The relationship of the inner and the outer in psychoanalysis

What is internal and what is external according to psychoanalytic theory? This is a surprisingly complicated question. The terminology is often ambiguous and inconsistent as, for instance, in the use of terms like ‘object’ and ‘other’. The relationship between internal and external in psychoanalysis is analysed from a philosophical, concept analytical, developmental psychological, methodological and trauma versus internal dynamics point of view. It is argued that psychoanalytical writing is influenced by the authors’ need to create their personal psychoanalytic theory and language. This is seen as one of the main reasons for the terminological variety and ambiguity in psychoanalytic writing. It is also argued that one particular reason for difficulties concerning the internal–external terminology is the existential anxiety awakened by the threat of the essential aloneness of man. The consciousness of this has a tendency to fade and lead to unclear terminology. The importance of the transitional world as a resting place from the hard reality of this essential aloneness is emphasized. The transitional world is also seen as a necessary part of psychoanalytical practice, as an aid in striving for the truth and reality, important goals of psychoanalysis.     

Inner and outer empiricism in consciousness research

The very existence of a science of consciousness distinct from cognitive science requires that subjectivity be examined. Studies of subjectivity have occupied the religious traditions from time immemorial. While their language may be currently considered obscure, this paper suggests ways in which current consciousness science can enter into dialogue with these traditions.     

Enrique Pichon Rivière's conception of reality in psychoanalysis

The author places the subject of his paper in the context of the original views of a school of Argentinian psychoanalysts that differed from traditional conceptions of man and his 1 relationship with the sociocultural context – that is, with reality. These were the analysts who followed Enrique Pichon Rivière and further developed his ideas – namely, Madeleine and Willy Baranger, José Bleger, and David Liberman. The author begins his exposition with a discussion of Pichon Rivière and culture. He then offers an outline of Pichon Rivière's particular conception of man, followed by a section on the Internal Group as the nexus between the psyche and reality. Further sections address the idea of reality in the analytic situation as a dynamic field and the operative definition of the transference; the distinction between perceptual reality and the reading of reality, with a consideration of the notion of ‘critical judgement’; and lastly the issue of health and illness in terms of adaptation to reality. In addition, on the basis of a quotation from Antonio Damasio, the author draws a parallel between these psychoanalytic thinkers’ ‘psychosocial’ approach to man and the findings of contemporary neuroscience as presented by one of its paradigmatic protagonists.     

The role of reality testing in psychoanalysis: followup of 22 cases

As part of a prospective, longitudinal study of psychoanalytic outcome, 22 patients were evaluated for changes in their level of reality testing. These patients had been accepted for supervised psychoanalysis with candidates in training by senior analysts who had diagnosed them as neurotic. Psychological tests given prior to the beginning of analysis indicated, however, that more than one third of our sample demonstrated serious distortions in their perceptions of reality. When psychological tests administered one year after the completion of analysis were compared with these pretreatment tests, no significant improvement was found in the level of reality testing for the group as a whole. However, when excluding two patients who had suffered major traumas in the year following psychoanalysis, significant improvement in reality testing was found for the remaining 20 patients. Post-treatment interviews with the treating analysts revealed that in the course of analysis itself, approximately one third of these patients showed some disturbance in reality testing; only three of these patients showed significant improvement in the level of their reality testing during treatment. These findings suggest that while patients may not present clinically with evidence of impaired reality testing, such evidence may be available in psychological testing, and may become apparent in the course of the treatment.     

Inner and outer horizons of time experience

Human experience of temporal durations exhibits a multi-regional structure, with more or less distinct boundaries, or horizons, on the scale of physical duration. The inner horizons are imposed by perceptual thresholds for simultaneity (approximately equal to 3 ms) and temporal order (approximatly equal to 30 ms), and are determined by the dynamical properties of the neural substrate integrating sensory information. Related to the inner horizon of experienced time are perceptual or cognitive "moments." Comparative data on autokinetic times suggest that these moments may be relatively invariant (approximately equal to 10(2) ms) across a wide range of species. Extension of the "sensible present" (approximately equal to 3 s) defines an intermediate horizon, beyond which the generic experience of duration develops. The domain of immediate duration experience is delimited by the ultimate outer horizon at about = 10(2) s, as evidenced by analysis of duration reproduction experiments (reproducibility horizon), probably determined by relaxation times of "neural accumulators." Beyond these phenomenal horizons, time is merely cognitively (re)constructed, not actually experienced or "perceived," a fact that is frequently ignored by contemporary time perception research. The nyocentric organization of time experience shows an interesting analogy with the egocentric organization of space, suggesting that structures of subjective space and time are derived from active motion as a common experiential basis.     

Inner and outer face perception in children with autism.

Possible peculiarities in face perception in the autistic population were explored through two experiments. Fourteen autistic children (mean age=10 years 1 month) were individually matched to verbal mental age (VMA) and chronological age (CA) subjects. In a first experiment, subjects were to match faces on the basis of either their outer (hair, chin, ears) or their inner (eyes, nose, mouth) aspects. Autistic children performed equally well in both conditions, while VMA-matched children performed better in the outer than the inner part condition. In a second experiment, chimeric faces consisting of the outer part of an individual's face and the inner part of another individual's face were presented to the subjects. None of the groups showed a preference for neither the outer nor the inner part of the face in this condition. Results were discussed in terms of the existence of a local visual processing strategy in this population.     

War,revolution, and psychoanalysis: Freudian thought begins to grapple with social reality

Psychoanalytic theory and practice have been affected by external events as well as by internal development. Specifically, the period of the Great War and its aftermath was a turning point in the history of psychoanalysis. These experiences emphasized the inadequacy of the libido theory alone, accelerated Freud's impetus toward metapsychology, and encouraged the articulation of theories of innate destructive urges, of ego instincts, of the superego, and of social interaction. Discussionsof war neuroses, of aggression and the death instinct, of the reality principle, and of the mechanisms of social psychology undermined Freud's original biologism in favor of a social-scientific approach. Psychoanalytic theory began to take more account of social experience and was profoundly changed in the process.     

On the question of the patient's right to tell and the ethical reality of psychoanalysis

This paper calls into question the view that it is ethically legitimate for the patient to say whatever comes to his or her mind: that is, to adhere to the fundamental rule. While there have been some variations in the application of this rule since Freud's time, it remains for many the bedrock of clinical practice, and the patient's right to free-associate has never been questioned. Recent debates on the importance of the analyst's strict confidentiality have highlighted this right. Ethical problems raised by adherence to the fundamental rule are explored through an examination of the general ethical limitations on what one may say to another person, and the special features of the analytic relationship that seem to do away with these limitations. The fact that there are ethical questions about adherence to the fundamental rule draws attention to what the author calls the ethical reality of psychoanalysis. The recognition of this reality has implications for the understanding and handling of ethical dilemmas regarding disclosure, as well as for other ethical issues that may arise in the course of an analysis.     

Inner and outer voices in the present moment of family and network therapy

Dialogue in the polyphony of inner and outer voices in the present moment of family therapy is analysed. In Western Lapland a focus on social networks and dialogues in the meeting with families has proved to be effective in psychotic crises.     

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.