and ultimately change the modalities of the analysand. This is a more and more common and widespread treatment model, although there are differences in terms of the conception of intersubjectivity. This paper cites analysts and groups of analysts involved in this subject, and the nuances of their approaches reflect differences in ideology. Baranger's “field theory,” for instance, is discussed in general terms. Its known origins and consequences for the practice of each member of the analytic pair are discussed, along with their common work and eventual changes.
On the basis of a historical survey of Ferenczi's contributions to the concept of countertransference, the author highlights the most important theoretical shifts present in each of his contributions, from Freud's initial formulation in 1910 to the ?Clinical Diary?. Besides pointing to some key concepts and characteristics in Ferenczi's thinking, such as ?the control of the countertransference?, ?The transference-countertransference interaction?, ?the analyst's narcissism?, and in particular the view of countertransference as a useful therapeutic tool in itself rather than as an obstacle for the cure. The author discusses Ferenczi's significant influence on some later analysts, especially on Heimann, Winnicott, Racker and Searles who stood out precisely for, among other reasons, their contributions to the question of countertransference.
Trauma is usually understood as reaction to an exceptional disorganizing event. Instead, it can be recognized as the underlying fabric of everyday experience, entailing reality's fundamental unpredictability, constant change, and the inevitable erosions wrought by sickness, aging, and death. This paper draws on Ferenczi's psychoanalytic thinking to develop this view of reality as trauma, and to suggest a shift in interpersonal self-regard as central to psychoanalytic change. © 2014 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 0002-9548/14.
One way to evaluate a psychoanalytic theory is to picture a therapist with that theory in his mind and imagine what happens when we fold him into the basic soup of psychoanalytic procedure. Because the background forces of analytic treatment are so influential, the practical outcome cannot be predicted from the details or the validity of the theory alone. Thus, we should not assume that newly discovered items of neurophysiology and infant observation are ever what is actually being dealt with in psychoanalysis. To illustrate this principle, I select two recent theories derived from observational studies, and explore the likely effects that a therapist's belief in them would have on seven dimensions of the psychoanalytic situation. Theories set the therapist's attitude, the attitude affects the background forces, and the total effect of all of that constitutes the significance of the theories for psychoanalytic treatment.
My response to Joyce Slochower's paper emphasizes the value of de-idealization of psychoanalytic parental figures, as part of developing an autonomous analytic identity, and sharply differentiates de-idealization from devaluation. Slochower's view of Winnicott is seen as moving in this direction, and therefore as substantially different from hostile attempts at Winnicott bashing. I view her specific interpretation as a thought-provoking and enriching speculation, and a valuable contribution to understanding nuances of the transference–countertransference cycle. I warn against over--confidence in interpretations based on hindsight. I also suggest that Winnicott's work with Khan and with Guntrip, with all its shortcomings, clearly contributed to their productivity and creativity.
This article compares some traditional psychoanalytic models, and determines whether a new model can overcome some of the drawbacks of these earlier approaches. Five prominent psychoanalytic models are examined-Freudian, object-relations, interpersonal, self-psychology, and perspectivist. The similarities and limitations of these models are clarified and a new approach, the prospective model, is introduced. Clinical cases describe how the prospective model may assist the therapist in detecting conflict and overcoming the defensive operations. This material suggests the prospective model may supplement more traditional techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of emotional disorders.
Sándor Ferenczi MD. (1873-1933) has been a controversial person in the history of psychoanalysis. He was on the one hand closely attached to Freud, on the other he experimented with a methodology different from Freud's, that led to a schism between him and many leading analysts. Contrary to his contemporaries, who saw countertransference as an impediment to analysis, Ferenczi emphasized that the analyst has to concern himself with the experienced trauma of the patient in order to find the core of the relationship between analyst and analysand. By placing the personal relationship between patient and analysis as the essence of treatment, he aimed to refine the gold of psychoanalysis itself Today there are few analysts who do not accept that intersubjectivity is central to psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, in spite of his undeniable importance to psychoanalysis, none of Ferenczi's numerous publications have been translated into any of the Scandinavian languages.
Sándor Ferenczi's first paper (1908) on the subject of premature ejaculation - in its stress on the repercussions of the symptom itself in the other (in this case, the woman), rather than its unconscious significance or the patient's pathology - is an early signal of the ethical directions his future clinical work would take. Ferenczi - displaying a decidedly relational, not merely intrapsychic, orientation - underlines the peculiar idiosyncrasies of each partner in the couple and also the fact that any relationship worthy of the name must take place in conditions of mutual pleasure and advantage. In particular, Ferenczi strikes a blow for the ''legitimate'' needs of the weaker partner to whom the stronger must allow and offer mental space and voice by virtue of his knowledge and power. For the above reasons this first paper is a ''calling card'' which announces Ferenczi's later reflections on the specific affective qualities that may render the psychoanalytic environment non-traumatic, as well as his criticism of the narcissistic aspects of the analyst (one of the most important motives for subtle and hidden trauma), who views the work of interpretation as the product of a single mind (in my terms: a kind of colonisation and expropriation of the other) rather than as fruit of an encounter that would take into account both the unique characteristics of the partner as well as the rhythms appropriate to such a relationship.
This essay will explore the early contributions of Sändor Ferenczi and their relationship to current psychodynamic perspectives on short-term treatment. Ferenczi'S development of the “active technique” and his later collaboration with Otto Rank influenced the works of Alexander and French, and the later writings of Malan, Davanloo, Sifneos, and Mann. Ferenczi'S emphasis on here-and-now transference interpretations and the importance of the patient'S emotional experience in treatment have proven to be enduring contributions to contemporary psychoanalytic practice.
I advocate in this article for supervision to provide a frankly psychoanalytic (i.e. psychotherapeutic) experiential encounter for the supervisee, and the stipulation that it convey experientially the very idiom it is intending to impart. I contend that the psychotherapeutic and experiential potentials of psychoanalytic supervision have often been prescriptively delimited, to the detriment of its participants' potential transformations and evolutions as psychoanalysts and persons. I address some of the unique contributions interpersonal psychoanalytic theories offer in support of conducting psychoanalytic supervision in terms of my suggested modifications.
Utopian thinking may backfire and become destructive when its idealizations, splits, moralism, and perfectionism are followed uncritically. The utopian fantasy of the purified New Person, prominent in many religious, national, and political movements, may legitimize the harassment of individuals seen as flawed, as failing to achieve the desired new identity. The expectation to mold a "real analyst" may acquire some of the characteristics of the New Person fantasy and become persecutory for candidates. Some idealizations in psychoanalysis are discussed, as well as the way they can contribute to a paranoid atmosphere in psychoanalytic institutes, to regression and infantilization in candidates. One way of handling the impingements of a rigid and anxiety-provoking training is to develop a false analytic self, which hinders the intrinsic growth of analytic identity. Changes in the structure and climate of training programs can reduce such risks and allow a better fit between the institutional form of training and its substantial goals of individual growth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The paper sets out a new approach to identifying stages of early child development leading up to the acquisition of an integrated sense of self. The model derives from linguistics rather than biology, in particular from the application of concepts of case relationships found in inflected languages. The author postulates a correlation between case relationships and developmental stages, and argues that the gradual demise of inflected language forms may have contributed to our lack of attunement as adults to the psychological processes and experiences of infancy.
The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there. L P Hartley The Go‐Between (1953)
Establishing boundaries is a dynamic process and it involves the way the (m)other is met as different. When she is present for him physically and emotionally the infant can both discover his distinction without trauma and explore the object as exciting in itself and as stimulating new possibilities. This is a complex process that continues to resolve itself through creative engagement with life. I shall briefly survey some of the literature on establishing a body identity and on ‘ mechanisms’of interaction and consider the way in which they contribute to boundary experience.