Psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and politics during the First World War.

This article compares the therapeutic power used by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts serving in the German and Austro-Hungarian armies during World War I, and the ways in which their therapeutic techniques were related to governmental and military authority. When treating "shell shocked" soldiers, army psychiatrists were guided by nationalist commitment rather than concern for their patients. Whatever theoretical approach they took, they defined their therapeutic task as administrative intervention aimed to increase the docility of soldiers to the state and its military purposes. But violent means of coercion, designed to force neurotic soldiers back into duty, remained inefficient. Drawing from an alternative body of knowledge, army physicians influenced by Freud's writings, or trained in psychoanalysis, applied cathartic methods to treat the Central Powers' soldiers. Their approach was not only more humane, but also proved to be therapeutically more efficient.     

Interpersonal-relational psychoanalysis: An introduction and overview of contemporary implications and applications

Abstract

For half a century Interpersonal psychoanalysis has developed relatively independent of the tradition of Freud and his followers. The Interpersonal movement was founded by Harry Stack Sullivan, Clara Thompson and others who believed that the psyche could not be understood as an entity that evolves without input from the external environment. The Interpersonal view is that interactions between people influence every aspect of the individual's experience, and that no person can be studied without simultaneously noting the ongoing impact between the observer and the observed. This line of thought has led to conclusions concerning personality, psychopathology and clinical technique that depart from traditional psychoanalysis. The paper illustrates a number of these differences, emphasizing that the current emergence of the “two-person model” of the psychoanalytic situation offers a potential rapprochement between the Interpersonal and more classical views.     

Personality and politics: introduction to the special issue

This special issue of Journal of Personality brings together 10 original articles addressing the intersection of personality and politics. Articles build on classic traditions in political psychology by presenting both idiographic and nomothetic work on the motivational, cognitive, ideological, attitudinal, and identity correlates of many different aspects of political behavior. This work is used to understand political activism and leadership as well as everyday political behavior. We hope this collection of articles will inspire our readers to explore new investigations in personality and political psychology.     

Ethology and psychoanalysis

Ethology has sometimes been considered a distant, perhaps quaint discipline which on occasion has peripherally enriched psychoanalysis. In contrast to this, it is suggested that the evolution of ethology, which is barely seventy years old, has, to a remarkable extent, mirrored the development of psychoanalysis. A comparison is made between the classical instinct concept in psychoanalysis and the classical ethological concept of instinct; and a parallel between the fate of the concept in each discipline is drawn. It is further suggested that the dialectical relationship and complementary evolution between ethology and psychoanalysis stems from both disciplines having introduced into an explanatory model of human behavior an element that was innate, instinctual, genetic—in short, biological.     

Historiography and psychoanalysis

Abstract

The act of writing the history of psychoanalysis poses crucial questions with regard to the openness of society. This article examines the fundamental issues faced by researchers when they set about writing the history of psychoanalysis in a specific country. The significance of reconstructing features of the psychoanalytical practice is discussed. The opposition that exists between the current academic ideals and those of the psychoanalytic societies is outlined with reference to the changes that society has undergone, particularly during the past 30 years. In this context, the stance maintained by psychoanalysts with regard to psychiatry, academic psychology, and the university education of psychotherapists is defined. Government accreditation processes for psychologists and psychotherapists are likewise illustrated in the light of the opinions held by psychoanalysts at different moments in time.