Preservation of global order equivalence

Psychological data frequently can only be gives rank-order significance. This paper investigates and characterizes those cluster methods suitable for use in such a situation. The work is carried out in an abstract order theoretic setting but a relation is shown to earlier models due to Jardine and Sibson as well as Matula. It deals with that portion of the clustering process that starts with a dissimilarity measure defined on a set P and produces a nested sequence of reflexive symmetric relations on P.     

Social Aspects of Sexual Boundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis: Responses to the Work of Muriel Dimen,edited by Charles Levin,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2021, 244 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

The Talking Cure as Action: Freud's Theory of Ritual Revisited

Freud made creative use of late Victorian theories of ritual as empty modes of behavior, using the idea of "seemingly meaningless" ritual to offer a compelling comparison with obsessive behavior. However, analytic hours, with their repetitive frame and repetition of unconscious conflicts, have stronger links with rituals than Freud admitted. Recent theories highlight the extensive power of rituals to organize and instantiate models of effective action, especially in terms of the multifunctionality of language. These new theories of ritual offer in turn new tools for understanding the therapeutic action of analytic hours.     

Freud’s Legacy and Modern Theories of Ineffable Trauma

Notions of ineffability, what cannot be put into words, vary depending on the historical and cultural context and, in particular, on shifting linguistic ideologies about the capabilities and limits of language. In recent decades psychoanalysts have embraced a modern notion of ineffability centered around traumatic bodily experiences that are thought to be inexpressible. However, these ideas break with Freudian ideas about language and, most importantly, with his understanding of the processes of interpretation that give meaning to both psychic pain and attempts to heal it. Contra Freud, current theories of ineffable trauma re-inscribe a dominance of the body over the psyche and over-simplify Freud’s ideas about the retro-determination of trauma.

     

Three Characters: Narcissist,Borderline and Manic Depressive,by Christopher Bollas,with Sacha Bollas,Phoenix Publishing House Ltd,Bicester, Oxfordshire, 2021, 76 pp

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -