The Activity of Neutrality

The author discusses the analyst's neutrality as an activity: a constantly moving position and an always-evolving process characterized by the analyst's thinking and curiosity about how to help the patient better know and become himself. The author maintains that neutrality is a cluster concept (Wittgenstein 1953) that includes a number of functions. Recent theoretical shifts regarding neutrality are briefly reviewed, and an illustrative clinical vignette is presented.

Race and Analytic Neutrality: Clinical and Theoretical Considerations

Neutrality remains a key concept underpinning the psychoanalytic attitude, but its operation in the clinical setting must be reconfigured if the countertransference is to be used as a source of data, conveyed by projective identification. Subjective responses thus mobilized in the analyst need to be processed before attention can return to the evenly suspended state, from which greater objectivity flows. Theory, internalized as part of the analyst's emotional learning, operates preconsciously in the session; in clinical work with racial matters this includes, crucially, familiarity with internal racism, of which a model is briefly described. These ideas are illustrated via two clinical vignettes in which these themes are traced.

Evolution of prudent predation in complex food webs

Prudent predators catch sufficient prey to sustain their populations but not as much as to undermine their populations' survival. The idea that predators evolve to be prudent has been dismissed in the 1970s, but the arguments invoked then are untenable in the light of modern evolution theory. The evolution of prudent predation has repeatedly been demonstrated in two-species predator-prey metacommunity models. However, the vigorous population fluctuations that these models predict are not widely observed. Here we show that in complex model food webs prudent predation evolves as a result of consumer-mediated ('apparent') competitive exclusion of resources, which disadvantages aggressive consumers and does not generate such fluctuations. We make testable predictions for empirical signatures of this mechanism and its outcomes. Then we discuss how these predictions are borne out across freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Demonstrating explanatory power of evolved prudent predation well beyond the question of predator-prey coexistence, the predicted signatures explain unexpected declines of invasive alien species, the shape of stock-recruitment relations of fish, and the clearance rates of pelagic consumers across the latitudinal gradient and 15 orders of magnitude in body mass. Specific research to further test this theory is proposed.

ON THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOANALYTIC FIELD THEORY, PART 2

Advances in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory: Concept and Further Development. Edited by S. Montana Katz, Roosevelt Cassorla, and Giuseppe Civitarese. London/New York: Routledge, 2017. 212 pp.

ON THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHOANALYTIC FIELD THEORY, PART 1

Defining Psychoanalysis: Achieving a Vernacular Expression, by Ian Miller. London: Karnac, 2016. 116 pp. The Pioneers of Psychoanalysis in South America: An Essential Guide, edited by Nydia Lisman-Pieczanski and Alberto Pieczanski. London/New York: Routledge, 2015. 537 pp. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis, edited by Franco Borgogno, Alberto Luchetti, and Luisa Marino Coe. London/New York: Routledge, 2016. 738 pp.

CLINICAL WINNICOTT: TRAVELING A REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

The author contends that, contrary to the usual perception that Winnicott followed a linear progression "through pediatrics to psychoanalysis," Winnicott's vision was always a psychoanalytic one, even during his early pediatric work. His place in the development of psychoanalytic theory is highlighted, and the author discusses such key Winnicottian concepts as transitional space, the false self, and the use of the object. Winnicott's unique approach to the form and value of analytic interpretation is particularly emphasized, and his thoughts on the treatment of depression are also addressed, as well as his distinction between regression and withdrawal. Included is a summary of convergences and divergences between Winnicott's thinking and that of Bion.

HYPOCHONDRIA: A REVIEW OF ITS PLACE IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

After identifying Freud's fundamental contributions to the concept of hypochondria, the author undertakes a brief review of the term's trajectory within the Anglophone and Francophone psychoanalytic literature. Notions of defense, anxiety, and representation as they relate to corporeal experience are discussed. The author illustrates these main axes with which to read hypochondria with clinical material drawn from the analysis of a woman in whom somatic manifestations were especially pervasive.

A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT INTERSUBJECTIVE AND OBJECT RELATIONAL APPROACHES TO CLINICAL MATERIAL

The Search for a Relational Home: An Intersubjective View of Therapeutic Action. By Chris Jaenicke. London/New York: Routledge, 2015. 100 pp.

SÁNDOR FERENCZI: SECRET REBEL AHEAD OF HIS TIME

The Legacy of Sándor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor. Edited by Adrienne Harris and Steven Kuchuck, New York: Routledge, 2015. 300 pp.

The interplay of deductive and inductive reasoning in psychoanalytic theorizing

Deductive and inductive reasoning both played an essential part in Freud's construction of psychoanalysis. In this paper, the author explores the happy marriage of empiricism and rationalism in Freud's use of deductive reasoning in the construction of psychoanalytic theory. To do this, the author considers three major amendments Freud made to his theory: (i) infant and childhood sexuality, (ii) the structural theory, and (iii) the theory of signal anxiety. Ultimately, the author argues for, and presents Freud as a proponent of, the epistemological position that he calls critical realism.

Countertransference identification and fantasy in psychoanalytic process

The development of more nuanced understandings of psychoanalytic process is among the primary tasks of contemporary psychoanalytic theorizing. One piece of this complex undertaking involves the examination of moments when the analyst's countertransference position changes. Shifts in the analyst's feelings and thoughts in relation to the patient are complex events in which experiences registered at many levels of organization and via many modes of perception combine to contribute to meaning-making and furthering of the treatment process. The author explores the role of fantasy in giving form and meaning to alterations experienced as a change of attitude or affect, through close examination of one such moment of shift.

Spontaneous remissions: Norman Reider's forgotten paper, part I

Almost sixty years ago, Norman Reider published a paper about spontaneous "remissions" he had observed. He discussed the manner in which psychoanalytic theory provided a way to partially explain these otherwise mysterious remissions or improvements in symptoms, some without benefit of either psychoanalysis or psychotherapy. Especially important were his comments about the negligible role of interpretation or insight in these examples. His conjectures reflected controversies that were current at the time and that remain unsettled. Of special interest is his introduction of some highly original ways to think of applying psychoanalytic ideas to supportive psychotherapy. But few analysts today have heard of this paper. A reconsideration of his paper allows us to be vividly reminded about our enduring and profound confusion about exactly what constitutes a "cure" at all. Spontaneous shifts in the severity of symptoms may be viewed as experiments of nature that we have neglected to investigate as valuable restraints on our immodest therapeutic claims.