Obituaries

Obituary notices for:
James Seddon (1 June 1920–9 January 1999)
Elizabeth Osterman (27 July 1919–3 July 1998)     

Tattoo and taboo: on the meaning of tattoos in the analytic process

Tattooing projects a visual image in transference to form a backdrop for the most salient unconscious inner conflicts arising during an ongoing analytic process. Like a snapshot, the tattoo is a dialectic record of the mother-father relationship, of desires for closeness and distance, commonality and difference, identification and individuation. As Walter Benjamin famously stated about the nature of visual images in his Arcades Project, the tattoo represents "dialectics at a standstill." What seems paramount to the patient who participates in the act of tattooing is the need for stasis and immutability, as if bringing unconscious conflicts to "standstill" were to deliver a sense of stability. Unconsciously, the need is triggered by a threat to the inner stability resulting from fear of violating a taboo escalating to the point that fears of abandonment and fusion become unbearable. On the one hand, the tattoo is a visual symbolization of a taboo transgression; on the other hand, it activates the same through an act of self-injury that resembles the magical ritual acts of indigenous peoples' use of tattoos. The taboo thus serves as an ersatz for the actual violation of the taboo in real life, so that the tattoo may be ascribed a magical significance or totemic function. And yet the tattoo's success as a vehicle for constructing a transitional object is always contingent on the tangible manipulation of the skin conjoined with the creation of a symbolizing visual image. The image then acts like a "patch" to repair holes blown into Winnicott's "potential space" and to reconstruct it.     

Comparing a narcissistic and an autistic retreat: 'looking through or at the window'

In this paper I discuss two different forms of psychic retreats that I encountered in the treatment of a patient who suffered from two traumatic experiences: the loss of his mother when he was 2 years old and his 'near-death' experience when he was five. In the parasitic narcissistic retreat, using intensive projective identification enabled him to create an impasse in the form of a 'high tide - low tide' scenario in which alternating hope and disappointment kept the process going, yet paralyzed development. The autistic retreat, for its part, led to the collapse of projective identification mechanisms, dismantling and disrupting the transference/countertransference negotiations. The emerging state of non-communication and 'near death' seemed to act as a protection against the unbearable pain of abandonment and desolation.     

Cultural function and psychological transformation in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy

Cultural experience of silence and individual vicissitudes between talking and being silent infl uence the way individuals form an alliance and pursue the analytic process. This is of relevance both for the patient and for the psychoanalyst/therapist. The author describes a patient, whose silent phase occurred in the fi fth and sixth year of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She suggests that a) the silence functioned as a protection of a space for the core self and promoted inner transformation and psychologicaldevelopment;b)thesilenceinvolvedatransference-countertransference matrix with projective identifi cations of the patient's internalized mother- and father-related objects that caused a tenuous balance between maintaining and erasing the relationship between the patient and the author; c) the silence phase was highly infl uenced by the author's own cultural background and what she brought into the relationship of tolerance of being silent in the presence of another, and understanding of the many complex functions of silence. During the silent phase the patient moved from simply describing and naming her affects and inner experiences or expressing them as somatic processes, to being able to internally access and verbally convey her own affects and experiences in the therapeutic alliance. This process involved both affect desomatization, affect differentiation, and affect verbalization.     

‘The newspaper reader’: On the meaning of concrete objects in a psychoanalytic treatment1

The author investigates the meaning of concrete objects in the psychoanalytic treatment of a severely disturbed patient for the development of his inner world and the analytic process. She includes a survey of relevant theoretical concepts with an emphasis on Winnicott and Bion. It is shown that the objects served basic defensive functions both within the analytic relationship and for the precarious intrapsychic state of the patient. The author describes the technical dealing that led to a structural change. From the comparison of the initial dream and a later dream, Mr N's inner development from total inclusion in the object to triadic reality of separated, repaired objects becomes discernible. The author shows how this progress was facilitated by his use of concrete objects as links between his psychotic and non‐psychotic parts, as well as by the specifi c way the analyst handled the paradoxical transference‐ countertransference. She also illustrates the thesis that the developmental steps described are crucial for the capability to digest psychic pain by symbolization instead of discharging it in a destructive‐violent way.     

Racial fantasies and the primal scene of miscegenation

The primal scene, theorized by Freud in his case history of the Wolf Man, is a fantasy scenario thoroughly embedded in social relations. While pursuing his analysis of oedipal structures in the Wolf Man's case history, Freud overlooked social relations, downplaying the importance of racial and class difference in the Wolf Man's sexual etiology. In this essay, I trace the circulation of two fantasy structures: 'the primal scene of miscegenation' and 'A black man is being beaten,' both of which structure desire in both Freud 's era and our own. I interpret Fanon's work on racial subjectivity alongside Freud 's theory of fantasy to elucidate the interconnected nature of racial and sexual difference in both Freud and Fanon's theories. The racial fantasies proposed in this essay have application to clinical settings, where they may structure transference and countertransference.     

The analyst and analysand as citizens in the world

Beginning with Jung's reflections on individuation as a starting point, this article examines the analytic relationship in the context of our current reality. The latter exerts pressures of all sorts that do not favour individuation. Indeed, geopolitical commentators see present‐day society as marked globally by excessive self‐love that seeks to dominate, at the expense of the other. Given that such forms of dominance are now also very prevalent in the workplace, this article examines how to help the increasing number of individuals with highly successful professional careers who suffer from this pressure and who then seek analysis. ‘Progressive movement’, an indicator of and incentive to change, is examined by studying the narrative processes emerging from dream activity ‐ including dreaming with the hands in the sand tray ‐ in the co‐transference. The article highlights how ‘progressive movement’, founded on narrative Competence and on the reflective function, may generate experiences of ‘realistic hope’. The latter signals the start of an individuation process in the analytic couple and, simultaneously, the transformation of both the analyst and the analysand into good enough ‘citizens in the world’.     

Interpretation: signals from the analytic field and emotional transformations

Through numerous clinical examples and from a point of view focused on field theory the author reflects upon what are the main characteristics of ‘transformative interpretations’ and upon the mental and affective conditions that support it. He especially centers his attention on difficult patients who have experienced cumulative affective traumas in their lives.     

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.