A Lateral Reading of Religion: Christianity in Sister Relationships

Sociologists of religion continue to give precedence to parent–child transmission in studies on religion and family. In doing so, other kinds of family relationships that also influence religious beliefs and practices remain in the background. In this article, instead of using a vertical lens, religion in the family is approached through a lateral reading of sisters’ religious lives. Drawing on 13 biographical accounts, which included family diagrams and time-lines, conducted with adult women who identified as sisters and as Christian, this article examines the intersection of religion with practices of intimacy and social context. By looking laterally, this article explores the mutual shaping of religion and sibling ties and gives recommendations for the way this under-researched area can expand the sociological study of religion within families.     

Lateral display as a combat tactic in richardson's ground squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii

During fighting, adult ground squirrels frequently face each other laterally, arch the back, and piloerect the tail. In a diurnal species, such distinctive visual cues seem consistent with the suggestion that the lateral display serves a communicatory function. However, a detailed analysis of videotaped sequences of free-living Richardson's ground squirrels from two consecutive mating seasons suggested that the lateral maneuver has a functional role in combat. Because most agonistic encounters involve chasing, the rump is the principal body area bitten. When stationary, however, the opponent's rump is bypassed, and bites are targeted at the shoulders. Defensively, a hip thrust is used to block such attacks to the shoulder by pushing the opponent's head away. Offensively, the lateral maneuver is used to push against the opponent, providing a vantage point from which to lunge at the opponent's shoulders. In addition, the defender can launch counterattacks at the side of the head. The lateral orientation provides the attacker with a means of evading such attacks, by swerving laterally away. In some encounters, both the offensive and defensive variations of the lateral maneuver were used by both opponents, often simultaneously. Therefore, irrespective of the signalling function of the lateral display, much of its occurrence during combat can be explained in terms of its role as a combat tactic. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

From the Couch to the Street: Applications of Psychoanalysis to Work with Individuals Who Are Homeless and Mentally Ill

Current-day psychiatric treatment of severely disturbed populations tends to focus on the biological, behavioral, and social dimensions of rehabilitation. This paper addresses the relative neglect of the complex psychodynamic and interpersonal aspects of treatment of individuals who are homeless and mentally ill by presenting two clinical cases that are discussed from various psychoanalytic frames of reference. Based on their clinical experiences, the authors conclude that psychoanalysis offers valuable frameworks to guide the treatment process and the structure of the treatment setting for individuals who are homeless and suffering from severe psychiatric illness.     

Robbing a Man of His Illusions: Response to Herbert Fensterheim and Stanley Messer

The suggestions made by Fensterheim and Messer regarding increasing ego strengths and pointing out patterns of interaction were found to be useful ones in treating this angry patient. Some other interventions derived from an integrative perspective are also described. The author is still grappling with the problem of stripping this man of his illusions.     

Books Received

Includes brief reviews of the following books:
Analytical Psychology
Segal, R. A., Jung on Mythology.
Stevens, A., An Intelligent Person's Guide to Psychotherapy.
Von Franz, M-L., Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales.
Psychoanalysis
Geissman, C. & Geissmann, P., A History of Child Psychoanalysis.
Psychotherapy
Lomas, P., Personal Disorder and Family Life.     

A transitory homosexual passion in the course of an analytic treatment1

Do homosexualities express a sexual confl ict originating in bisexuality or must we look for their deep determinism in the narcissistic confl ict and its vicissitudes? Two clinical sequences from the treatment of a borderline patient, which occurred during years seven and eight of treatment, a period characterised by intense drive turbulence and the unexpected occurrence of a transitory homosexual passion, will enable the reader to follow the psychical movements and evolution of the work of representation. The fi rst sequence throws light on the links between her sudden involvement in this homosexual passion and the traumatic dangers of a breakdown of her ego's capacity for representation, linked to a reactivation in the transference of early and later traumatic traces whose reverberation in the transfero/countertransference dynamic was the source of a painful transference that was responsible for this lateral transference movement. The second sequence shows the links between the strengthening of her capacity for representation, thanks to the working through of the oedipal confl ict in its two aspects, and her renunciation of this passion. The roots of this transitory homosexual passion in the deep fl aws of her psychical functioning raise metapsychological questions concerning, in particular, the dynamic of the ‘double’(‘twin’) and narcissism.     

Self‐analysis and the development of an interpretation

In spite of the fact that Freud's self‐analysis was at the centre of so many of his discoveries, self‐analysis remains a complex, controversial and elusive exercise. While self‐analysis is often seen as emerging at the end of an analysis and then used as a criteria in assessing the suitability for termination, I try to attend to the patient's resistance to self‐analysis throughout an analysis. I take the view that the development of the patient's capacity for self‐analysis within the analytic session contributes to the patient's growth and their creative and independent thinking during the analysis, which prepares him or her for a fuller life after the formal analysis ends. The model I will present is based on an over lapping of the patient's and the analyst's self‐analysis, with recognition and use of the analyst's counter‐transference. My focus is on the analyst's self‐analysis that is in response to a particular crisis of not knowing, which results in feeling intellectually and emotionally stuck. This paper is not a case study, but a brief look at the process I went through to arrive at a particular interpretation with a particular patient during a particular session. I will concentrate on resistances in which both patient and analyst initially rely upon what is consciously known.     

AFFECT,SYMPTOM, FANTASY,DREAM: CLINICAL AND THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

A symptom being studied in the process of analysis can be seen as not unlike the unconscious affect it sprang from. The author presents a case in which a symptom, premature ejaculation, was analogous to the unconscious affect of guilt, which itself seemed to be a premature defensive transformation of a deeper current of anger. Guilt was interpreted as if it were a psychic premature ejaculation, a defensive derailment of anger. Fantasy and dream seemed to be engaged in similar transformations, with a fantasy of “premature incarceration” not unlike the symptom itself in its analogous functioning. Analysis of affect, symptom, fantasy, and dream in complex, integrative analytic process led not only to resolution of the symptom itself, but also to a deeper understanding of the mind's complex functioning in general.     

Working with and ‘seeing through’ the sexual transference in the psychotherapy of an adolescent boy

This paper explores the challenges and developmental opportunities of working with the sexual transference in psychotherapy with adolescents. Psychoanalytic contributions investigating the nature of adolescent sexuality and the developmental move from a narcissistic organisation to a capacity to form intimate relationships are reviewed, and the question of what happens when there is a lack of containment in infancy is addressed. The way in which unintegrated sexual impulses and phantasies can invade the therapeutic relationship is further discussed through the account of the weekly psychotherapy of a 16-year-old boy who formed a powerful sexual transference to his female therapist. The paper highlights how working through the sexual transference enabled this young man to face his developmental paralysis and begin to use the therapy as an opportunity for psychic growth.