Sabina Spielrein: From Being a Psychiatric Patient to Becoming an Analyst Herself

In this paper, I evaluate Sabina Spielrein’s life and ideas from a contemporary understanding. I do this by considering the context and situation in which she lived: a journey from being a hospitalized psychiatric patient to becoming a psychoanalyst herself. From her crucial life experiences she learned that the main psychic conflicts stem from the struggle between life and death, and not from opposing ego drives and sexual desires. Spielrein’s considerable creative potentials were nurtured, as well as blocked by her inner conflicts, but also by the enormous historical conflicts of her time.

     

Becoming Paladin: The Bodily Ground of World Becoming

In this article I will suggest that futures are made as embodied enactments of individuals and collectives. Values and identities are shaped as postures, gestures, movements, and expressions that are in themselves sites of personal and communal meaning. Bodily organizations are ground for senses of self, and the recognition, and reaction to, the otherness of others. Bodily organizations are shaped in encounters in families and social and cultural institutions that they in turn shape. Kinds of bodies and kinds of bodily enactments are cultivated in different communities. They can be sources of conflict or sources of transindividual and transcultural becoming. In this article I look at some ways bodily meanings are developed in both families and communities. I use the image of Paladin, a fictional television gunslinger character in the 1950s, among others, to describe processes of embodied self-formation that are derived from the media and other extra-familial sources. I look at the polycultural organization of individual psyches in our era, as well as somatically based community conflict and collaboration. I briefly describe how practiced experiences of somatic organization can be used as tools for personal and communal exploration of new possibility.     

On a so‐Called Solution to a Paradox

The mooronic solution to the surprise quiz paradox says students know there will be a surprise quiz one day this week but they lose this knowledge on the penultimate day. This is because ‘there will be a surprise quiz one day this week’ then becomes an instance of Moore's paradox. This view has surprising consequences. Furthermore, even though the surprise quiz announcement becomes an instance of Moore's paradox on the penultimate day, this does not prevent the students from knowing the quiz is coming. I conclude that the first stage of the paradoxical argument succeeds and the mooronic solution fails.     

On Becoming a Psychoanalyst

This article traces an intellectual journey from a university environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under military dictatorship in the sixties, to becoming a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytic Society. The journey includes an M. Phil. in Social Anthropology from the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, followed by a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. Reading the classic texts of social anthropology, as well as Latin American writers and the Jewish classics, paved the way for an understanding of the world of others. Training in family therapy and ten years of clinical work in the NHS gave the clinical foundation required for the longed-for training with the British Psychoanalytic Society. From then on, the journey to becoming a training analyst is delineated, as well as the new challenges which this new phase has brought in the last ten years.     

On Being Lutheran In A Religiously Plural World

Abstract : For those of us who are self‐consciously Lutheran, the reality of contemporary religious pluralism engenders important theological questions. The thesis of this essay is that “being Lutheran” within the context of contemporary religious pluralism requires the creation of “Lutheran identity” that is pluralistic in structure, while simultaneously avoiding either theological exclusivism or theological inclusivism. The implications of this thesis are that (1) dialogue with the religious traditions of the world is of primary importance for thinking Lutherans, and (2) the church's witness and mission needs to be reconfigured in light of the practice of interreligious dialogue.     

The World Is a Necessary Being

Philosophia - A standard conception of metaphysical modality accepts that (i) Some de re modal claims are true, (ii) These should be understood in terms of a possible worlds semantics, and (iii)...     

On Becoming a British Psychoanalyst

This article describes a personal journey from social anthropology to psychoanalysis, first through training at the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1956 to 1964, then to becoming a Member and Training Analyst. I describe the development of a career involving the usual things a psychoanalyst is likely to do in addition to clinical practice: supervising students, participation in seminars and discussions with colleagues, teaching, writing, serving on various committees, being editor of a series of psychoanalytic books, and trips abroad to teach and to consult with colleagues about other points of view. This is the bare bones, but I also try to describe the development of some of my psychoanalytic views and attitudes, including a brief look at the British Society with an ex-anthropologist's eye.     

On Becoming a Cybernetician: Highlights and Milestones

In this article, I describe how I encountered cybernetics and how it became an important part of my life. I begin with an account of my time at Brunel University and also describe how I came to work with Gordon Pask, one of the few intellectuals and researchers in the UK who styled themselves as cyberneticians. To enrich my story, I include an overview of the story of cybernetics as I perceive it. Given the importance I attach to cybernetics as an intellectual tool, I end with a plea for it to be included in all educational curricula.     

On My Becoming a Psychoanalyst

I describe my experience of becoming a psychoanalyst in Germany between 1997 and 2002. The article combines my personal criticism of certain aspects of institutionalized psychoanalysis and some established procedures within psychoanalytic training, which underline the need for more evaluation and more transparency within the institutes and associations.     

Becoming and Being an Analyst in the British Psychoanalytical Society

The articles of Elizabeth Spillius and Jennifer Johns exemplify contrasting ways in which an analyst may form her psychoanalytic identity. She may recognize and accept a particular theoretical standpoint as valid, and form an analytic identity around that position. Or she may engage with a variety of viewpoints, and form an analytic identity through the interaction between these and her own internal self-experience. These approaches coexist in the British Psychoanalytical Society. There has been the potential for creative discussion between them, especially as regards their implications for analytic training. These six articles together, however, reveal how hard it has been for such discussion to take place. Spillius describes the disparity between the Society's three groups in relation to candidates' choice of supervisors, and I discuss this further. It seems to reflect an underlying difference in approach to psychoanalytic training, based on these different views of how an analyst's identity is formed. I suggest that the difficulty in debating this freely reflects a fear that opening up the issue might lead the Society to split. In 2005 the so-called Gentlemen's Agreement, which for 60 years governed group balance in the British Society, was formally abolished. In the light of this, I consider what is needed for a Society creatively to contain divergent philosophies of training.     

Prior Exposure to Creatures From a Horror Film

This experiment assesses the impact of two exposure strategies on children's emotional and cognitive reactions to a frightening movie scene. Children from two grade levels (kindergarten and first vs. second through fourth) received a desensitization treatment in which modeled exposure to a live earthworm was factorially varied with exposure to graphic photographs of worms taken from a horror film. Children then viewed a frightening scene involving worms taken from this same film. Results indicated that exposure to photographs increased children's enjoyment of the movie segment and reduced fear reactions to the scene. In contrast, the live exposure strategy was effective in reducing fear reactions to the movie only among boys. However, live exposure did alter children's affective reactions to and judgments of worms themselves. The findings are discussed in terms of current theories of desensitization and information processing.     

On Becoming a Tutor: Toward an Ontogenetic Model

Eight pairs of girls and 8 pairs of boys at each of three age groups (3, 5, and 7 years) took part in a three-phase investigation. One child in each pair was taught how to assemble a construction task by a computer-assisted tutoring system. That child then taught a peer of the same age and sex. After the peer-tutoring session, the child who had been taught by the peer attempted to construct the task alone. Predictions about age-related differences in the tutoring behavior of children at the three age groups were drawn from the literature on peer monitoring and children's theory of mind. The hypothesis that children's ability to learn a task correlates with both their instructional competence and their peer's learning received some support. The results also show significant changes in monitoring strategies, verbal instruction, and contingency of teaching at the three ages that are in line with hypotheses drawn from the theory of mind literature. The theoretical implications of the results in relation to connections between the ontogenesis of monitoring skills and theory of mind are explored.     

Seeing Me,Being Me,Becoming the Me I Want to Be

This article summarizes pertinent research on women's adult development and Dream formation, then examines the Dreams of six female psychotherapists in their thirties. Evidence of how these women's Dreams guided their adult professional and personal development is discussed and compared. Finally, recommendations are made for educational and counseling institutions in order that they may more effectively facilitate the articulation and constructive use of women's adult Dreams in their professional and personal lives.     

On Becoming a Religious Therapist in Chinese Culture

Pastoral Psychology - This essay will present an approach to psychotherapy in China that emerges out of Chinese literature and theology. We refer to it as Zhi Mian (i.e., facing life directly)...