Robert Waelder on psychoanalytic technique: five lectures

Biographical information regarding Robert Waelder is readily available (Guttman, 1986), and this is not the place for it. The following is a rare and direct example of his "old-fashioned" teaching. "Old-fashioned" and "conservative" are criticisms often leveled at Waelder these days. Yet, "Old-fashioned is not precisely the word for Waelder.... He was a conservative in the best sense, as his later writings continued to prove, one who would not relinquish what is good for the sake of the supposed 'ideal' situation imagined by those restless for change. This was his ethic, and his conservatism was entirely humanitarian. He refused to idealize 'human nature' and tried to preserve the realism of his clinical sense in matters beyond the clinic" (Lewin, 1968, p. 9).     

Basic Theory of Psychoanalysis by Robert Waelder

Abstract

This study was designed to explore selected personality features of patients that are associated with clinicians’ judgments about whom to refer to dynamic group psychotherapy versus individual therapy. Results suggested that an aspect of patients’ adult attachment style, namely level of confidence and level of hostility, may have influenced the clinicians’ judgments and decision making about treatment referrals.     

Psychoanalytic application and psychoanalytic integrity

In this article, the author offers an analysis of psychoanalytic application, defined as the breaking of new conceptual ground in some field of knowledge whereby the new idea is conceived, and later articulated, with the aid of reference to analogous phenomena in psychoanalysis. It requires apt analogy based on competent understanding of the applied field and of psychoanalysis. Only when the relevant differences between the applied and psychoanalytic fields are grasped can the extent of certain parallels emerge. The thinking by analogy that comprises psychoanalytic application may be intuitive and implicit, but should be susceptible of explicit theoretical elaboration that specifies, precisely, the point(s) of correspondence between psychoanalysis and the applied field in relation to a precise specification of their relevant differences. Applied psychotherapy at the interface of the internal and external worlds (historically rooted in casework) is employed as a model. By analogy with Donnet's concept of the analytic site, the author proposes the concept of the psychodynamic (case)work site, and elaborates it for that applied field in order to elucidate the proposed principles of psychoanalytic application.     

From political philosophy to social theory

Critical accounts of the origins of sociology stress both continuity and change as they are related to previous styles of political and social thought. This article further extends these accounts. It analyzes substantive as well as formal continuities and changes in the transition from political to social conceptions of order. Both intellectual and societal factors are responsible for this theoretical transition. Explicitly political and social conceptions of order reflected two stages in the development of European society. But purely internal, intellectual factors, involving the refinement of empirical analysis, called into question political theories of society. Finally, the article makes explicit and defends the distinction between bourgeois and Marxist varieties of theoretical reflection with reference to the transition from political philosophy to social theory.     

Isakower-like experience on the couch: a contribution to the psychoanalytic understanding of regressive ego phenomena

Since Isakower's original contribution of 1938, Isakower phenomena have been viewed as primitive experiences involving maternal breast, womb, and face imagery. This clinical report harks back to the less well-known hypothesis with which Isakower concluded his paper: he suggested that these perceptual experiences are related to childhood oedipal masturbatory fantasies at the time of going to sleep. In this paper four Isakower-like phenomena experienced by a patient on the couch are reported in the dynamic context in which they occurred. It is argued that these phenomena constitute a type of regressive ego experience that defends against oedipal conflict.     

Transitional phenomena, projective identification, and the essential ambiguity of the psychoanalytic situation

Ambiguity, which is an intrinsic and essential aspect of the psychoanalytic situation, is related to the concepts of transitional phenomena and projective identification. The analyst's feelings of uncertainty that accompany this ambiguity are contrasted with a "pathological certainty." The consequences of the loss of ambiguity and the role of the analyst's countertransference in this process are described.     

Correction to: Rational social and political polarization

Philosophical Studies - In the original publication of the article, the Acknowledgement section was inadvertently not included. The Acknowledgement is given in this Correction.     

Bringing critical social psychology to the study of political polarization

The study of political polarization, in both its ideological and its affective expressions, has garnered significantly more interest over the last years. But despite recent research on the conceptualization, measurement, causes, and consequences of this socio-political phenomenon, and some tentative interventions to mitigate it, relevant new avenues remain surprisingly underdeveloped. Indeed, scholarship in the field of political polarization, mainly in the case of affective polarization, frequently uses cognitivist approaches to make sense of the growing antipathy between different social and political groups. However, the bulk of this work seems to overlook valuable insights into the psychology of intergroup conflict, stereotyping, prejudice reduction, and discourse studies. The aim of this paper is to underline the main gaps in the political polarization literature, to subsequently argue how knowledge linked to the tradition of critical social psychology can help in filling them. Ultimately, the article aims to contribute to the psychosocial study of political polarization and to the design, if necessary, of interventions to counter its detrimental consequences.     

Rational social and political polarization

Philosophical Studies - Public discussions of political and social issues are often characterized by deep and persistent polarization. In social psychology, it’s standard to treat belief...