Balint groups. A psychoanalytic critique

The author refers to two examples taken from the work of Balint groups in arguing that the social environment of the several participants is an integral component of what the group must reflect on. The notion of a group process dealing with "pure" cases is ideology. The author relates his argument to Parin's comments about "social critique in the interpretive process".     

The value of infant observation in the psychoanalytic training

The following case report is an attempt to describe how infant-mother observation is an exercise in a psychoanalytic mode of thinking and reacting, developing knowledge of object-relation theory. The aim of infant observation is not therapeutic; however, this paper suggests that it also might have a therapeutic side effect, creating mental space for the mother and thereby, helping her from becoming too engulfed by the intensive needs of the baby.     

Searching for the enriching sense of otherness: The psychoanalytic psychotherapist as a meaning-bearing other

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical and clinical examination of the patient's search for the otherness of the therapist as a prerequisite for change and development in relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A basic assumption is that being in a relationship as well as being a personal self, is to be understood, as being with a “meaning-bearing other”; that is, someone who allows for the possibility of meaningful thoughts and feelings, either through an actual communicative presence or as a consciously, prereflective, or unconsciously imagined communication partner. The term “meaning-bearing other” is used to differentiate distinct, although often synchronic, modes of relatedness. The need for intersubjective “depth”—that is, to discover the otherness of the other, and for oneself to be recognized as an experiencing subject—is regarded as a main motivational force. Winnicott's, as well as Sullivan's developmental approaches, Mitchell and Aron's views on psychoanalytic interaction, and Heidegger and Gadamer's phenomenology and hermeneutics are used as theoretical points of reference for the present discourse. The theoretical points of view are examined and discussed through excerpts from twice-a-week psychotherapy with a six-year old girl.     

Sanctioned social violence: A psychoanalytic view. Part II

This paper is the second in a series of two papers. In Part I, the first paper, the author reviewed the influence on the development of socially sanctioned violence of psychodynamics of group psychology and mass psychology, the regressive pull of ideologies, personality features of social and political leadership, and historical trauma and social crises. In this Part II, the author explores, from a psychoanalytic perspective, the dehumanization processes related to fundamentalist ideologies and terrorism.