Bureaucracy and creativity: do they make companionable bedfellows?

This essay will look at the benefits and weaknesses of the increasingly bureaucratic nature of training structures and processes in the training of Jungian psychotherapists and analysts. The author will draw on her experiences during two different periods of time as Director of Training at the Society of Analytical Psychology in London with observations on and discussion about some of the changes that have evolved. By way of contrast, she will offer some comparisons with developments in the training of Jungian analysts in countries with little or no legacy of an analytic culture. Here, there is a need to professionalize training in Jungian analysis but the attendant growth of bureaucracy can easily come to echo the politics of non‐democratic regimes.     

The construct of the ‘mana personality’ in Jung’s works: a historic-hermeneutic perspective. Part I

According to Jung, the ‘mana personality’ represents an archetypal phase of the individuation process of remarkable interest in psychological, hermeneutic and theoretical terms. This figure is characterized by a high initiatic potential that fosters the approximation of the consciousness of the Self. At the same time, it entails a risk of psychic inflation or of ‘similarity to God’. In this article, divided in two parts, I deal with those aspects through a reconstruction of the development of this notion within Jung’s published works, adopting a primarily chronological and, secondarily, thematic approach moving from a textual analysis of relevant passages. In this first part, I consider some passages which deal mainly with the risks of the assimilation of the unconscious in ‘La structure de l’inconscient’ (1916) that preceded the successive proper treatment of the mana personality’s notion presented, and here examined, in ‘The relations between the ego and the unconscious’ (1928). Successively, I take into consideration some further issues related to it discussed by Jung in ‘The structure of the psyche’ (1928/1931), ‘Archaic man’ (1931), and ‘Nietzsche’s Zarathustra’.     

Lay counselors: Thoughts on the crossing of ecological frameworks and the use of lay counselors in the scale up of early infant mental health interventions

The recent call for the scale-up of evidence-based early childhood development interventions, in lower and middle-income countries and for minority groups in high-income countries, has seen numerous suggestions to train greater numbers of lay mental health workers to fulfill these functions. While studies have found that concepts from developed country settings, such as attachment, parental sensitivity, and containment, find purchase and relevance within developing settings, the management of contextual and cultural factors and the tensions of cultural interfacing in the rollout of these programs in developing country settings require consideration. Drawing on the experiences of two successful South African mother–infant home-visiting programs as examples, this article discusses some of the challenges in provision of attachment-based infant mental health programs and highlights the need for careful consideration of a number of factors pertaining to the recruitment, supervision, and management of lay mental health workers before large-scale rollout is conducted.     

Oedipal aspirations and phallic fears: on fetishism in childhood and young adulthood

The main theoretical position on fetishism remains that outlined by Freud, the splitting of the ego and castration anxiety being central to the establishment of the fetish. The dangers and attractions of an oedipal resolution are outlined in the case of 'Stanley', an older adolescent whose nappy wearing, transvestism and obsession with pregnant mothers and their babies brought him to therapy. The paper demonstrates some of the technical difficulties in such work, the slow ego-structuring that is necessary, the patient's swift perception of danger at any failure of attunement by the therapist and subsequent flight to the perverse defence, and the impetus that acceptance of oedipal gain may bring to development. Die wesentliche theoretische Position bezüglich Fetischismus bleibt die von Freud umrissene, dass Ichspaltung und Kastrationsangst bei der Etablierung des Fetischs zentral sind. Es werden die Gefahren und Anziehungspunkte einer ödipalen Lösung im Fall von 'Stanley' dargestellt, einem älteren Jugendlichen, den sein Windeltragen, Transvestismus und Besessenheit mit schwangeren Müttern und ihren Babies zu Therapie brachte. Der Artikel zeigt einige der technischen Schwierigkeiten in solch einer Arbeit, das langsame Ich-strukturieren, das notwendig ist, die schnelle Gefahrenwahrnehmung des Patientens bei jeglicher Missanpassung des Therapeutens und die darauffolgende Flucht in perverse Abwehr, und den Antrieb, den das Akzeptieren des ödipalen Gewinns zur Entwicklung bringen kann, auf. Des conceptions théoriques du fétichisme, la plus connue reste encore celle proposée par Freud, dans laquelle le clivage du moi et l'angoisse de castration sont à l'origine de la mise en place de l'objet fétiche. Les dangers et les charmes d'une résolution ?dipienne sont esquissés à travers le cas de û Stanley ý, garçon en fin d'adolescence qui entreprend une thérapie en raison de certains de ces comportements?:?il aime porter des couches, il se travestit et il est obsédé par les femmes enceintes et leurs bébés. L'auteur souligne quelques-unes des difficultés techniques posées par ce travail, la lenteur avec laquelle il faut laisser se structurer le moi, la perception rapide par le patient d'un danger imminent dès que sa thérapeute n'est plus tout à fait en accordage avec lui, sa fuite alors vers une défense perverse, et la stimulation que l'acceptation des enrichissements ?dipiens peut entraîner pour son développement. La posizione teorica principale sul feticismo resta quella illustrata da Freud, secondo la quale la scissione dell'Io e le ansie di castrazione sono determinanti alla formazione del feticcio. I pericoli e le attrazioni di una risoluzione del complesso edipico sono illustrate nel caso di 'Stanley', un tardo adolescente arrivato in terapia perche' usava i pannolini, si travestiva e aveva un' ossessione per le donne incinte e i loro bambini. L'articolo tratta di alcune delle difficolta' tecniche in questo tipo di lavoro, della lenta e necessaria ricostruzione dell'Io, della rapida percezione del pericolo del paziente quando egli sente una mancanza di sintonia con il terapeuta e la conseguente fuga verso difese perverse, e dell'impeto che l'accettazione dei vantaggi edipici possono portare allo sviluppo.     

Attachment representations in school-age children: the development of the child attachment interview (CAI)

This paper introduces a new measure of attachment in middle childhood (8?-?13 years), an interview extensively adapted from the AAI and with a new coding system. We report data from a series of studies with clinical and normal populations, in which the psychometric properties of reliability, stability and validity are tested and found to be satisfactory. Although work remains to be done, we see the Child Attachment Interview as a promising new attachment measure. Ce texte présente un nouvel instrument d'évaluation de l'"attachement" chez les enfants entre 8 et 13 ans. Adaptation considérablement remaniée de l'Entretien d'Attachement chez l'Adulte, cet "Entretien" est doté d'un système de codage entièrement nouveau. Les auteurs rapportent les données de plusieurs études portant sur des échantillons cliniques et normaux, dans lesquelles les propriétés psychométriques de fiabilité, de stabilité et de validité ont été testées et trouvées satisfaisantes. S'il est encore à amèliorer, l'Entretien d'Attachement chez l'Enfant s'avère déjà être un nouvel instrument d'évaluation à perspectives fort intéressantes. Questo articolo presenta un nuovo strumento di misurazione dell'attaccamento per il periodo dell'infanzia dagli 8 ai 13 anni, un metodo di intervista in gran parte preso dal AAI con un nuovo sistema di decodifica. Vengono riportati i dati derivati da una serie di studi su una popolazione normale ed una clinica, nei quali le variabili psicometriche di affidabilita', stabilita' e validita' sono state testate e ritenute soddisfacenti. Sebbene resti del lavoro da fare, gli autori ritengono che lo strumento del Child Attachment Interview sia promettente per misurare l'attaccamento. Dieser Artikel gibt eine Einfährung zu einer neuen Messung von Bindung in der mittleren Kindheit (8?-?13 Jahren), ein Interview, das ausgiebig vom AAI (Erwachsenen Bindungsinterview) angepasst und mit einem neuen Kodierungssystem versehen wurde. Wir berichten von einer Reihe von Studien mit klinischen und normalen Populationen, in denen die psychometrischen Eigenheiten von Verlässlichkeit, Stabilität und Validität getestet wurden und sich als befriedigend erwiesen. Auch wenn noch viel Arbeit geleistet werden muss, sehen wir doch das Kindbindungsinterview als eine vielversprechende neue Messung von Bindung.