Journal Reviews

Field , Nathan (London). ‘The Primitive and the Pathological’. British Journal of Psychotherapy Fordham , Michael . (London) ‘Ending psychotherapy’ Zinkin , Louis . (London) ‘All's well that ends well, or is it?’Group Analysis Fosshage , J.L. (New York). ‘Towards reconceptualising transference: theoretical and clinical considerations‘. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis Hillman , James . (Thompson, CT, U.S.A.) ‘Once more into the fray (A response to Wolfgang Giegerich's “Killings”)’. Spring Josey , Alden . (Delaware, U.S.A.) Molecules as mandalas: modern chemistry and the quest for the Self.’Psychological Perspectives Phillips , Adam . ‘Contingency for Beginners’. Winnicott Studies Rigsby , Roberta . (U.S.A.).‘Jungians, archetypalists and fear of feminism’. Continuum Samuels , Andrew . (London). “The professionalization of Carl G. Jung's Analytical Psychology Clubs’. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences     

‘Freud's speculations in ethnology’: A reflection on anthropology's encounter with psychoanalysis

In the early 20th century, many analysts – Freud and Ernest Jones in particular – were confident that cultural anthropologists would demonstrate the universal nature of the Oedipus complex and other unconscious phenomena. Collaboration between the two disciplines, however, was undermined by a series of controversies surrounding the relationship between psychology and culture. This paper re‐examines the three episodes that framed anthropology's early encounter with psychoanalysis, emphasizing the important works and their critical reception. Freud's Totem and Taboo began the interdisciplinary dialogue, but it was Bronislaw Malinowski's embrace of psychoanalysis – a development anticipated through a close reading of his personal diaries – that marked a turning point in relations between the two disciplines. Malinowski argued that an avuncular (rather than an Oedipal) complex existed in the Trobriand Islands. Ernest Jones’ critical dismissal of this theory alienated Malinowski from psychoanalysis and ended ethnographers’ serious exploration of Freudian thought. A subsequent ethnographic movement, ‘culture and personality,’ was erroneously seen by many anthropologists as a product of Freudian theory. When ‘culture and personality’ was abandoned, anthropologists believed that psychoanalysis had been discredited as well – a narrative that still informs the historiography of the discipline and its rejection of psychoanalytical theory.     

The Alchemical Oedipus: Re-Visioning the Myth

The Oedipus myth is foundational to depth psychology due to Freud’s use of Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex in the creation of psychoanalysis. But analytical psychology’s engagement with the myth has been limited despite the importance Jung also places upon it. The absence of a developed Jungian response to Oedipus means the myth’s psychologically constructive elements have been overlooked in favour of reductive Freudian interpretations. I examine whether analytical psychology can fruitfully re-engage with Oedipus by reinterpreting his story as a paternal rebirth. This is achieved by reincorporating those parts of the myth that occur before and after the period portrayed in Oedipus Rex. Such a move reintegrates Oedipus’ father, King Laius, into the story and unveils important parallels with the alchemical trope of the king’s renewal by his son. Using Jung’s method of amplification, Oedipus is recast as Laius’ redeemer and identified with the archetype of psychological wholeness, the Self. The contention is that such an understanding of Oedipus supports a clearer recognition of the potentially generative quality of human suffering, restoring to the myth the quality of moral instruction it possessed in antiquity.     

Neutrality,tenderness and the analyst's subjectivity

Addressing the rôle of the analyst in the psychoanalytic relationship, the author takes issue with the emphasis on acknowledging the analyst's subjectivity and the critique of concepts like neutrality and abstinence as these issues are presented in the relational tradition. He advocates a better articulation and emphasis of these concepts in the service of understanding the impact of the analyst's subjectivity, and demonstrates how the mere loosening up of analytic neutrality and abstinence and an acceptance of the analyst's self-disclosure make transference analysis more difficult to handle. Such an attitude also increases the risk for ethically dubious conduct, since there is a close link between clinical methods and ethical standards in psychoanalysis. In conclusion, the author points to the importance of the analyst's continuous self-reflection and countertransference analysis.     

Journal reviews

Articles reviewed: Bernstein, Jeanne Wolff. ‘Countertransference: our new royal road to the unconscious?’, Psychoanalytic Dialogues Crastnopol, Margaret. ‘The analyst's personality: Winnicott analyzing Guntrip as a case in point’, Contemporary Psychoanalysis Epstein, L. ‘The analyst's “bad-analyst” feelings: a counterpart to the process of resolving implosive defenses’, Contemporary Psychoanalysis Garwood, Alfred. ‘Psychic security: its origins, development and disruption‘, British Journal of Psychotherapy Haynes, Jane. ‘Facing the self: is man no more than this?’, Harvest Papadopoulos, Renos K. ‘Storied community as secure base: Response to the paper by Nancy Caro Hollander “Exile: Paradoxes of Loss and Creativity”’, British Journal of Psychotherapy Sand, Rosemary. ‘The interpretation of dreams: Freud and the Western tradition’ & Greenberg, Ramon & Pearlman, Chester. ‘The interpretation of dreams: a classic revisited’, Psychoanalytic Dialogues Spensley, Sheila. ‘Learning from Bion’, Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists Wilgowicz, Perel. ‘Listening psychoanalytically to the Shoah half a century on’,International Journal of Psychoanalysis     

Ex cathedra : Teaching,transference and knowledge 1

This paper explores the ex cathedra effect in psychoanalysis. It starts with the impact of the analyst's chair (cathedra) on the ‘knowledge’ derived from the analytic exchange–in particular, the structural alignment between the analyst and the client, and the ex cathedra authority transferred to analytic interpretations. It is argued that this authority–and the compulsion to ‘know’ that underlies it–is inevitably subverted by the unconscious processes it attempts to capture (through knowledge), in particular by transference, whose embossed and hollowed out forms, and various contusive elaborations (the bezoaric, caddis, karaoke and medusa effects), vitiate the linearity and closure of a set cognitive system (knowledge). The paper then moves on to examine how this ex cathedra effect has impacted on teaching–the transferral of this knowledge in trainings, notably in universities, where psychoanalysis has become a ‘discipline’, and how transference effects have inevitably and variously subverted (some may say corrupted) the teaching process. In particular, it suggests that the academic validation of clinical trainings hides an ex cathedra dogmatism–a pretence of formal knowledge and critical assessment which forecloses creative engagement with the unconscious.     

SHORT NOTICES

Why God? Thinking Through Faith, Jim Thompson The Mandate of Heaven: The Divine Command and the Natural Order, Michael Keeling, T. & T. Clark The Times Best Sermons of 1996, Ruth Gledhill (ed.) Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church, Laurence Hull Stookey The ‘Obscrurism’ of Light: A Theological Study into the Nature of Light, Iain M. MacKenzie The Beginning and the End of ‘Religion’, Nicholas Lash Clinging to Faith, Peter D. Bishop Walter Benjamin and the Bible, Brian Britt Religion and Rational Theology: The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni (eds) The New God-Image: a Study of Jung's Key Letters conceming the Evolution of the Western God-Image, Edward F. Edinger Zeal for Truth and Tolerance, Jan Mili? Lochman Qumran Cave 4 XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266–273) (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVIII), Joseph Barmgarten (ed.) Mark Pryce, Finding a Voice: Men, Women and the Community of the Church     

Contacting a 19 month‐old mute autistic girl: A clinical narrative

Conveying that psychoanalysis offers rich opportunities for the very early treatment of autistic spectrum disorders, this clinical communication unfolds the clinical process of a 19 month‐old ‘shell‐type’ encapsulated mute autistic girl. It details how, in a four‐weekly‐sessions schedule, infant Lila evolved within two years from being emotionally out‐of‐contact to the affective aliveness of oedipal involvement. Following Frances Tustin's emphasis on the analyst's ‘quality of attention’ and Justin Call's advice that in baby–mother interaction the infant is the initiator and the mother is the follower, it is described how the analyst must, amid excruciating non‐response, even‐mindedly sustain her attention in order to meet the child half‐way at those infrequent points where flickers of initiative on her side are adumbrated. This helps attain evanescent ‘moments of contact’ which coalesce later into ‘moments of sharing’, eventually leading to acknowledgment of the analyst's humanness and a receptiveness for to‐and‐fro communication. Thus the ‘primal dialogue’ (Spitz) is reawakened and, by experiencing herself in the mirror of the analyst, the child's sense of I‐ness is reinstated. As evinced by the literature, the mainstream stance rests on systematic early interpretation of the transference, which has in our view strongly deterred progress in the psychoanalytic treatment of autistic spectrum disorders.     

Alphabetizing in old age

Abstract: A long term, intensive analysis with a woman in old old age is reported. An attempt is made to answer the question, ‘What, in analytic work, is healing?’. The patient's previous classical Jungian work is contrasted with the author's developmental perspective. It is suggested that an enactment, representing what Neville Symington has called an analyst's act of freedom, was crucial in effecting a profound transformation in the patient's psyche.     

Psychoanalysis,science, and art: Aesthetics in the making of a psychoanalyst1

This paper critically examines the relationship of psychoanalysis to science and art. Its point of departure is Michael Rustin's theorizing. Specifically, in considering the possibility of a psychoanalyst's having an aesthetic orientation, the author analyses: 1) the difficulty of there being any connection between psychoanalysis and science because science's necessarily presupposed subject‐object dichotomy is incompatible with transference, which, beginning with Freud, is basic to psychoanalysis; 2) the complex relationship between psychoanalysis and aesthetics using Maurice Merleau‐Ponty's philosophical perspective as well as Luigi Pareyson's theory of aesthetics; 3) the Kantian foundations of the psychoanalytic notion of art as the ‘containing form of subjective experience’ 4) intersubjectivity, without which clinical practice would not be possible, especially considering matters of identity, difference, the body, and of sensory experience such as ‘expressive form’; 5) the relationship of psychoanalysis and art, keeping in mind their possible convergence and divergence as well as some psychoanalysts' conceptual commitment to classicism and the need for contact with art in a psychoanalysts's mind set.     

Short Notices

Jerrold E. Levy, In the Beginning: The Navajo Genesis Luise Schottroff, Silvia Schroer & Marie-Theres Wacker, Feminist Interpretation: The Bible in Woman's Perspective Ben Witherington, Grace in Galatia: A Commentary on St Paul's Letter to the Galatians Donald Armstrong (ed.), The Truth about Jesus R. N. Longenecker (ed.), Life in the Face of Death: The Resurrection Message of the New Testament A. Friesen, Erasmus, the Anabaptists and the Great Commission Alan P. F. Sell (ed.), Mill and Religion: Contemporary Responses to Mill's, ‘Three Essays on Religion’ G. W. F. Hegel (ed. Peter C. Hodgson), Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Volume III: The Consummate Religion John Webster, Barth's Moral Theology: Human Action in Barth's Thought Anne Hunt, What are they saying about the Trinity? David A. S. Fergusson, The Cosmos and the Creator: An Introduction to the Theology of Creation C. David Grant, Thinking Through Our Faith: Theology for 21st Century Christians Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium Michael Nazir-Ali, Citizens and Exiles: Christian Faith in a Plural World Robert J. Schreiter, The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies John Gladwin, Love and Liberty: Faith and Unity in a Postmodern Age Eric O. Springsted (ed.), The Spirituality and Theology: Essays in Honour of Diogenes Allen Kenneth Leech, Drugs and Pastoral Care S. E. Lammers and A. Verhey (eds), On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics Anthony Elliot (ed.), Freud 2000     

REVIEWS

The Origins of Christian Morality: The First Two Centuries, Wayne A. Meeks Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction, J. Philip Wogaman Sexual Chaos, Tim Stafford Promise or Pretence? A Christian's Guide to Sexual Morals, A. E. Harvey Church in Black and White, John L. Wilkinson A Tale of Two Missions, Michael Goulder The Buddha and Christ: Explorations in Buddhist and Christian Dialogue, Leo D. Lefebure Living the Mystery: Affirming Catholicism and the Future of Anglicanism, Jeffrey John (ed.) The Anglican Parochial Clergy: A Celebration, Michael Hinton The Gospel and the Sacred: Poetics of Violence in Mark, Robert Hamerton-Kelly Who Would a Teacher Be? Wrestling with Religious Education (Wounded Pilgrim Series), Clare Richards, Darton, Longman & Todd Catholic Social Thought and the New World Order, Oliver F. Williams and John W. Hauck (eds) Can Virtue be Taught?, Barbara Darling-Smith (ed.) The Rise and Decline of the Scholastic ‘Quaestio Disputata’: With Special Emphasis on its Use in the Teaching of Medicine and Science, Brian Lawn, E. J. Brill The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, Bart D. Ehrman The Church: The Universal Sacrament of Salvation, Johann Auer Ace of Freedoms: Thomas Merton's Christ, George Kilcourse Retrieving Fundamental Theology: The Three Styles of Contemporary Theology, Gerald O'Collins     

Between memory and destiny: Repetition1

This essay focuses mainly on the topic of repetition (agieren)—on its metapsychological, clinical, and technical conceptions. It contains a core problem, that is, the question of the represented, the nonrepresented, and the unrepresentable in the psyche. This problem, in turn, brings to light the dialectical relation between drive and object and its specific articulation with the traumatic. The author attributes special significance to its clinical expression as ‘destiny’. He points out a shift in the theory of the cure from recollection and the unveiling of unconscious desire, to the possibility of understanding ‘pure’ repetition, which would constitute the very essence of the drive. The author highlights three types of repetition, namely, ‘representative’ (oedipal) repetition, the repetition of the ‘nonrepresented’ (narcissistic), which may gain representation, and that of the ‘unrepresentable’ (sensory impressions, ‘lived experiences from primal times,’‘prelinguistic signifiers,’‘ungovernable mnemic traces’). The concept‐the metaphor‐drive embryo brings the author close to the question of the archaic in psychoanalysis, where the repetition in the act would express itself. ‘Another unconscious’ would zealously conceal the entombed (verschüttet) that we are not yet able to describe‐the ‘innermost’ rather than the ‘buried’ (untergegangen) or the ‘annihilated’ (zugrunde gegangen)‐through a mechanism whose way of expression is repetition in the act. With ‘Constructions in analysis’ as its starting point, this paper suggests a different technical implementation from that of the Freudian construction; its main material is what emerges in the present of the transference as the repetition of ‘something’ lacking as history. The memory of the analytic process offers a historical diachrony whereby a temporality freed from repetition and utterly unique might unfold in the analysis. This diachrony would no longer be the historical reconstruction of material truth, but the construction of something new. The author briefly introduces some aspects of his conception of the psyche and of therapeutic work in terms of what he has designated as psychic zones. These zones are associated with various modes of becoming unconscious, and they coexist with different degrees of prevalence according to the psychopathology. Yet each of them will emerge with unique features in different moments of every analysis, determining both the analyst's positions and the very conditions of the analytic field. The zone of the death drive and of repetition is at the center of this essay. ‘Pure’ repetition expresses a time halted by the constant reiteration of an atemporal present. In this case, the ‘royal road’ for the expression of ‘that’ unconscious will be the act. The analyst's presence and his own drive wager will be pivotal to provide a last attempt at binding that will allow the creation of the lost ‘psychic fabric’ and the construction, in a conjectural way, of some sort of ‘history’ that may unravel the entombed (verschüttet) elements that, in these patients' case, come to the surface in the act. The analysand's ‘pure’ repetition touches, resonates with something of the new unconscious of the analyst. All of this leads the author to underline once again the value of the analyst's self‐analysis and reanalysis in searching for connections and especially in differentiating between what belongs to the analyst and what belongs to the analysand. A certain degree of unbinding ensures the preservation of something ungraspable that protects one from the other's appropriation.     

Journal Reviews

Astor , J. (London). ‘A conversation with Dr Michael Fordham.’Journal of Child Psychotherapy Astor , J. (London). ‘Adolescent states of mind found in patients of different ages seen in analysis.’Journal of Child Psychotherapy Blomeyer , R. (Berlin) ‘Der Umgang des Analytikers mit der Analyse’ (The interrelationship between the analyst and the analysis). Analytische Psychologie Blomeyer , Rudolf (Berlin). ‘Analytische Psychologie und Ich-Psychologie’. (Analytical Psychology and Ego-Psychology). Analytical Psychology Rudolf Blomeyer . ‘Anmerkungen zur Typologie’ (Comment on typology). Analytische Psychologie Corbett , L. Kugler , P. ‘The self in Jung and Kohut’ in Progress in self Psychology Dehing , J. ‘Jung aus der Sicht der anderen: anlässlich einiger Kritiken von Seiten der Freudianer.’ (Jung as others see him: some Freudian criticisms.) Analytische Psychologie Erlenmeyer , A. ‘Das kannabalische Phantasma—eine Annäherung’ (Cannibalistic fantasy—an appraisal). Analytische Psychologie Giera -Krapp , Margitta (Berlin). ‘Constellation of the good/bad mother archetype in the treatment of early disturbances.’Analytische Psychologie Lyard , D. (Paris). ‘Le corps et la “redonne” archetypique de l'adolescence.’ (The body and archetypal rebirth in adolescence) in Cahiers jungiens de psychanalyse Noschis , K. (Geneva). ‘La maison du jour et de la nuit’ (The house by day and by night). Le Journal des Psychologues “Le langage de notre intérieur” (The language of our interior). Les Cahiers Médicosociaux Erenest L. Rossi . ‘Mind Body Therapy: methods of ideodynamic healing in hypnosis.’ Norton Professional Books. New York. Samuels , A. (London). ‘Pluralism and the post-Jungians: A reply to Peter Bishop.’ Spring. Samuels , Andrew . (London). ‘A relation called father—Part I: The father in depth psychology.’British Journal of Psychotherapy Steinberg , Warren . (New York). ‘The Fear of Success’. Quadrant Thibaudier , Vivane (Paris). ‘La notion de Grande Mère dans l'optique Jungienne’Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Commitment and compassion in psychoanalysis: Selected papers of Edward M. Weinshel Edited by Robert Wallerstein Transference: Shibboleth or Albatross? By Joseph Schachter Dreams and drama: Psychoanalytic criticism, creativity and the artist by Alan Roland “Forschen und Heilen” in der Psychoanalyse. Ergebnisse und Berichte aus Forschung und Praxis [‘Research and healing’ in psychoanalysis. Results and reports from research and practice] By Marianne Leuzinger‐Bohleber, Bernhard Rüger, Ulrich Stuhr and Manfred Beutel Mirror to nature: Drama, psychoanalysis and society By Margaret Rustin and Michael Rustin The importance of sibling relationships in psychoanalysis By Prophecy Coles Freud—Fragments d'une histoire [Freud—Fragments of a history] by Alain de Mijolla Funzione analitica e mente primitiva [Analytic function and primitive mind] By Giovanni Hautmann     

The Analyst's Participation in the Process

Using a clinical vignette, in which self-disclosure appears as a starting point, the authors investigate the connection between method and techniques. As the recent literature on the subject generally maintains, the classical analysts' neutral position can no longer be accepted. Analysts are always fully engaged in the intersubjective relationship and pass their values on to their patients through their professional roles - which can be understood as self-disclosure in a wider meaning. However, self-disclosure, and in more general terms the analyst's participation in the process, need technical criteria of reference. By deepening the relationship between method and techniques, established by Rapaport, the authors maintain that method is determined by theory and in turn gives meaning to techniques. As a consequence, techniques play a minor role with regard to theory and method. The opening of psychoanalysis to the relational perspective is bringing about the decrease of technique as an absolute value in favour of a greater self-awareness of the analyst who, following the method related to his/her theory will be able to better cope with techniques.     

Journal Reviews

Authors are invited to submit for review articles published in professional journals on subjects likely to be of interest to readers of the Journal of Analytical Psychology. Chapters or sections of books may also be sent provided the book has not been submitted to our Book Review section. Adler , G. (London). Preface to Selected Letters of C. G. Jung, 1901–1961 Adler , G. (London). ‘Regarding the wounded healer’ Adler , G. (London). ‘Psychology and the atom bomb’ Blomeyer , R. (Berlin). ‘Vom Vatermord und Inzesttabu zur Trennungsangst aus der Symbiose mit der Mutter. Akzentsetzungen und Verschiebungen in der psycho-analytischen Aussage’ Blomeyer , R. (Berlin). ‘Psychische Krankheit — Sinn und Analyse’ Bovensiepen , G. (Berlin). ‘Patriarchale Kriegslust und der Mutter-Imago. Unbewusste Gruppenphantasien in der Sprache der Bundestagsdebatten’ Chodorow , L. (1982). Foundations of Psycho-history Dreifuss , G. (Haifa). ‘Opferer und Opfer’ Giegerich , W. (Stuttgart). ‘Atombombe und Seele’ Haule , John R. (Boston). ‘From somnambulism to the archetypes: the French roots of Jung's split with Freud’ Haule , John R. (Boston)). ‘Soul-making in a schizophrenic saint’ Hillman , J. (Dallas). The Thought of the Heart Hubback , J. (London). ‘People who do things to each other: therapists and patients’ Jacoby , M. (Zollikon). ‘Das Selbst-Konzept in der analytischen Psychologie of C. G. Jungs und seine Bedeutung für die Psychotherapie’ Jacoby , M. (Zollikon). ‘Psychotherapie im Rahmen der analytischen Psychologie von C. G. Jung’ Mattinson , J. (London). ‘The effects of abortion on a marriage’ McCully , R. S. (Charleston). ‘Sorcerers as masculine protest symbols in upper paleolithic times’ Plaut , A. (London). ‘Where is Paradise? The Mapping of a Myth’ Samuels , A. (London). ‘Symbolic dimensions of eros in transference-countertransference: some clinical uses of Jung's alchemical metaphor’ Ware , Robert C. (Zürich). ‘C. G. Jung und der Körper: Vernachlässigte Möglichkeiten der Therapie?’     

Transcending the caesura: Reverie,dreaming and counter‐dreaming

The author reflects about our capacity to get in touch with primitive, irrepresentable, seemingly unreachable parts of the Self and with the unrepressed unconscious. It is suggested that when the patient's dreaming comes to a halt, or encounters a caesura, the analyst dreams that which the patient cannot. Getting in touch with such primitive mental states and with the origin of the Self is aspired to, not so much for discovering historical truth or recovering unconscious content, as for generating motion between different parts of the psyche. The movement itself is what expands the mind and facilitates psychic growth. Bion's brave and daring notion of ‘caesura’, suggesting a link between mature emotions and thinking and intra‐uterine life, serves as a model for bridging seemingly unbridgeable states of mind. Bion inspires us to ‘dream’ creatively, to let our minds roam freely, stressing the analyst's speculative imagination and intuition often bordering on hallucination. However, being on the seam between conscious and unconscious, dreaming subverts the psychic equilibrium and poses a threat of catastrophe as a result of the confusion it affords between the psychotic and the non‐psychotic parts of the personality. Hence there is a tendency to try and evade it through a more saturated mode of thinking, often relying on external reality. The analyst's dreaming and intuition, perhaps a remnant of intra‐uterine life, is elaborated as means of penetrating and transcending the caesura, thus facilitating patient and analyst to bear unbearable states of mind and the painful awareness of the unknowability of the emotional experience. This is illustrated clinically.