DEN TÄNKANDE KROPPEN

In this paper, the author thematizes guilt through a reading of Camus' novel “The Fall”. The first part of the novel is presented as describing a state of mind in which the main character has not been able to become his own self, and this is conceptualised through Kierkegaard's concepts “sickness unto death” and “sickness of despair”. The second part of the novel is described as picturing a “fall”, i.e., the coming into being of a self that realizes itself and becomes conscious of its own guilt. This guilt is finally described through Freud's “scientific myth” of patricide, and the “nachträglich” realization of this ancient deed.     

Psychoanalyse mit Traumatisierten

Extreme and complex traumatisation represents a severe problem in today’s world. There is a need to develop treatment approaches that are efficient for traumatised persons who often live under very difficult circumstances. There are moreover certain societal conditions that are important for the treatment and rehabilitation of the traumatised patient. The paper will discuss how psychoanalytic therapy may be helpful for severely traumatised patients and what are the mechanisms of change in the therapeutic process. A focus is on how traumatic experiences are actualised in the transference and brings the analyst in a situation where enactments inevitably occur. It will be demonstrated how these processes may lead to symbolisation of these traumatic experiences. What are the therapeutic and societal preconditions for treating traumatised patients?     

Fundamentalist mindset

Fundamentalism has increasingly become a part of the political discourse in western countries and is to a large degree associated Islamic Jihadism. Fundamentalism has, however, been a concern in all religions, especially in Christianity where the term has its origin more than 100 years ago. Fundamentalism is also a concern in professional organisations and this paper starts with a discussion of the relation between fundaments and fundamentalist tendencies in psychoanalysis. This is then related to fundamentalism on a larger scale in religious and political contexts. A central question is how adherence to fundamentals, understood as basic principles for a profession or a religious-political movement, may develop into fundamentalism and how this again may develop into more violent forms. It is argued that fundamentalism develops in historical and societal contexts that involve oppression, atrocities and suffering that can set in motion unconscious processes and that these can attain expression and form in religious–political ideologies. These ideologies can give solutions by among others strengthening societal division and splitting and by identifying scapegoats. Psychoanalytic understanding of mass psychology and unconscious processes at group levels are developed to understand present Islamic and other forms of fundamentalist movements in the European context.     

Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual integration

That there is a lack of consensus as to how to decide between competing, at times even contradictory theories, and about how to integrate divergent concepts and theories is well known. In view of this situation, the IPA Committee on Conceptual Integration (2009–2013) developed a method for comparing the different versions of any given concept, together with the underlying theories and fundamental assumptions on which they are based. Only when situated in the same frame of reference do similarities and differences begin to appear in a methodically comprehensible and reproducible form. After having studied the concept of enactment followed by the publication of a paper in this Journal in 2013, we proceeded to analyze the concept of unconscious phantasy while at the same time continuing to improve our method. Unconscious phantasy counts among the central concepts in psychoanalysis. We identified a wide range of definitions along with their various theoretical backgrounds. Our primary concern in the present paper addresses the dimensional analysis of the semantic space occupied by the various conceptualizations. By way of deconstructing the concepts we endeavoured to establish the extent to which the integration of the different conceptualizations of unconscious phantasy might be achieved.     

Towards a better use of psychoanalytic concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment

It is well known that there is a lack of consensus about how to decide between competing and sometimes mutually contradictory theories, and how to integrate divergent concepts and theories. In view of this situation the IPA Project Committee on Conceptual Integration developed a method that allows comparison between different versions of concepts, their underlying theories and basic assumptions. Only when placed in a frame of reference can similarities and differences be seen in a methodically comprehensible and reproducible way. We used “enactment” to study the problems of comparing concepts systematically. Almost all psychoanalytic schools have developed a conceptualization of it. We made a sort of provisional canon of relevant papers we have chosen from the different schools. The five steps of our method for analyzing the concept of enactment will be presented. The first step is the history of the concept; the second the phenomenology; the third a methodological analysis of the construction of the concept. In order to compare different conceptualizations we must know the main dimensions of the meaning space of the concept, this is the fourth step. Finally, in step five we discuss if and to what extent an integration of the different versions of enactment is possible.