A re-consideration of interpretation. A relational approach

This paper is a discussion paper and it seeks to re-consider the Freudian psychoanalytic concept of interpretation within the relational approach to psychoanalysis. As such, it aims to argue the Freudian approach to interpretation is rejected because it is not relational but involves only the analyst as interpreter of the patient’s experience. Instead, within the relational approach, it is suggested that if interpretation, as a process of making meaning of experiences, is re-considered as the outcome of the intersubjective relationship in which the process of making-meaning is essentially a co-creational process of the patient’s experience of the analyst in the here-and-now, interpretation can potentially be an agent of change. The clinical implication is that interpretation must be the construction of the patient’s meaning of his experience but within the relational context. A clinical verbatim transcript is documented as it illustrates this relational process in interpretation.

THE CONCEPT OF CUMULATIVE TRAUMA IN TIMES OF COVID-19: COULD KHANS THEORY BECOME USEFUL AGAIN?

"The paper discusses whether the psychoanalytic concept of Cumulative Trauma could be a valuable theoretical contribution in understanding possible traumatization’s of children in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, as they may quite often face a multiple stressed parent during a lockdown, who’s parental function is on the verge breaching. This concept of trauma as established by British Psychoanalyst Masud Khan in 1963 was hardly taken into account in recent trauma research and it has seen little discussion in psychodynamic literature; if at all, it has been used as a merely descriptive category, without considering the suspension of the parental care function, which was identified as the decisive traumatogenic factor for the child’s traumatization. The paper begins with a recapitulation of the original theory and then moves on to linking the Cumulative Trauma to current research contexts (attachment, mentalization, developmental trauma disorder). Finally, the relevance of the concept for parenting in times of the Covid-19 pandemic is explored on the basis of a short clinical case example."

Data Perversion

This article adopts a psychoanalytic perspective and argues that users are in a perverse relationship with contemporary platforms. Following a review of recent critical scholarship on datafication, which places too much emphasis on platforms and situates users as helpless, the psychoanalytic concept of perversion is introduced. Perversion describes a relationship that is characterised by dominance, exploitation and dehumanization as well as care, love, and idealization. While the pervert (the platform and its owners and developers) is the perpetrator, the other (the user) is also actively participating in the perverse relationship. Contemporary relations are thus marked by foregrounding connectivity, convenience and communication which mask the violence of datafication. Such relations are upheld, because users affirmatively reproduce them by using highly attractive platforms which are customized for each individual. Psychoanalysis can thus offer a complex conceptualisation of the interplay between affirmation, attraction and exploitation that is immanent to platforms and users today.

The Socio-Theoretical Relevance of Erich Fromm’s Psychoanalytic Conception of Narcissism

This article methodologically explores Erich Fromm’s theory of narcissism in socio-theoretical terms while referring to his theory of alienation. It thereby portrays the foundations of an analytical method of far-right politics in the context of capitalism and demonstrates that malignant narcissism touches off fascism without regard to authoritarianism. Essentially, the Freudian psychoanalytic concept of narcissism lies in Fromm’s social theory. However, it is possible to discern the theoretical essence of his social theory characteristically in his conception of alienation. By focusing on this theoretical concern, I argue that in Fromm’s social theory the concept of narcissism works on a sociopathological level, particularly in the way in which it synchronises with alienation, a social phenomenon that fulfils its important functions in conjunction with the marketing orientation under the conditions of a market society, and therefore that the concept plays an overriding role in his theory of alienation. I conclude that the relevance of a Frommian critical social theory of narcissism for our society is best showcased by the concept of postfascism.

Analysis of suicide behavior causes in context of psychoanalytical theory

The article examines the views of scientists on the causes of suicide and suicidal behavior in the psychoanalytic tradition context. The research presents a retrospective vision of psychoanalysts of the suicide phenomenon. Based on the theoretical analysis, the authors try to generalize the understanding of the causes and motives of suicidal behavior in psychoanalytic theory. The desire to solve certain life problems motivates people to overcome their inferiority. The article raises issues related to the psychodynamic understanding of the mechanisms of suicidal decision, through the struggle of the instincts of Eros (instinct of life) and Thanatos (instinct of death), the struggle of “I” with the “Super- I”, or through the unconscious metaphorical desire to return to the womb, symbolic acceleration degeneration. There is no unity in the issue of suicide; representatives of different scientific fields, followers of many psychological schools consider it from different angles. Some individuals fail to do so; they begin to feel the need to destroy others. The desire to solve certain life problems motivates people to overcome their inferiority. But if some individuals fail to do so, they begin to feel the need to destroy others. Suicide in this context becomes a covert attack on other people. Through self-destruction, a person seeks to evoke compassion for himself and condemnation of those responsible for his low self-esteem. Psychoanalytic approach primarily tries to explain the phenomenon of suicide by internal unconscious processes, the struggle of “Me” with “Super-Me”. Considering the psychoanalysts’ views, it is concluded that suicide in the psychoanalytic concept is primarily seen as an internal urge arising in the psyche and over time is stimulated by external factors, the struggle between instincts of self-preservation and self-destruction is at the heart of the process. Based on the theoretical analysis, the authors try to generalize the understanding of the causes and motives of suicidal behavior in psychoanalytic theory. Based on the views of psychoanalysts, it is concluded that suicide in the psychoanalytic concept is primarily seen as an internal motivation that arises in the psyche and over time is stimulated by external factors, at the heart of this process is the struggle between instincts and self-destruction. Thus, the authors conclude that the psychoanalytic approach, which considers suicide as an act of self-destructive tendencies of the individual, autoaggressive behavior, which is an unconscious way to punish himself and tries to explain the phenomenon of suicide, primarily internal unconscious processes, struggle “I” and “Super-I”. Key words: psychoanalysis, suicide, suicidal behavior, autoaggression.

The political nature of fantasy and political fantasies of nature

Within post-structuralist discourse theory, there has been an ongoing interest in fantasy and the fantasmatic logic. We propose a new way forward and suggest a focus on fantasies of ‘nature’ and what is deemed ‘natural’. Fantasies are structurally entwined with language, desire, and political ontologies. Discourses of nature hold a privileged position in this entwinement. We use the psychoanalytic concept of fantasy to explore how symbolic engagement with the world is supported by fantasmatic mechanisms. We argue that political fantasies express political subjects and objects via the imaginary mechanisms of splitting and projection. In an era of ecological crises and global pandemics, we find that fantasies that create a split between nature and society are a central part of the transformation of political imaginaries and discourses. Studying fantasies of various “naturecultures” and the politics of nature is thus an important new direction for discourse theory to explore anti-essentialist ontologies.

Envy: How to Interpret a Mortal Sin?

Envy has always been a frequent topic in religious scriptures and literature. Freud formulated penis envy as a central element in female psychology. Nowadays this theory has been largely abandoned. Envy, however, continues to keep its position as a central psychoanalytic concept in the form of oral envy. Melanie Klein conceptualized it as a direct derivative of the death instinct. This paper starts with demonstrating examples of envy in literature. The author continues with searching his own life for traces of envy. He then draws on his own clinical practice and on case studies of other analysts. He concludes that a theory, describing envy as directly deriving from the death drive does not do justice to the multiple aspects of the complex emotional state of envy. Anne-Marie and Joseph Sandler’s work on the present and past unconscious as well as Mark Solms’ neuropsychoanalytic research on the unconscious and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis corroborate this conclusion.

How Marcel Proust Can Change Your Life—For Better or for Worse

This article turns around the role that Proust’s novel played—for better or worse—in my formation as a medievalist and as a full human being. In the curé’s obsession with genealogy and etymology, I recognized in the 1970s a deep medieval mental structure that coincided with contemporaneous work by historians of the Annales School on lineage and by structuralists on the linguistic patterns underpinning kinship. This led to a book, Etymologies and Genealogies: A Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages. But other strong strains of the Proustian sentimental orbit, doomed love, aligned chronologically and conceptually with the articulation in the 1890s of courtly love and made for dire consequences in a life lived along those lines. My wife, Ellen Handler Spitz, provides an emotionally corrective experience via the question, Was Swann in Love? Using the psychoanalytic concept of the partial object, she shows how limited Proust’s notion of love really is. We end on a note of wild admiration for Proust’s description of what it feels like to be in what he calls “love” but with a dose of skepticism with regard to his framing of the project of love itself.

DIALEKTIKA HASRAT MANUSIA DALAM NOVEL HAYY BIN YAQZAN KARYA IBN TUFAIL

The paper discusses Ibn Tufail's work, Hayy bin Yaqzan, which describes the differences in the potential for thinking of humans and animals. As perfect beings, humans realize their lives more dynamically than animals. How- ever, humans have a desire that always develops beyond all their needs. In this case, humans have a lack and always tries to fulfill it even though it will never end. Therefore, humans always lead to tension between their identities and others. The article will analyze the stages of human psychological development based on Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic concept of desires such as the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic. Consequently, human life is not to keep apart from dialectics at these stages and their identities.