The canary in the mind: on the fate of dreams in psychoanalysis and in contemporary culture

Dreams have been central in the birth and evolution of psychoanalysis. This paper explores the remarkable story of the relationship between dreams and psychoanalysis as a modern version of the long history of dreams in most healing traditions. But psychoanalysis seems to have turned away from dreams as central inspiration in a way parallel to the general culture’s turn away from dreams and the reality of inner life. Yet modern postindustrial culture is transfixed by a version of “dream life” in ways just beginning to be understood (e.g., in the transformation of ancient interest in the inner screen to the external screen). Working with dreams in psychoanalytic psychotherapy was a creative and revolutionary act for our forebears. It is even more so today, in ways that are discussed in this paper.Dr. Paul Lippmann is training and supervising analyst and faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute and faculty member of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He is also Director of the Stockbridge Dream Society.     

Self Psychology, Dreams and Group Psychotherapy: Working in the Playspace

This paper presents one leadership style within a self-psychological approach to working with dreams in group psychotherapy. It stresses an empathic attunement, the creation of safety, and an experience-near playful relationship. Playful is not used lightly here. It is used in the spirit of Winnicott's intermediate space where a mother suspends questions of what is real or not real and what is me and not me. Freud's analogy to a playspace forms a metaphor for the creation of a special atmosphere in a group, or for that matter in individual work as well, that encourages exploration, risk taking, and vulnerability. Working with dreams in this playspace deepens the curative process, not only for the dreamer, but for the entire group.     

Encountering the dream: Intersecting anthropological and psychoanalytical approaches

The human dream has been a central and contested therapeutic resource for the various schools of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. However, anthropology has been less concerned with human dreaming, though many anthropologists have studied indigenous peoples' dream theories as a consequence of the importance that such people gave to their dreaming. During the twentieth century there has been a fertile interaction between psychoanalytical approaches to dreaming and pertinent anthropological studies. This paper situates these interconnected disciplinary approaches to dreaming in the context of the historical development of thinking about culture and dreaming. The dream is considered as a multiple human resource. Discussion focuses on a fourfold approach to the dream: as therapeutic and existential encounter; as potential social knowledge; as cultural template; and finally as reflexive opportunity. Overall, the paper asserts the centrality of the dream as both a cultural and therapeutic resource.     

Schizophrenia,psychoeducation and group psychoanalysis: Contributions and limitations

Schizophrenia involves difficulties with aspects of relating that make traditional psychotherapeutic practices more difficult. Drawing on the observation of a psychoeducation group comprising 10 patients with schizophrenia (primarily paranoid schizophrenia) we highlight group processes that help show how the conduct of psychoeducational groups can benefit from a group therapy approach. In the research example discussed, we review a psychoeducation group which took place over a period of one year at a day hospital, facilitated by professionals trained in psychoanalytic group psychotherapy.     

Freud,Bion and Kant: Epistemology and anthropology in The Interpretation of Dreams

This interdisciplinary article takes a philosophical approach to The Interpretation of Dreams, connecting Freud to one of the few philosophers with whom he sometimes identified – Immanuel Kant. It aims to show that Freud's theory of dreams has more in common with Bion's later thoughts on dreaming than is usually recognized. Distinguishing, via a discussion of Kant, between the conflicting ‘epistemological’ and ‘anthropological’ aspects of The Interpretation of Dreams, it shows that one specific contradiction in the book – concerning the relation between dream‐work and waking thought – can be understood in terms of the tension between these conflicting aspects. Freud reaches the explicit conclusion that the dream‐work and waking thought differ from each other absolutely; but the implicit conclusion of The Interpretation of Dreams is quite the opposite. This article argues that the explicit conclusion is the result of the epistemological aspects of the book; the implicit conclusion, which brings Freud much closer to Bion, the result of the anthropological approach. Bringing philosophy and psychoanalysis together this paper thus argues for an interpretation of The Interpretation of Dreams that is in some ways at odds with the standard view of the book, while also suggesting that aspects of Kant's ‘anthropological’ works might legitimately be seen as a precursor of psychoanalysis.     

Sociology and psychoanalysis in the liberal arts

Abstract

This paper posits that an infusion of psychoanalytic concepts into the teaching of sociology in undergraduate liberal arts curricula offers a route to expanding students’ understanding of how self and society are entwined in a condition of mutual crisis in contemporary society. We argue that the liberatory project at the core of the liberal arts is served well by linking the critical perspectives found in these two disciplines. We provide as specific examples from our own teaching: (1) a demonstration of how Freud’s concept of neurosis has an affinity with Marx’s concept of alienation; and (2) a discussion of how the torture sequence in Orwell’s 1984 presents an inversion of a psychoanalytic treatment through which the power of propaganda is illuminated. We conclude that teaching the two disciplines in tandem helps students grasp how the self is a socially constructed entity and how the orthodoxies of neurosis and social control are available for critique and change.     

Fresh old news from Ferenczi about the function of dreams: The dream as a Kur,as a treatment and as a Gyógyászat

This article discusses a text on the function of dreams and their relation to trauma. Ferenczi intended to present this material as a talk at the 12th International Congress of Psychoanalysis, which was to take place in Interlaken, Switzerland the same year that he wrote it (1931). The entire conference, however, was postponed, and parts of this communication’s content appeared in other texts in which Ferenczi rethinks the concept of trauma and its clinical significance. In the present article the author makes use of the Freud/Ferenczi correspondence to contextualize Freud’s Hungarian follower’s originality regarding his theorizations about different aspects of the function of dreams. In the 1931 speech, as well as in this article, Ferenczi used a patient’s dream work as a clinical example of a process in which traumatic experiences and unmastered sensory impressions can be repeated to achieve a better working‐through for the dreamer. The process Ferenczi describes resembles an effort of self‐treatment, of self‐Kur.     

From Freud to the present day: difference,not knowing and its relation to psychoanalysis

In order to know and to understand we are often tempted to use defined models and theories. But catastrophe happens when you project models onto phenomena where they don’t belong. Difference exists and not all phenomena can be forced to reside within existing models. We can project our already known theories and ideas onto what we think we see through certain frames that we create but the cost may be dear. There is no one way to understand the unconscious and the psyche. Psychoanalysis is always open for revision and development. Old models can be broken and new thought created. The unconscious is an impossible yet generative resource. We need to stay open to not knowing – constantly look at the frame and stay alert to its constructed nature. We need our frame to work with the unconscious but not to the detriment of the spirit of that unconscious.     

Dreaming woman: Image,place, and the aesthetics of exile

Looking closely at an Argentine dream interpretation column published in a popular women's magazine from 1948 to 1951, this article examines the role of the dream image in shaping psychoanalytic discourse on femininity and national identity. The column, ‘Psychoanalysis Will Help You,’ emerged during Juan Domingo Perón's first presidency, featuring verbal interpretations written under the pen name ‘Richard Rest,’ as well as surreal photomontages by Grete Stern, a German‐born, Bauhaus‐trained photographer living in exile since 1936. While the column's Jungian text encourages readers’ adaptation to the external reality of their social situation, Stern's droll images emphasize the disjuncture between subject and environment, exposing tensions between the experience of exile and the Peronist mission to consolidate an Argentine national identity. Experimenting formally with European avant‐garde techniques, Stern presents femininity and nation as conflictive imaginary configurations. This theme resurfaces at the 2013 Venice Biennale, where Nicola Costantino's multimedia installation Eva – Argentina: A Contemporary Metaphor was exhibited alongside Carl Jung's Red Book. Formal contrasts between Stern's use of photomontage, Costantino's projection technique, and Jung's theory of mandala symbolism indicate the divergent ways in which their artwork posits the therapeutic function of the dream image, as well as the role of aesthetic production in psychoanalytic care.     

Regulation and standards for psychoanalysis: The place of the Other in psychoanalysis and its teaching

In numerous Western countries, psychotherapies have come under increasing governmental regulation. A more recent development is the increasing scrutiny given to psychoanalysis in the United Kingdom, in France, and in the United States. This paper examines a particular document that was created by four professional psychoanalytic organizations that are based in the United States. The document called Standards of Psychoanalytic Education aims to develop criteria that would guide accreditation and the organization of psychoanalytic institutes. The document is part of a set of concerns and actions related to the state regulation of psychoanalytic practice, its professional status, and the protection of those who seek its services. The essay examines the putative theoretical neutrality of this document by unfolding its tenets in terms of Lacanian psychoanalysis, a school of psychoanalysis that would take exception to many of the ideas suggested in the document's template for psychoanalytic education. The paper follows one line of argumentation throughout: what is the place of the Social Field, the Symbolic Other, within psychoanalytic process and as a recourse for professional legitimization that stands outside of psychoanalysis? As a practice of particularity, what relation does the discipline bear to other mental health fields and to the norms and knowledge systems of the mental health professions? Using a Lacanian orientation, two senses of the Other are discussed, and the specificity of psychoanalysis is asserted. This specificity is contrasted with some of the goals and constraints that are introduced by current approaches to regulation.      

A Comparison of the Evolution of Men's and Women's Dreams in Daniel Levinson's Theory of Adult Development

This article examines an important difference in the adult development of men and women never stated by Levinson, but implicit in his two books, The Seasons of a Man's Life (1978) and The Seasons of a Woman's Life (1996). The task of forming a Dream that generated a sense of vitality and excitement was central to Levinson's adult development theory in his book on men. Often occupational in nature, the men's Dreams were usually formed in their late teens and 20s. Yet, careful examination of the interviews in Levinson's last book reveals a dearth of vitalizing Dreams among his women subjects, including the career women, during the same period: None had long-term career goals and nearly all gave precedence to marriage and family. Development of individualistic animating Dreams was complicated by this a priori commitment, and usually delayed until the women's Age 30 Transitions (28–33), often provoking crisis then and subsequent instability.     

Ill-health in Sweden 2005: Discontent in a modern welfare society and its relation to globalization

Abstract

The growing ill-health in Sweden is related to the crisis of the welfare state and to globalization and the expansion of a new virtual reality affecting the conceptualization of time and space, as well as to wider areas of human interaction, thinking, and ethical judgment. Fear and anxiety are emotional states of mind that have widespread effects on an individual level as well as on the whole of society.     

虚拟现实暴露疗法在社交焦虑中的应用:效果、机制及展望

由于传统干预方法的诸多局限,虚拟现实暴露疗法(virtual reality exposure therapy,VRET)逐渐应用于对社交焦虑的干预,VRET是将虚拟现实技术与传统行为暴露治疗相结合而形成的一种新的干预方法。文章总结了VRET的三个发展阶段及其研究范式,述评了在VRET过程中的作用机制。未来研究可致力于设计更加自然的人机交互技术,实现技术与社交焦虑治疗的深度融合以及关注第三人称视角应用的作用及机制。     

Further evidence for the case against neuropsychoanalysis: How Yovell,Solms, and Fotopoulou's response to our critique confirms the irrelevance and harmfulness to psychoanalysis of the contemporary neuroscientific trend

In their paper “The case for neuropsychoanalysis” Yovell, Solms, and Fotopoulou (2015) respond to our critique of neuropsychoanalysis (Blass & Carmeli, 2007), setting forth evidence and arguments which, they claim, demonstrate why neuroscience is relevant and important for psychoanalysis and hence why dialogue between the fields is necessary. In the present paper we carefully examine their evidence and arguments and demonstrate how and why their claim is completely mistaken. In fact, Yovell, Solms, and Fotopoulou's paper only confirms our position on the irrelevance and harmfulness to psychoanalysis of the contemporary neuroscientific trend. We show how this trend perverts the essential nature of psychoanalysis and of how it is practiced. The clinical impact and its detrimental nature is highlighted by discussion of clinical material presented by Yovell et al (2015). In the light of this we argue that the debate over neuropsychoanalysis should be of interest to all psychoanalysts, not only those concerned with biology or interdisciplinary dialogue.     

Neuroscience,mind and meaning: an attempt at synthesis in a Relational Affective Hypothesis

This paper sets out a falsifiable Relational Affective Hypothesis, describing a neurological and relational pathway, through which affect and sensations arising from the interior of the body are translated, in a relational context, into language and a capacity for symbolisation. It describes the role of psychodynamic defences in narcissistic disorder, which can result in collapse in the function of this pathway. The hypothesis arose from clinical psychodynamic work with patients with severe and complex narcissistic disorders. They are characterised as severe, because they are at high risk of completed suicide and so are commonly treated in locked units, and complex because of their anorexic and bulimic eating patterns, tendency towards somatisation and the co-occurrence of autistic difficulties. A more or less profound failure of symbolisation is a feature common to these presentations. This interdisciplinary thinking offers a perspective on brain and psychological development, taking into account the complex interplay between genetic, environmental, relational and dynamic influences. It can be tested empirically and has implications for psychoanalytic thinking, psychiatry and neuroscience.