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"Fathers" and "Daughters".
This article begins questioning, and yet also making use of, the concept of the father, examining the theoretical space of fathers and fathering in psychoanalytic theory in the light of contemporary gender theory. Using memoir and clinical vignettes, the essay examines the experience of the father in early childhood, the paternal body, the experience of the father through the imagination of others, the father in oedipal and post-Oedipal life for a daughter, fathers and daughters in psychoanalytic history, and the particular traumatic effects of dangerous and absent fathers.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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A Course on the Supervisory Process for Candidates ... and Supervisors: An Attempt to Address Inconsistencies in Psychoanalytic Education and the Fundamental Paradox of Psychoanalytic Training.
The author describes the content of a course on The Supervisory Process he has taught candidates for three years. He offers a rationale for the course in the context of the lack of training in supervision, inconsistencies in the approach to psychoanalytic education and a lack of appreciation for what he sees as a fundamental paradox in the training process. With the help of candidates'feedback he discusses how the course begins to address the problems he outlines. He describes the Swedish model for training supervisors and concludes with a discussion of the potential benefits to the field of adopting a similar program.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Anxiety in Psychoanalytic Training From the Candidate's Point-of-View.
The effectiveness of analytic practice and technique essentially depends upon the personal capability of the analyst; indeed, it is only through this person in practice that analysis can have an effect. Therefore, the person, as a whole, is trained and evaluated. During the period from 1997 to 2003, the Transparency Commission of the German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV) carried out a comprehensive study of its own training institutions, which also included a survey of former candidates regarding their experiences in training. The results of this study serve as the basis for an overview of the anxieties experienced by candidates in training. With the help of the distinction in the theory of science between connotative and denotative theories (J. A. Schulein, 1999, p. 322f), it can be assumed that psychoanalysis, at the level of its practical application, is an abundance of person-related concepts. There are limits to the evaluation of such person-related competence on the basis of objective criteria. This has certain implications for psychoanalytic training, which, in spite of efforts to the contrary, inevitably leads to the development of specific anxieties. Suggestions are developed that can help to make unconscious structures and related unconscious acting out in the training, especially under the influence of idealizations, more transparent, and thereby alleviate the build-up of anxieties that hamper an optimal learning and development process. Application of the psychoanalytic method to the group process and organizational structures is especially useful.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Becoming a School: Developing Learning Objectives for Psychoanalytic Education.
Data collected from multiple psychoanalytic institutes in the United States. indicate that the lack of clear guidelines for progression and graduation compromises psychoanalytic training in many ways (Cabaniss, Glick, and Roose, 2000). Educational research suggests that learning objectives and clear assessment tools can help to demystify education, guide curriculum development, clarify standards for the field, and prompt research (Gardner, 1995, 1999; Wiggins and McTighe, 1998; Wiske, 1998). This article outlines the process by which the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research undertook to operationalize objectives for learning in clinical psychoanalysis and to develop and use a standardized supervisory assessment tool. It further outlines the multicenter project on supervisory assessment that has evolved from this effort that now involves 4 psychoanalytic institutes in North America.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Discussion Group on Writing About Your Analytic Work in a Case Report.
At the Spring 2004 meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a group of psychoanalysts assembled at a discussion group on writing about the psychoanalytic process. The Chair and two of the Co-chairs are former members of the Certification Committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association. The discussion group has been scheduled at each meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association for the last eight years. At each workshop, an analyst presents a written description of an analysis that he or she conducted. The discussion group that follows addresses the writing techniques that were used to convey to the reader what happened in the psychoanalysis. This meeting was especially illustrative of many of the ideas on writing about the psychoanalytic process that have evolved at the workshops. The Chair, Stephen Bernstein, and the Co-chairs, Jonathan Palmer, Arthur Rosenbaum, and Melvin Bornstein, felt it would be of value to convey the interchange that occurred in order to demonstrate the evolving ideas about clinical writing. Because the proceedings of the meeting were not recorded, they thought that the sense of the what occurred could be communicated if they transcribed a repeat of the workshop during a conference call where they tried to recreate the proceedings of the meeting. The following is an edited description of the discussion.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Discussion of Contributions to Psychoanalytic Inquiry Issue on Analytic Writing.
The article discusses the tasks of analytic writers. It notes that the job of an analytic writer is to interpret the situation clearly and that it would give readers understandable and detailed information including an imaginative overview of what truly signified. The article also showcases a detailed summary regarding the topic which includes discussions and criticisms of several analytic writers and their work.
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Discussion.
This discussion of the articles that make up “The Writing Cure: The Effects of Clinical Writing on the Analyst and Analysis” raises issues about the wisdom of seeking a formula for case report writing, both because formulas do not help people write well and because the formula proposed predetermines what is important in an analysis and how to present that. The discussion also considers the process of certification, for which reports are written, and raises issues about how certification is conceptualized and instituted currently.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Discussion.
The article presents the analyzes of psychoanalytic education problems based on different educational research. It categorizes research based from those that deal with general problems on institutional structure and educational methods, and those that focus on psychoanalytic education's specific aspect particularly the experiment and supervision of shuttle analysis.
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Discussion.
The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one which describes a course on supervision for candidates and another on shuttle analysis.
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Does Anything Go in Psychoanalytic Supervision?
The supervisory situation should provide conditions in which learning can develop and the candidate can integrate his personal and professional experiences, theoretical knowledge, and his personality for a competent participation in and handling of the psychoanalytic situation. The supervisory process is a very complex one, influenced by many factors, among these the personality of participants, their previous experience, the structure of the training organization, and the fact of multiple determination, as well as the inherent ambiguities such as autonomy/subordination and openness in face of being evaluated and assessed. The supervisor has to establish a working platform differentiating his or her own motives from the manifold, and often conflicting, interests of all participants (analysand, analyst, supervisor, Institute—that is, “the extended clinical rhombus,” Szecsody, 1990, p. 10). The necessity to study how supervision is conducted, as well as to train supervisors, is emphasized.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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EPILOGUE.
The article presents an epilogue to various issues related to unconscious fantasy. It discusses writers' varying perspectives and concepts regarding the subject including James Grotstein who refers to unconscious fantasy as an essential part of the thinking process. Samuel Gerson and Alan Sugarman likewise consider unconscious fantasy as part of an interactional process.
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EPILOGUE.
The article discusses the participation of analytic writers in composing articles for patients. It notes that the process of interpreting the clinical experience into writing increases their capacities to reflect on their work, increased confidence in clinical skills, and ease defenses against shame and guilt which interferes to their writing. Opinions from authors, including Stephen Bernstein and his colleagues, are also presented.
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Fantasizing as Process, Not Fantasy as Content: The Importance of Mental Organization.
It is suggested that the traditional way of thinking about and working with unconscious fantasy inadvertently retains outdated topographical approaches to analytic technique. Shifting our analytic emphasis to the process of unconscious fantasizing better accounts for the importance of mental organization in understanding psychopathological phenomena and guiding analytic technique. This reformulation has two significant implications: (1) It highlights the importance of making the process of fantasizing conscious because access to this process can facilitate the analytic process and the attainment of insightfulness; and (2) it also emphasizes the need eventually to explore the reasons that a patient chooses fantasy over abstract, symbolic modes of experiencing and communicating internal phenomena.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Fathers and Daughters: A Discussion.
In my discussion, I consider each article's presentation of significant features of the relationships of fathers and daughters. I will emphasize the changes that have occurred in psychoanalytic theories of father-daughter intersubjectives as indicated by the authors and from my own perspective.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Fathers and the Bodily Care of Their Infant Daughters.
This article adds to information on the internal complexity of gender portraits, as well as a psychoanalytic subjective aspect to the small literature on hands-on infant caretaking by fathers. The clinical material, based on the treatment of three fathers of infant daughters, affirms othersm,' claims that fathers as primary caretakers can do well with their infants. The material provides evidence for countering essentialist biologic gendered notions that birthing females alone can accomplish these tasks; evidence that the infants' needs called forth elements of the men's capacity for symbiotic fantasy as bodily providers; associative links with their own internalized infant caretakers - usually women; and evidence that the storied male playful push toward a child's ability to separate may be connected to the sublimated uses of his sexual arousal in proximity to the child's body. The impact of the primary male caretaker with the female child provides a vivid corporeal template upon which to examine these issues.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Forging an Analytic Identity Through Clinical Writing.
In this article, I consider the manner in which the created object reveals the creator through consideration of the theoretical contributions of Winnicott and Bucci followed by the creative contributions of the painter Cezanne and the poet/psychoanalyst Akhtar. This leads to Bernstein's format for clinical writing, which I consider a creative process with an important self-analytic function.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Freud, Anna, and the Problem of Female Sexuality.
Freud has been criticized for his failure to understand and write about femininity in ways that reflect the place of women in society. Indeed, although from the outset he worked with highly intelligent, articulate women analysands, his discussion of female sexuality was convoluted and did not take his clinical observations into account. His views of female sexual development focused on a picture of girls as defective boys. This article suggests that much of Freud's problem in understanding femininity was related to his relationship with his youngest child, daughter Anna (1895-1982), who was a part of psychoanalysis from her earliest childhood through her adult years, when she became his analysand and protégée, and later his guide and support. An admirer of Sophocles' drama Oedipus the King, Freud wrote of Anna as his Antigone. Reviewing Sophocles portrayal of Oedipus and Antigone, we show the parallel between this drama and that in Freud's own life through his own old age in exile from Vienna in London. ... a natural predilection usually sees to it that a man tends to spoil his little daughters, while his wife takes her son's part. (S. Freud, 1900, p. 258) Unfortunately we can describe this state of things [the child's sexual theories] only as it affects the male child; the corresponding processes in the little girl are not known to us. (S. Freud, 1923, p. 142)ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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From Fathering Daughters to Doddering Father.
In this article, I consider some of the dilemmas and challenges of a male therapist working with female adolescents, in counterpoint to those facing the father of adolescent daughters. There is a conventional wisdom that female adolescents need female therapists; I argue that this kind of thinking is related to the common phenomenon of fathers withdrawing emotionally from their daughters when they reach adolescence. I draw out some implications of what it might mean to father an adolescent daughter if one does not accept the conventional wisdom.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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From Selfobjects to Mutual Recognition: Towards Optimal Responsiveness in Father and Daughter Relationships.
This article examines the nature of the father and daughter relationship, studying its impact on both parties. The author first summarizes the relatively sparse psychoanalytic literature on this topic, and offers a detailed analysis of newer models of development that might broaden our understanding of desire and sexuality. It will be argued that, for the daughter, an optimal experience with her father includes the development of a capacity for an intimacy with otherness, and, in turn, permits the father a new opportunity, in midlife, to further develop this capacity in himself. A clinical vignette with a male patient portrayed an enactment in which the author experienced herself as a daughter, and used this experience in a way that facilitated an understanding of and integration of the patient's split-off self-states.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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How Can a Writer Describe the Deep Emotional Experience of a Psychoanalysis? “As One Forms One's Preconceptions of a Cathedral by the Height of Its Bell Tower”.
This article is devoted to the importance of interpersonal and phenomenological perspectives in writing about an analytic relationship that can convey the emotional depth and intensity necessary for the analysis to be successful enabling the patient to alter her life. The writer should be able to describe the interactive experiences of the patient and analyst as two whole people motivated to create greater coherence to their experiences or how the analyst and patient have worked together to enable the patient to transform fragmented parts of his or her story into a narrative that can be told to the analyst. By using examples from a case conference on writing about what occurred in an analysis, I highlight some of the principles that are described in the article.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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My Experience with the Panel on Writing.
For the June 2004 APsA Conference I was invited by this Panel to present a case in order to examine a sample of my written analytic process. I was intrigued by this invitation. Although I had had some successful experiences speaking about my analytic cases in a variety of teaching situations, I felt that I was having difficulty translating my work into the written word.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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On Famous Fathers and Their Youngest Daughters.
This article begins with a reading of Freud's "The Theme of Three Caskets," with its portrait of a father's relation to his daughter, viewed as a successor to his mother and then his wife. Freud pays particular attention to a father, King Lear, with three daughters, the youngest of whom loves him most intensely, as Freud's own youngest daughter did. To explore the father's relation to his youngest of three daughters from the daughter's point of view, this article offers four clinical vignettes.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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PROLOGUE.
The article provides information on the system of psychoanalytic education. It reveals that many psychoanalysts are dissatisfied with the tripartite system of psychoanalytic training and they recommends for reform. The discussion on the findings from several studies in different institutes and societies in the encouragement for rational changes and reforms for psychoanalytic training are explored.
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PROLOGUE.
The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Sander Abend on unconsciousness fantasy and another by James Grotstein bionian psychology.
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PROLOGUE.
The article discusses several topics published within the issue including one that describes the need for training in clinical writing and a method to translate clinical work into written form and another on the description of the necessity of using experiential language in describing what occurs in an analysis.
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PROLOGUE.
The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Cohler and Galatzer-Levy on the impact of relationship between Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud and another one by Christine C. Kieffer on the integration of self-psychology and relational psychoanalysis in order to understand the influence of the father-daughter relationship.
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Reading Treatment Reports: The Writer, the Editor, and the Analyst or The Value of Certification.
The writing of treatment reports is a neglected part of psychoanalytic training. The basis of the certification procedure of the American Psychoanalytic Association is the demonstrated ability to convey in writing what had occurred in treatments applicants had conducted. The paradoxical situation of a test based on skills not taught during the training period has created, in the writer's view, a crisis within the Association, threatening the existence of the certification procedure. This article derives from the efforts of a group of analysts at the request of the Board on Professional Standards, to conduct seminars on the topic of writing about clinical work at meetings of the Association. Although many members of the Association argue for the elimination of the certification requirement, this article contains the argument that the certification procedure has been a valuable educational tool that has benefited both applicants and training programs. An example illustrates both the skills necessary to convey in writing the process of analytic work, and the situation with regard to the teaching of those skills.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Shaming Psychoanalytic Candidates.
The article focuses on the shame-inducing aspects that are still experienced by psychoanalytic candidates during the analytic training despite the helpful intentions of teachers and supervisors. It enumerates the impact of the candidates' shame experiences that can produce long term effects on the person's ambitions as well as to personal and professional identities. Other topics that are discussed include sources of shame in analytic training and legacies of the candidate's shame.
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Shuttle Analysis, Shuttle Supervision, and Shuttle Life—Some Facts, Experiences, and Questions.
Tremendous effort supported the spreading of psychoanalysis in what was formerly known as “Eastern Europe.” Since 2002, the Han Groen Prakken Psychoanalytic Institute of Eastern Europe has integrated this work. In many cases, training components had to be provided in “shuttle format.” Shuttle analysis can be considered as an experimental domain in psychoanalytical education. The discussions on shuttle analysis have brought into the foreground some of the aspects of the process: high variation of setting; handling of unavoidable cultural clash; special shaping of defenses; the repetitive separation; shuttle life as a consequence—periodically interrupted practice, combination with shuttle supervision; high investment. Training with shuttle components is always a project, never a routine, because of the demand on extra organizational investment. We discuss shuttling from the point of the analyst, of the candidate, of the supervisor, and of the developing organization. Questions include special defense mechanisms, observations on transference-countertransference, “shuttle reality” often resembling a “dream-like reality,” and special problems of supervision. The question of evaluation is an especially difficult one. The evaluation is as traditional as in regular education. At the end, we face the question: What makes shuttle analysis/shuttle training work?ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Six Inventions on Unconscious Fantasy.
The article reviews several papers on the topic of unconscious fantasy and psychoanalysis by authors including J.A. Abend and Paul and Anna Ornstein.
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Structuring Case Reports to Promote Debate.
Psychoanalytic case reports play a role in the development of treatment methods and in the discussion of alternative theoretical concepts, but are especially important as part of the psychoanalytic educational process. Their practical use, however, is characterized by difficulties in communication, as participants are often unable to agree on the level of discussion—that is, on whether this should be theoretical, methodological, or based upon interpretive assumptions. The method proposed here for structuring case reports to promote debate is intended to lead to a clearer understanding of what is involved in the discussion of case reports, and to a greater consideration of the level at which this discussion is taking place. The candidate in training learns to distinguish between 3 components of psychoanalytic competence that are integrated in every case report: psychoanalytic knowledge (explanatory and procedural knowledge), psychoanalytic therapeutic competence (transformational knowledge), and psychoanalytic attitude (assumptions about meaning and rules of interpretation).ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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The Overarching Role of Unconscious Phantasy.
In the Kleinian/Bionian way of thinking, all transactions that occur internally within the infant, between infant and mother, infant and world, and between objects in the world are represented as unconscious phantasies. All defense mechanisms themselves constitute unconscious phantasies about the interrelationship between internal objects and between them and the self. Unconscious phantasies constitute moving narrative images and arise during the prelexical hegemony of imagery (Shlain, 1998). They and the objects that they choreograph are believed to be concrete because they originate during the hegemony of that stage of infant development that can be characterized as a cyclopean or one-eyed, absolutist perspective, which has been termed by Freud (1924) and Segal (1981) as “symbolic equations.” It corresponds to Klein's paranoid-schizoid position. It is succeeded by the depressive position, which is characterized by a binocular (Bion, 1962) or dual-track (Grotstein, 1978, 1989) perspective, and has latterly been expanded upon by Fonagy (1995) and Fonagy and Target (1996) as “reflective and capable of contemplating 'other mindedness.'” I shall discuss unconscious phantasy generally in this article as Section I, and shall continue its discussion as it relates to autochthony and creativity in Section II.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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The Structure and Function of Unconscious Fantasy in the Psychoanalytic Treatment Process.
We have surveyed the history of the concept of unconscious fantasy, from its inception in Freud's theorizing to the transformation of its structure and function in the late 1960s. The demands of clinical practice, the increasing focus on the nature of the analytic relation and the increasing attention to patient's actual experiences in infancy and childhood contributed to the waning of reconstruction of the core-unconscious fantasy (the Oedipus complex) in the treatment process. Drastic changes in the concept occurred from the 1970s to the present, beginning with Kohut's reformulation of psychoanalysis, followed by contributions of intersubjectivity theorists, relational psychoanalysts and the Boston Study Group's innovative ideas. In the changes referred to in this article, Kohut's shift from drive-based unconscious fantasies to affective, lived, experience-based fantasies are the most significant ones. The introduction of the selfobject transferences confirmed the importance of our earlier finding (Ornstein and Ornstein, 1992) that patients enter into analysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a set of curative fantasies. With excerpts of two analyses we illustrated how the recognition of the curative fantasy, which embodies the patient's hopes and expectations (the search for a new beginning) may promote the analytic process.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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To Be or Not to Be a Psychoanalyst—How Do We Know a Candidate Is Ready to Qualify? Difficulties and Controversies in Evaluating Psychoanalytic Competence.
What constitutes competent psychoanalytic work, what criteria are used to evaluate psychoanalytic competence and how can we exchange about these matters among colleagues of different psychoanalytic orientations? These are the core questions investigated in an ongoing project of the European Psychoanalytical Federation (EPF) Working Party on Education (WPE). This article reports on several group discussions at EPF conferences over 4 successive years. Findings reveal a great interest in discussing the question of evaluation on one hand, but bringing up uneasiness and anxiety on the other, followed by a tendency to bypass saying “no” to not enough competent clinical work.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Unconscious Fantasy and Modern Conflict Theory.
This article traces the evolution of the concept of unconscious fantasy from its origins in Freud's early clinical writings to its place in the theory and practice of modern conflict theory. The central role played by Arlow's clarification of the ubiquitous influence of unconscious fantasy life on aspects of normal mental functioning such as perception, memory, thinking, and reality testing is highlighted. Some contemporary clinical applications of our understanding of unconscious fantasies are added to the long familiar awareness of its role in symptom formation.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Unconscious Phantasy and Relational Reality.
The concept of unconscious phantasy is embedded in the intrapsychic and instinctual models of the mind of Freud and Klien. This paper provides a relational perspective on unconscious phantasy that is centered on the actualities of external experience originating in the infant-parent relationship. Traditional theories of the origins of unconscious phantasy are reviewed and critiqued in the context of contemporary developmental research. Unconscious phantasy is also conceptualized as located in both the individual unconscious and the relational unconscious that structures all dyads. Similarly, the psychoanalytic situation itself is considered in terms of the basic unconscious phantasies it generates.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Writing About the Psychoanalytic Process.
The written description of psychoanalytic process is basic to our professional communication. It underlies our study, teaching, research, and the way we evaluate aspects of our training. We have been hampered by a lack of an accepted method for translating our clinical work into written form. Each analyst has needed to devise, sometimes with great difficulty, an individual method for describing analytic process, but often the resulting description has hidden the analyst or the process. Recent efforts to teach about clinical writing show that this skill can be readily learned and can add to the analyst's growth. This article presents a method for writing about the clinical interchange. A repeating three-part structure provides an experiencing section of several paragraphs, in which the writer describes the experience-near analytic interaction over a relatively circumscribed time period; a reflecting section, in which the writer draws back for an overview of this material; and a transitional narrative section, in which the writer creates a bridge to a time later in the analysis. A clinical illustration of this method is presented and discussed. A variety of stylistic problems are examined. Ways that the writing task can be introduced during analytic training, as well as the effects of the writing task on the analyst, are mentioned.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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Writing, Rewriting, and Working Through.
This article describes the process of writing about one's clinical work using the help of a writing mentor. A variety of impediments and interferences to clinical writing are examined in detail. The author demonstrates the ways that these may reflect unconscious responses in the analyst and can affect the style of the writing, ultimately obscuring clear communication to the reader. In the first half of the article, the author describes his own work as a writing mentor for analysts both during and after training, and presents detailed illustrations of the mentoring experience and the specific techniques he finds useful. In the second half of the article, the author uses the evolution of this article as a case study to show how he worked through, over several drafts, various interferences and resistances in his own writing with the help of an individual writing mentor and a writing group.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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“Grown-Up” Words: An Interpersonal/Relational Perspective on Unconscious Fantasy.
I offer the view that the concept of unconscious fantasy remains of heuristic value only if the phenomenon to which it refers is acknowledged as a dissociated, affect-driven experience rather than as a form of symbolized thought that is repressed. I argue that what is taken to be evidence of buried unconscious fantasy is an illusion created by the interpersonal/relational nature of the analytic process during the ongoing symbolization of unprocessed affect. As cognitive and linguistic symbolization gradually replaces dissociation as the automatic safeguard of a patient's self-stability, increased self-reflectiveness fosters the illusion of something emerging that has been always known but warded off. Thus, if we hypothesize the unconscious existence of something called fantasy, it is essential to accept that it is not a fantasy possessed by the person but vice versa; the person is possessed by the fantasy—a “not-me” affective experience that is denied self-narrative symbolization. With regard to whether I believe the concept is central to psychoanalytic theory and practice at this point in time, I hope that a “let's wait and see” attitude might best support the relational shift from metatheory to clinical theory already taking place among diverse schools of thought.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Psychoanalytic Inquiry is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
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