New frontiers in psychoanalysis – in our international community

The paper discusses what the author calls “The seduction by the father”. It would occur when, in the Oedipus complex, the father reverses his role: instead of being the one who castrates, he seduces. Seduction here is understood in the sense that he does not act as the one who imposes limits to the child. Consequently the child can not project his hostile impulses onto the father.

Based on clinical data, the Author says that, in the male child, the seduction by the father hampers the transformation of the two Oedipal attitudes towards the father into identifications. The consequences of this fact upon the construction of the “nostalgia of the father's protection” are discussed, so as the transformation of this father into the symbolic father.     

Silent dialogues in the analytic relationship

Abstract

In borderline or even narcissistic patients, the relation to the objects is built on the basis of omnipotent control, so that those patients present difficulties related to mourning for the loss, as well as for the independence, of the objects. Their basic trait is a huge inability to recognize the separateness of others, together with an excessive use of primitive defense mechanisms, such as projective identification. Each experience that contains the danger of re-experiencing the primal separation poses an attack on the analytic setting, in order to avoid such a re-experiencing. Those attacks sometimes take the known form of acting out, whereas other times they are limited to a special use of speech, which lacks any communicational faculty and is used rather as a weapon. This special climate affects the analyst, causing specific countertransferential reactions. Nowadays, we tend to consider such a communication not mostly as an obstacle, but rather as an opportunity, allowing the analyst to comprehend the patient, through his countertransference, and create a meaning to replace the void those patients usually experience. The transference and countertransference enactments, their silent dialogues taking place in the analytic setting, are those which progressively give meaning in this primitive non verbal communication.     

The child's sense of existence and the fatal attraction of identification

This paper gives special emphasis to the widening and modification of the sense of existence in relation to the unconscious processes of identification. In our ‘post‐modern’ society there are some parents who, while taking care of their children, use subtle projective identification against them, so as to produce in them a sort of pathological introjective identification, which denies their Self. Ferenczi's thought, which deals with the sense of ‘not‐existing’ in some children, helps us to go into depth in understanding their difficulties and pathologies.     

Girls,their fathers,and their mothers: Patterned links to ambition and prohibition in women

Abstract

This paper explores the dilemmas women face when they strive to achieve. It is about why women have trouble with their own deeply held ambitions, how patterns of interaction with important others are internalized in their childhood years that render their own strivings for power unacceptable to them, and how this early sense of prohibition against achievement is reinforced by the larger social and cultural surround. I contend that these interdictions against success are held by the female both in and out of her awareness, and are evoked in situations that trigger pathogenic memories in ever more complex ways. I explore current concepts about gender and gender formation, in particular the ideas of Adrienne Harris articulated in her book, Gender as Soft Assembly. Two clinical cases are described in order to explore and illustrate these issues, one a child and the other an adult.

Estelle Shane. Mädchen, ihre Väter und Mütter: Verbindende Muster zu Erfolgsstreben und Verboten im Leben von Frauen.

Dieser Aufsatz untersucht das Dilemma von Frauen, die nach Erfolg streben. Es geht Frauen, bei denen die Wünsche nach Erfolg in der Tiefe verborgenen sind. Die Muster von internalisierten Beziehungen mit wichtigen Bezugspersonen aus der Kindheit verhindern, dass sie das eigene Streben nach Macht akzeptieren können. Dieses Verbot von Erfolgsstreben ist verstärkt durch die sozialen und kulturellen Verhältnisse in denen sie leben. Im Hin und Her zwischen Bewusstwerdung und Verdrängung der Konflikthaftigkeit von Erfolgsstreben, können Erinnerungen an frühere pathogenene Konflikte ausgelöst werden. Gängige Konzepte der Entstehung von Geschlechtsidentität werden untersucht, speziell die Ideen von Adrienne Harris aus ihrem Buch: “Gender as soft Assembly”. Zwei klinische Fälle werden zur Illustration untersucht, der eines Kindes und der eines Erwachsenen.

Estelle Shane. Las niñas, sus padres, y sus madres: Patrones ligados a la ambición y la prohibición en las mujeres.

Este trabajo explora los dilemas que las mujeres enfrentan cuando luchan por lograr. Trata del porque las mujeres tienen problemas con sus ambiciones más profundamente sostenidas, cómo los patrones de interacción con otros son internalizadas en sus años de infancia, y dan cuenta de sus propias luchas por el poder, inaceptables para ellas, y cómo esta sensación temprana de prohibición en contra del logro es reforzado por el ambiente social y cultural que les rodea. Estas prohibiciones en contra del éxito son sostenidas por las mujeres tanto con o sin conciencia y son evocadas en situaciones que apuntalan recuerdos patogénicos en formas más complejas. Exploro conceptos actuales sobre la formación del género, en particular las ideas de Adrienne Harris articuladas en su libro, Gender and soft Assembly. Dos casos clínicos son descritos para explorar e ilustrar estos aspectos, uno se trata de una niña y otro de una mujer adulta.     

Authentic leadership and its relationships with work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors in military units: The role of identification as a mediating variable

The objective of the study is to explore the relationship of authentic leadership with work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) in military units, measuring the mediating effect of personal identification with the leader and social identification with the military unit. We used the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique to analyze data from a sample of 225 Spanish military troops. The results showed that social identification with the military unit influenced the relationship of authentic leadership with the outcome variables.     

Everyday executive function in standard-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors

Although absolute pitch (AP) is a rare skill in typical development, individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are often referred to as possessing this musical ability. However, there is paucity of research on the topic. In this article, 2 studies were conducted to evaluate AP in WS. In Study 1, seven musically trained individuals with WS, 14 musically trained typically developing controls matched for chronological age, and 2 experienced musicians with AP completed a pitch-identification task. Although the task was a classical assessment of AP, it required participants to have musical knowledge, and the availability and accessibility of musically trained individuals with WS is very low. In Study 2, a paradigm suitable for evaluating AP in individuals without musical training was used, which made it possible to evaluate a larger group of participants with WS. A pitch memory test for isolated tones was presented to 27 individuals with WS, 54 typically developing peers matched for chronological age, and the 2 musicians with AP. Both individuals with WS and their controls obtained low results in the two studies. They showed an arbitrary pattern of response, and their performance was far from that of musicians with AP. Therefore, participants with WS did not appear to possess AP. Unlike what is usually claimed, results suggest that AP is not a remarkable ability in WS and that, as in the typically developing population, this musical ability is also rare in individuals with WS.     

Child psychotherapy: Converging traditions

In this paper I outline some of the ways in which I believe the psychoanalytic traditions in North America and in Great Britain are influencing each other. I identify points of convergence and divergence at this moment in the evolution of psychoanalytic theory and technique. I then point out some of the implications of relational perspectives in child psychotherapy as this perspective is developing in the United States.     

From exclusion to inclusion; supporting Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators to keep children in mainstream education: a qualitative psychoanalytic research project

This paper draws on my doctoral research study based on consulting work with three primary school Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) that took place in 2008. The study examined the interactions that arose in the consultations with the SENCos and their staff. The findings that emerged from the application of Grounded Theory research methodology showed that the consultant, the SENCos and the children for whom they were responsible all felt on the edge of school life. SENCos and their staff were subject on a daily basis to powerful projections from children who were unable to tolerate difficult feelings and they were at risk of becoming identified with these feelings. The consultant in turn was the recipient of powerful projections from the SENCos. These complex dynamics of projective identification are examined in the study. The question of how SENCos and staff can better support children on the edge of exclusion with these unregulated feeling states is discussed. It is proposed that senior management teams and policy makers are essential in putting the SENCo role more at the centre of schools, both physically and in terms of how it is perceived. The need for access to a consultant who can help SENCos to understand and process extreme feelings is recommended as a way forward.     

The Impact of Participatory Research on Urban Teens: An Experimental Evaluation

Although there is much practice of community-based participatory research in economically-developing countries and increasingly in North America, there has been little systematic assessment of empowerment effects. Youth-led participatory research holds particular promise for fostering positive development and civic participation among economically disadvantaged urban youth. The present investigation uses a clustered-randomized, within-school experimental design to test the effects of youth-led participatory research on the psychological empowerment of 401 students attending urban public schools. We find that attending a participatory research elective class during the school day was associated with increases in sociopolitical skills, motivation to influence their schools and communities, and participatory behavior. We found no significant effects for perceived control at school. The implications for participatory research and related youth development interventions are discussed.