‘You were not born here,so you are classless,you are free!’ Social class and cultural complex in analysis

The unconscious impact of differences in culture and social class is discussed from the perspective of an analyst practising in London whose ‘foreign accent’ prevents patients from placing her within the social stratifications by which they feel confined. Because she is seen by them as an analyst from both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the British psycho‐social fabric and cultural complex, this opens a space in the transference that enables fuller exploration of the impact of the British social class system on patients’ experience of themselves and their world. The paper considers this impact as a trans‐generational trauma of living in a society of sharp socio‐economic divisions based on material property. This is illustrated with the example of a patient who, at the point of moving towards the career to which he aspired, was unable to separate a sense of personal identity from the social class he so desperately wanted to leave behind and walk the long avenue of individuation. The dearth of literature on the subject of class is considered, and the paper concludes that not enough attention is given to class identification in training.     

The narrow use of the term ego in analytical psychology: the 'not-I' is also who I am

This paper(1) explores some aspects of the narrowness of Jung's usage of the term ego and the consequences which are understood to follow there from. Jung is understood to see the ego as a surface phenomenon and, essentially, as the focal point of consciousness, not recognizing its potential to function more broadly, deeply, and unconsciously. Furthermore, although he does recognize the ego as 'the total conscious personality' his use of the term frequently does not reflect that definition. Whilst Jung's analysis of the narrowly functioning ego is enlightening and groundbreaking, he treats this narrow functioning as if it is characteristic of the ego itself, ascribing any 'broad functioning' primarily to the Self. This narrow use of the term ego, and the corresponding use of the term Self, are understood to have significant consequences for clinical practice, including leading the analyst into an over-identification with the patient and a loss of the analyst's sense of self. It is also understood to lead to difficulties dealing with more disturbed individuals, to stuck and broken down analyses, to wear and tear on the analyst and, potentially, splits between the different schools of analytical psychology. These concerns all represent difficulties with working in the transference, and Jung's own experience of this is briefly explored.     

Who will Stir the Water for Us? A Pastoral Retrospective

This essay explores a parish-based pastoral counseling case with a terminally ill woman suffering from crippling memories of childhood trauma. The analysis of the case focuses on the mutual influence arising within relational field, the idealizing transference (Kohut) or archetypal projection (Jung) onto the pastoral caregiver, and the purposeful function of a symbol which arose spontaneously in the work. Recalling the ancient incubation rites of Aesculapius, the article concludes by suggesting parallels for illuminating modern approaches to psychological and religious healing.     

症状对临床决策重要性的哲学解析

症状是疾病所引起患者主观上的异常感觉或某些客观病态改变,是医师对患者进行疾病调查的起点,以症状为导向的诊疗模式更符合临床实践;充分了解患者症状,可以便捷、高效扩展医生的横向思维,而大型仪器的使用也是以症状学为基础,用来验证医生临床决策;医生最早接触的是患者的症状,因此,症状能更早提示鉴别危重患者,减少过度医疗;症状学是通向患者真实世界的途径之一,不仅能判断患者整体情况和病情转归,还是医学人文融入临床的落脚点。     

外侧缰核作用于抑郁的神经生理机制

本文旨在梳理国内外有关外侧缰核作用于抑郁神经生理机制的研究成果,以期为今后抑郁研究提供借鉴和参考。首先,阐明了外侧缰核的过度兴奋会加强对下游奖赏中心单胺能脑区的抑制从而诱发抑郁的内在通路。然后,进一步论述了介导外侧缰核过度兴奋的分子机制。最后,未来要重点以人类为被试,采用纵向设计,加强外侧缰核对抑郁的影响、作用机制及其性别差异的研究,同时考察遗传基因和环境在其间的调控效应等问题。     

陌生人印象偏好的实验研究

以80名大学女生为被试,在关系自我理论的框架下,采用移情研究的双时段范式,以实验法考察了关系自我和重要他人对于陌生人印象偏好的影响。结果发现：在无提示的条件下,与重要他人相似的陌生人得到更多的印象偏好;在有提示的条件下,这种由相似性而产生的偏好会显著降低。证明了重要他人对陌生人印象偏好的影响,并讨论了关系自我在其中发挥的中介作用。     

His mother-tongue: from stuttering to separation, a case history

This paper delineates the transference and countertransference experiences in the analysis of a patient whose presenting symptom and main concern was his stutter. I suggest that oral-sadistic rather than anal-sadistic hostile elements may be identified in this patient's particular stutter. I focus on its significance in terms of object relationship: my patient's struggle to 'get born', to emerge as a separate other. I argue that early symbiotic fusion needs in conflict with the need to separate produce his stutter. Speech and language are seen as the vehicle for separation and the stutter as a flight from separateness back to an illusion of fusion with mother.     

The transferential chimera: a clinical approach

The author presents four quite different clinical situations which he believes show the development of an aspect of the transference as a genuinely autonomous psychical neo-reality of the transferential inter-space, which, in the words of Michel de M'Uzan, he calls the transferential chimera. Basing himself on a reading of 'The psychology of the transference', he goes on to propose a more general application of this particular transferential dynamic whose origin lies in matriarchal incest and which develops around the alchemical quaternio of the cross-projective space of the transference-counter transference and in the analytic setting. Finally, he examines the four clinical situations in the light of this application of the transference in order to propound an understanding of his reading, and proposes a hypothesis for the constitution of the transferential chimera out of the intermingling of the de-integrated parts of the self of the analyst and those of the analysand.     

Undoing trauma: contemporary neuroscience. A Jungian clinical perspective

This paper uses insights from contemporary neuroscience and attachment theory to explore the profound dissociative defences associated with trauma. I discuss the effects of trauma on the emotional, intellectual and imaginative life of the individual and on the development of the self. Based on work with three patients with very different experiences of trauma, the paper offers clinical illustration of 'right brain to right brain' Jungian analysis. I argue that through repeated transference and countertransference experiences dissociative defences may be undone and change brought about.     

Is feminine masochism a concept worth reviving?

In this paper the author explores situations when a patient seems to regress masochistically from a progressive development. She is concerned with moments when the patient's struggle towards oedipal relating may be easily confused with a situation where the patient is only caught up with pre-oedipal conflicts and as a result the analyst might interpret in a way that pushes the patient backwards. The author revisits and focuses upon Freud 's classical concept of 'feminine masochism' as a particularly illuminating example of an element in the clinical picture which may alert us to this situation. She aims to show that, viewed as part of a developmental model, the concept of feminine masochism can offer the analyst a signal that the patient is fleeing from sexual oedipal conflicts. Reviving the concept may therefore be clinically useful in highlighting the regression from oedipal anxiety in situations where this might otherwise be missed .