International Journal of Psychoanalysis最新文献

Stereotypies currently occupy an important place in the clinical profile of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since they are usually described with the notions of sameness, resistance to change, or lack of variation, it would seem as if everything were repeated, and nothing could change. In this context, the following question arises: What is it that is repeated in stereotypical repetition? To answer this question, one must turn to clinical vignettes of patients diagnosed with ASD and to the concept of iteration stemming from two different epistemic fields (psychiatry and fractal geometry). Firstly, it is suggested that what is repeated in stereotypies, in particular, is the initial figure, since the elements that are unconnected to it change or may change. Secondly, specifically in the context of autism, it is suggested that what is repeated in a stereotypy is the very fact of repeating.

D'Angelo, the author of "Do We Want To Know" responds to Gozlan's critique of his paper. He argues that Gozlan recruits psychoanalytic elitism to discredit his work, rather than engaging with the paper's central concerns. The first issue that Gozlan avoids addressing is the misuse of academic writing to discredit those with whom we disagree, extensively documented in "Do We Want To Know". The second is the refusal to acknowledge the weak evidence base for gender-affirming interventions for youth increasingly embraced by the prevailing psychoanalytic zeitgeist. D'Angelo suggests that this is a repetition of psychoanalysis' rejection of empirical science, which in the past has led to patient harm and which has contributed to the increasing marginalisation of our profession.

The following text addresses atypical eating, building upon previously discussed ideas and enhanced with clinical observations from the analytical process of a young man. Currently twenty years old, he was referred at sixteen by the paediatrician who had delivered him and continued to care for him, and was suspecting "anorexia." The term is within inverted commas as it was not conclusively diagnosed by the doctor or the author of this text. The patient's limited food intake was part of a broader picture of cessation in emotional development. The author proposes significant differences in the primitive relational trajectory at the origins of atypical eating habits of both men and women. Viewing these habits as communications of previously compromised mental states rather than an isolated "disease," the author emphasises the importance of the transferential relationship as a general guiding thread in analytical processes, particularly as a sine qua non condition for augmenting the possibility of favourable evolution of these generally severe and challenging patients. This clinical case thus highlights the analytical relationship as the main modifying factor in Fred's life. The analysis continues uninterrupted, with three sessions per week, during the pandemic online, and again in-person as soon as it was possible to return to the office.

The paper explores the universal validity of the Oedipus complex in different cultures, particularly in Asia, and discusses the role of psychoanalysis as an anchor in chaotic times. The author delves into the objections raised by Asian cultures to the universal validity of the Oedipus complex. They provide examples from Indian, Chinese, and Japanese myths that challenge Freud's concept. The author argues that these myths and cultural variations are not antipodes to the Oedipus complex but rather cultural variants of a universal triangularity. The Eastern myths suggest that the early mother-child relationship plays a central role in cultural development and assigns women a significant role, contrary to Freud's views. Furthermore, the author challenges the notion of cultural identity between the West and the East as incommensurable. The paper concludes by discussing the need for psychoanalysis to address the individual and social turns against triangularity.

The clinical material concerns a session with a patient undergoing re-analysis six years after the end of the previous treatment period: analyst and patient are the same persons, but both find themselves profoundly changed after the first experience. For the patient, what is at stake is the deepening and greater articulation of internal contact with self and other, together with the recovery of a greater sense of continuity and cohesion in the sense of self. For the analyst, this re-analysis is also an opportunity to confront one's own evolution in functioning with both the working Ego and the working Self. The reported session touches on various experiential and technical levels, with references to the extra- and intra-analytic past, to extra- and intra-analytic events in the here and now, and with the constitution of a growing subjectivity that hints at the prospect of a much more substantial separation than that of the first analysis.

This paper explores the transformative impact of recognizing and bridging patients' cyber-lives to the analytic space, especially in the context of analysis with children and adolescents. With the widespread use of digital technology in the lives of young patients, analysts are urged to gain a deeper understanding of the role of cyberspace in their psychic lives and to consider incorporating digital devices as a mode of communication within the analytic setting. Through two detailed case materials, the author illustrates how integrating patients' cyberspace into the analytic space plays a crucial role in their analytic journey to facilitate constructing potential space and symbolic functioning in their minds. The paper also demonstrates various countertransference challenges that analysts may encounter when technology or its influence is present in the analytic space.

Korean culture, influenced significantly by Confucianism, has shaped the psyche of Koreans in several ways. The absence of an emotionally connected father figure has led to father hunger, while the strong emotional bond between mothers and sons has contributed to fear of women and repressed Oedipal conflicts. The suppression of female sexuality, along with discriminatory attitudes towards women, has given rise to emotional conditions like "Han" and penis envy, as well as hysterical disorders. Confucianism's emphasis on rigid ideal roles and hierarchy led to the internalization of a strict superego, prioritizing external evaluations over inner experiences. The use of compartmentalization helped cope with external demands but hindered the development of an integrated sense of self. Additionally, Confucian family culture hindered the natural process of individuation, with an abrupt transition to adulthood around the age of seven, leading to a longing for lost early dependent relationships. Narcissistic vulnerability is deeply rooted in Confucian hierarchical culture, necessitating narcissistic attachment and defence mechanisms to maintain fantasies of omnipotence and self-sufficiency. Given these cultural influences and individual vulnerabilities, it is crucial to foster genuine dependency in psychoanalytic efforts while being cautious about falling into pseudo-intimacy that remains confined to intellectual interactions within a therapeutic relationships.

This paper explores the significance of recognition through associated questions about identity, identifications and what is needed to give an account of oneself from a psychoanalytical and philosophical perspective. These questions are explored through clinical work with a small child and the artistic practice of Waanyi artist Judy Watson arguing that both share the desire to work creatively with residues of fragmentary experiences to enable remembering and recognition. Their work illustrates the suffering inflicted by non-recognition as well as the desire and creative efforts required to establish a precondition for recognition when this desire has been elided and/or silenced. Possible implications for Australian socio-cultural life are introduced.

Using the title of the 54th International Psychoanalytical Association Congress as a motif, the author associates and develops metaphors that illustrate and relate how the historical elements of Portuguese culture may have a psychoanalytic understanding and how they impacted the Portuguese Psychoanalytic Society's identity and work. Past and future, pride and sorrow, land and sea seem to shape the Portuguese psyche, creating a welcoming and conciliating nature forged from the tensions underlying troubled waters longing to be sailed.