Of “sleep and dream: A psychoanalytic essay' by Joyce McDougall (discussion)

Abstract

The author describes experiences gathered during several years of teaching psychodynamic psychotherapy with psychologists and psychiatrists within a 2-year-training programme in Shanghai, China. Questions and problems of the reception of psychoanalysis – shame, sexuality, harmony, abstinence – as well as the possibilities and limitations of exporting psychoanalysis are discussed. The possible future development of psychoanalysis in China is also outlined.     

Types of sexual transference and countertransference in psychotherapeutic work with children and adolescents

The question of normal sexuality begins to arise in the treatment of severely sexually abused or sexually offending patients. The author suggests that it is an interesting and delicate moment during the process of recovery when less perverse, more normal sexuality appears mixed with, or even disguised by, the more habitual perverse fantasies. Writers in the adult field have drawn distinctions between perverse, eroticized and normal erotic transferences, and between Oedipal and post-Oedipal sexuality. Some have also distinguished between countertransferences in the analyst of an erotised versus a normal erotic nature. The paper discusses whether these distinctions could have any relevance for child patients. Freud and Klein have taught us much about the child's sexuality in relation to his interest in and attraction to his parents as sexual beings. But can we also detect some origins in earlier experiences in infancy of the child's later capacity to feel himself a sexual being capable of being wanted by an other? How might such a feeling of sexual self-worth differ from narcissism and from sexualised exhibitionism? The paper asks how therapists might deal with such problems and such possibly healthy developments.     

Infantile sexuality: Its place in the conceptual developments of Anna Freud and Donald W. Winnicott

This essay explores the place of infantile sexuality in the theories of Anna Freud and Donald W Winnicott. Both Anna Freud and D.W. Winnicott incorporated and at the same time changed the classical psychoanalytic account of infantile sexuality and the instinctual drives. Whilst Anna Freud remained closer to her father's original conceptualization, she developed a multidimensional model of development which gave the drives a foundational status whist also maintaining their significance in giving meaning and texture to children's subjective experience. Winnicott also retained much of S. Freud's original theorizing except that in a fundamental way he turned it on its head when considering earliest development. For him the establishment of the self was paramount, and the drives and infantile sexuality merely served to give substance to that self.     

Sexuality as an Integral Part of the Church's Being and Mission

The article draws on the experience of being part of the Reference Group on Human Sexuality and other debates on sexuality in the World Council of Churches to discuss the “Message of the 11th Assembly.” It makes explicit how issues of sexuality have been avoided and how they ground the understanding of theological perspectives and the church's being and mission. Finally, it presents alternatives to reclaim sexuality and make the movement of reconciliation grounded in a transformative and queer spirituality more concrete and truthful to people's lives – a sexy movement.     

Some reflections on the unique time of Nachträglichkeit in theory and clinical practice

Of the various forms that the matter of time assumes in analysis, Nachträglichkeit represents Freud’s first intuition on the subject. The focus of this article is directed toward the specific temporal dimension that the concept of Nachträglichkeit expresses, and how that dimension, which overturns linear time, is expressed in clinical work. The concept of Nachträglichkeit is approached from a theoretical point of view, tracing back the role and development that this notion has had in psychoanalytic Freudian and post‐Freudian thinking. The goal of this article is to demonstrate how Nachträglichkeit represents the unique temporal movement of the analytic session and the characteristic positioning of the mind of the analyst at work. Three clinical examples are presented. The analytic scene is formulated as occurring in two times, and through the working through that takes place, patients can recover the enigmatic ‘remainder’, which is consequently traumatic and which has compulsively accompanied them through the various times of their existence. Nachträglichkeit, as a non‐linear temporality, introduces a unique dimension into the clinical work that influences listening to and interpretation of the material. The recognition of that (trauma, infantile sexuality, non‐linear temporality) has consequences for the analyst’s way of working in session and on the interpretation of clinical material, as I will try to show through my theoretical exposition and clinical examples.     

Growing old: A psychoanalyst’s point of view1

With the help of clinical examples, the author shows that psychoanalysis or psychotherapy after the age of 70 can be a fascinating experience, one that enables patients to reconstruct their internal history in such a way that their final years can be given their rightful place in the overall journey through life. Often it will be a matter of going beyond the conflict between paralysing time with the illusion of keeping death at bay and taking the transient nature of life into account in order to perceive its true flavour. We can grow old passively, juxtaposing different periods of our life without linking them together, thereby creating the illusion of time without end; or we can grow old actively, integrating the different phases of our life into a coherent historical narrative. This representation of time leaves the door open for experiences which the author calls ‘small seconds of eternity’. We can all experience such moments when we are deeply moved – joyfully or painfully – by something, so that we perceive another quality of time that goes beyond its chronological dimension without all the same negating it. Helping elderly people to identify these seconds of eternity and catch hold of them can be an invaluable experience for them. Perhaps we need to see our life unfold through the chronology of its different phases in order to discover, second by second, how to express on an everyday basis something of which we have had an inkling in some second of eternity.     

FREUD'S LETTERS TO FLIESS: FROM SEDUCTION TO SEXUAL BIOLOGY, FROM PSYCHOPATHOLOGY TO A CLINICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The author describes the development of Freud's theory of neurosis from 1892 onwards, starting with his distinction between the actual neuroses and the psychoneuroses and his discovery of a specific, sexual aetiology for both, until which point it remained limited to pathology. The problem of the aetiology of perversion, however, confronted him with a paradox within the theory of seduction: how can an infantile sexual pleasure produce unpleasure when it is remembered at the time of puberty? This problem could not be solved within the framework of the seduction theory because the asexuality of childhood was essential to this theory. For an answer Freud had to turn to biology. He considered that the transformation of an infantile pleasure into unpleasure presupposed an organic repression of non‐genital sexual pleasure. This hypothesis of organic repression radically changed the anthropological claim of Freud's theory. As long as he was looking for a specific aetiology of neurosis and perversion, Freud's theory remained restricted to pathology. However, when he introduced infantile sexuality and its organic repression as universal organic processes, the strict distinction between normality and pathology could not be maintained. The author concludes that by turning to sexual biology, Freud transformed psychopathology into a clinical anthropology.     

Understanding Freud's conflicted view of the object‐relatedness of sexuality and its implications for contemporary psychoanalysis: A re‐examination of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Through a re‐examination of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), this paper reveals a fundamental tension in Freud's thinking on the nature of the individual and of his sexuality. In this text Freud portrays the individual and sexuality as inherently object‐related and at the same time as inherently independent of such relatedness. The way in which Freud presents these contradictory ideas suggests that he was not merely undecided on object‐relatedness and sexuality but rather that the contradiction was integral to this thinking. The paper offers an explanation of the meaning of this contradiction, of why it has been neglected in the analytic literature, and of some implications for contemporary psychoanalysis and its approach to sexuality.     

Has infantile sexuality anything to do with infants?

Classical psychoanalytic theory draws many concepts from mental processes that are assumed to arise in the infant and influence the adult mind. Still, psychoanalytic practice with mothers and infants has been integrated but little within general psychoanalytic theory. One reason is that only few analysts have utilized such practice to further theory. Another reason is that infant therapists tend to abandon classical psychoanalytic concepts in favour of attachment concepts. As a result the concept of infantile sexuality, so central to classical theory, plays an unobtrusive role in clinical discussions on infant therapy. The author argues that infantile sexuality plays an important role in many mother-infant disturbances. To function as a clinical concept, it needs to be delineated from attachment and be understood in the context of mother-infant interaction. Two examples are provided; one where the analyst's infantile sexuality emerged in a comment to the infant. Another is a case of breast-feeding problems with a little boy fretting at the breast. This is interpreted as reflecting the mother's infantile sexual conflicts as well as the boy's emerging internalization of them. Thus, to conceptualize such disorders we need to take into account the infantile sexuality in both mother and baby.     

Perversion on the other side of the couch

Abstract

Taking as his starting point the fact that, according to Freudian theory, perversion is inherent to the human being, the author focuses upon an aspect of perversion that has been little discussed: perversion on the other side of the couch, and thereby questions of how, in psychoanalytic theoretical and clinical practice, perverted drive motions may be presented. Such a phenomenon takes various forms: actually being enacted with patients; using psychoanalytic theory as a normative rule; the individual choice of profession and so forth. To exemplify his point of view, the author presents four different expressions of sexuality in Freudian theory: genital sexuality, perverted sexuality, the sexuality of the Ideals and narcissistic sexuality. After differentiating these four sexual expressions, the author shows how each of them may generate perversion in both clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis.

Ceccarelli P Perversion auf der anderen Seite der Couch

Indem er als Ausgangspunkt die Tatsache nimmt, daß entsprechend der Freudianischen Theorie Perversion dem menschlichen Sein inhärent ist, fokussiert der Autor auf einen Aspekt der Perversion, der wenig diskutiert wurde: Perversion auf der anderen Seite der Couch und damit Fragen, wie in der psychoanalytischen und klinischen Praxis pervertierte Triebbewegungen dargestellt werden können. Ein solches Phänomen zeigt sich in verschiedenartigen Formen: tatsächlich mit Patienten in Szene gesetzt; im Gebrauch psychoanalytischer Theorie als einer normativen Regel; die individuelle Wahl des Berufs und so weiter. Um seinen Standpunkt zu exempifizieren, stellt der Autor vier verschiedene Ausdrücke von Sexualität in der Freudianischen Theorie dar: genitale Sexualität; perverse Sexiualität; die Sexualität der Ideale; und narzißtische Sexualität. Nach einer Differenzierung dieser vier Ausdrücke für Sexualität zeigt der Autor, wie jeder von ihnen Perversion in klinischer und theoretischer Psychoanalyse generieren kann.

Ceccarelli P. Perversión del otro lado del diván.

Tomando como punto de partida el hecho de que de acuerdo a la teoría Freudiana la perversión es inherente al ser humano, el autor se enfoca en un aspecto de la perversión que ha sido muy poco discutido: la perversión del otro lado del diván, se pregunta cómo en la práctica psicoanalítica clínica y teórica, algunos impulsos pervertidos pueden estar presentes. Un fenómeno así puede tomar diversas formas: pasos al acto con pacientes, usar la teoría psicoanalítica como regla normativa, la elección individual de profesión y así. Para ejemplificar su punto de vista, el autor presenta cuatro diferentes expresiones de la sexualidad en la teoría freudiana: la sexualidad genital, sexualidad pervertida, la sexualidad de los Ideales, y la sexualidad narcisista. Además de diferenciar estas cuatro expresiones sexuales, el autor demuestra como cada una de estas formas puede generar perversión en el psicoanálisis clínico y teórico.     

Space and time in psychoanalytic listening1

The analytic situation is by definition traumatic because it evokes hilflosigkeit, the state of helplessness of the newborn infant, which is the prototype of the traumatic situation, and at the origin of the experience of anxiety. The author addresses the chain of associations between the state of helplessness, repetition compulsion, trauma, infantile sexuality, pleasure and displeasure, which lie at the core of the transference experience, and which find their ultimate expression in the analyst's listening. The discovery of the compulsion to repeat instituted a paradigmatic shift in Freud's formulations, emphasizing the process of repetition of trauma, and instituting a link between the network of concepts indicated above. In the clinical example discussed, the author defines the psychoanalytic process by the primacy of sexuality, the erotic passivation in the transference that evokes the traumatic childhood sexual scene. Sexuality and sexual phantasies are at the centre of the elaboration of meaning. Furthermore, the author distinguishes between two types of interpretations, namely ‘open’ and ‘closed’.     

Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel and psychosexuality - a reminder

Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, who would have turned 90 this year, had a passion for truth that placed her work at the very heart of psychoanalysis. Never leaving the field of Freudian analysis she explored the inevitable difficulties, due to our premature birth, to become moral subjects. Psychoanalysis was to her, as it was to Freud, a psychology of conflict. She was suspicious of seemingly optimistic views which saw conflict as created between the potentially free subject and one repressive external system or another. Freedom is always limited in psychoanalysis. In an attempt to follow the line of thought in her vast production the article touches upon her critique of Freud’s so called phallic monism, the significance of both parents’place in the psyche, the question of “Falsehood”, perversion as a dimension of the human psyche, and her concerned view on the situation of Western thought today. The author suggests that we might benefit from her radical Freudian stance in a time when the view on truth is undergoing many unfathomable transformations. Perhaps Chasseguet-Smirgels thought can also be an important reminder about the foundations of our work; not just sexuality, not just mental acts but their specific relationship to each other     

Trieb und Instinkt

To say that human beings also have a self-preservation instinct just as animals is only meaningful in the sense of attachment and affection mediated by mutual communication. It is from the beginning covered up by the truly human sexual phenomena of seduction and narcissistic reciprocity. Beside that we have a sexual drive which has a more important, not to say, decisive role from birth until puberty. This latter is the subject of psychoanalysis because it is anchored in the unconscious. Finally, we also have an (innate, endogenic) sexual instinct which appears in puberty persisting the whole adult life and meets at its appearance the infantile sexual drive which was existing all the time. It is very difficult to give an epistemological definition of the (innate) sexual instinct because it does not manifest itself in a pure form, but only in unclear transactions with infantile sexuality dominating the unconscious. The subject of psychoanalysis is the unconscious and the unconscious is itself the sexuality sensu Freud, the pre-, para- or genital infantile sexuality. The sexual has its origins in the phantasy which is naturally anchored in our body.     

The analytic process in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy: from the interpersonal to the intrapsychic level

The current debate over the conflicting interpersonal and intrapsychic views of the analytic process may or may not help us to distinguish between psychoanalysis and analytic psychotherapy. A comparison of psychoanalysis in the English-speaking world--especially in the United States--with French psychoanalysis reveals the features that unite and at the same time divide these different psychoanalytical tendencies, both of which are the heirs to Freud's thought, in terms, in particular, of the setting (couch and chair) and of technique (interpretation, transference analysis and technical neutrality). Whereas all psychoanalytic work belongs within the framework of an interpersonal relationship, that relationship becomes meaningful only when linked to the intrapsychic dimension, which alone can open the way to the unconscious and to infantile sexuality.     

THE THREE ESSAYS AND THE MEANING OF THE INFANTILE SEXUAL IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

Freud's Three Essays on Sexual Theory (1905a) are still today highly significant because of their novel way of considering the human sexual dimension. The author intends to show that a close reading of the Essays, combined with the reintroduction of the seduction theory by Jean Laplanche, provides a specific and foundational sexual theory for psychoanalysis.     

Freud's psychoanalysis: A moral cure

That psychoanalytical treatment in its classical Freudian sense is primarily a moral or ethical cure is not a very controversial claim. However, it is far from obvious how we are to understand precisely the moral character of psychoanalysis. It has frequently been proposed that this designation is valid because psychoanalysis strives neither to cure psychological symptoms pharmaceutically, nor to superficially modify the behaviour of the analysand, but to lead the analysand through an interpretive process during which he gradually gains knowledge of the unconscious motives that determine his behaviour, a process that might ideally liberate him to obtain, in relation to his inner desires, the status of a moral agent. There resides something appealing in these claims. But it is the author's belief that there is an even deeper moral dimension applying to psychoanalytical theory and praxis. Freudian psychoanalysis is a moral cure due to its way of thematizing psychological suffering as moral suffering. And this means that the moral subject – the being that can experience moral suffering – is not primarily something that the psychoanalytical treatment strives to realize, but rather the presupposition for the way in which psychoanalysis theorizes psychological problems as such.     

“Transferring” and transference

This paper is part of my research into psychotic transference and is also related to the psychotic aspect of any adult or infantile patient in analysis. In my research, I studied the origin of the concept of transference in Charcot's time before Freud, and the transformation of this concept in psychoanalysis. Freud thought that psychotic patients were not able to establish a transference relationship, but some of his early papers show the opposite. In fact, Freud himself and then several other analysts were able to develop a personal experience regarding the possibility of contact and transferring feelings and delusional experiences in a therapeutic context – individual, group, or institution. I provide some clinical examples in this paper, as well as some theoretical, personal views regarding intrapersonal and interpersonal transference. Like Freud and Melanie Klein, I believe that transference starts with life, but that in psychoanalysis it has a particular meaning.     

Has Sexuality Anything to Do with Relationality?

This paper discusses sexuality in the framework of relational psychoanalysis. Contemporary psychoanalytic approaches, turning away from drive theory, often abandoned sexuality altogether. This paper calls for a return to the centrality of sexuality in understanding the mind, development, and interpersonal/object relations. The author emphasizes a relational approach that highlights dialectical thinking, the third, and that positions sex and sexuality as the link between the intersubjective and the intrapsychic, highlighting the private, internal, enigmatic, and fantastic realm along with the pragmatic, bidirectional, two-person exchange. The paper discusses how our way of thinking and working clinically with sexuality has shifted accordingly.     

“Generative Co-Constructions”: An Exploration of the Analyst’s Influence and Desire: Commentary on Paper by Richard Almond

In this commentary on Almond’s (this issue) paper, in which he asks us to consider ways in which his personality/history/psychodynamics played a significant role in his younger women patients becoming pregnant, the author questions Almond’s premise that we can know what “real-life effects” we have on our patients, when so much that occurs in psychoanalysis happens in mutually unconscious and procedural realms. In addition, the author critiques Almond’s archaic and reductive conceptions of gender and sexuality, which feel particularly problematic as they interpenetrate with his fantasies of his impact and pivotal role in their pregnancies.     

The Emergence of Sex

Biological traits, the foci of natural selection, are by definition emergent from the genes, proteins, and other “nothing-buts” that constitute them. Moreover, and with the exception of recently emergent “spandrels,” each can be accorded a teleological dimension—each is “for” some purpose conducive to an organism's continuation. Sex, which is “for” the generation of recombinant genomes, may be one of the most ancient and ubiquitous traits in biology. In the course of its evolution, many additional traits, such as gender and nurture, have emerged. Patterns of sexual exchange are the basis for patterns of biological evolution and are central to the process of eukaryotic speciation. Human sexuality is central to our selves.