Emergency Remote Training in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: An Initial Assessment from Columbia

The Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing required to combat it have set in motion an experiment in psychoanalytic education of unprecedented scope. Following an abrupt shift from in-person study to remote classes, supervision, clinical work, and training analyses, the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research polled its psychotherapy and psychoanalysis trainees to assess their initial experience of remote training. Most candidates found the technical aspects of online learning easy and were satisfied with remote training overall. Across all programs, most trainees considered class length and reading load about right and felt their class participation was unaffected, though they found it harder to concentrate. Most found it no harder to start a training case, felt the shift to remote supervision had no negative effect, and were satisfied with seeing their training analyst remotely. Most trainees preferred in-person classes, clinical work, and training analyses to those offered remotely, yet in light of the health risks they said they were less likely to continue training in fall 2020 if in-person work resumed. Trainees suggested several modifications of teaching techniques to improve their participation and concentration in class. These findings' implications for the debate regarding remote training in psychoanalysis are explored.

Where did Freud's iceberg metaphor of mind come from?

Look at any introductory psychology book that covers psychoanalysis, and you are likely to find an image of an iceberg floating in the sea. The image serves as an illustrative metaphor for Freud's theory of the mind: Only a fragment of our ideas and feelings are conscious or "visible" to us, while the vast bulk of our mental content is unconscious or "invisible" to everyday introspection. A simple Internet search of the terms "Freud iceberg" will bring forth hundreds of examples. The problem is that Freud never mentioned the iceberg in his published writings. It is a metaphor that has become ubiquitous in (English-language) writings about Freudian theory, but that does not find its source in his work. So the question is, where did it come from? Much attention has been directed to a passage in Ernest Jones's biography of Freud. Many have taken this to mean that the Freudian iceberg metaphor derives directly from Fechner. Jones encouraged this interpretation, quoting Freud on being "open to the ideas of G. T. Fechner and following that thinker upon many important points." The iceberg metaphor of mind has another source with a solid connection to Freud: Granville Stanley Hall. Hall was one of the founders of American psychology. The mystery of the Freudian iceberg is not completely resolved, but we have made considerable progress. The mystery that remains is why Hall believed the metaphor's origin to lay somewhere in Fechner's writings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Economic Problem of Candidacy

Candidates frequently accept one or multiple low-fee cases as part of their training experience. Although the practical and unconscious meanings of the formerly taboo topic of money have recently been discussed in the literature, the candidate's experience in regard to the fee is rarely discussed. The author argues that the candidate is positioned to face a Gordian knot of personal, training, and clinical intensity in the duration of training that impacts casework. This paper discusses two prototypical characterological constellations related to the fee. Psychoanalytic training involves immersion, and thereby differs from training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy programs or from a residency in psychiatry. The candidate's economic experience is unique and under-recognized in today's practice climate. The present article recommends open discussion about the fee among psychoanalysts and candidates.

The coming changes in psychoanalytic education: Part II

This paper is the second part of a general analysis of problems in contemporary psychoanalytic education. Having proposed changes in the training analysis and supervisory systems in Part I, here the author focuses on concrete proposals regarding changes in the curriculum, seminars and classroom teaching; the governance of psychoanalytic institutes, relationship of institutes with their respective psychoanalytic society and the role of the university in the development of science and research; the admission, progression, and graduating processes; certification and accreditation.

The supervisory field and projective identification

Taking as their starting point the Baranger and Baranger model of the "psychoanalytic field", the authors extend the notion of intersubjectivity in the analytic relationship to the supervision process. They use a practical example of a supervision to show the development of what they term the "supervisory field", formed from the superimposition of the two fields of analyst-patient and supervisor-supervisee. They emphasize the interplay of projective identifications with objects emanating from the inner world of the patient that are relived in the analytic relationship and transposed to the supervisory field. They believe that the concept of the "supervisory field" contributes to a deeper understanding of the unconscious processes occurring in the mind of analysand, supervisee and supervisor during supervision, particularly regarding the identification, comprehension and resolution of persistent disturbances in the supervisory process.

On teaching psychoanalysis

Teaching psychoanalysis is no less an art than is the practice of psychoanalysis. As is true of the analytic experience, teaching psychoanalysis involves an effort to create clearances in which fresh forms of thinking and dreaming may emerge, with regard to both psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. Drawing on his experience of leading two ongoing psychoanalytic seminars, each in its 25th year, the author offers observations concerning (1) teaching analytic texts by reading them aloud, line by line, in the seminar setting, with a focus on how the writer is thinking/writing and on how the reader is altered by the experience of reading; (2) treating clinical case presentations as experiences in collective dreaming in which the seminar members make use of their own waking dreaming to assist the presenter in dreaming aspects of his experience with the patient that the analytic pair has not previously been able to dream; (3) reading poetry and fiction as a way of enhancing the capacity of the seminar members to be aware of and alive to the effects created by the patient's and the analyst's use of language; and (4) learning to overcome what one thought one knew about conducting analytic work, i.e. learning to forget what one has learned.

The Emperor's clothes: Some serious problems in psychoanalytic training

The author discusses some of the key problems in psychoanalytic training, in particular those problems that stem from the power differential between training analysts and students in training. One effect of this differential can be that some students feel a pressure to comply with their teachers and supervisors, even their training analyst, in ways that can be seriously detrimental to their development. Further, when something goes wrong in a student's training, how is this to be viewed by those in charge of the training? Also, how are complaints dealt with? Is sufficient weight given to external reality? Too often training analysts, and training committees, get into pathologising a student in a process that should be recognised as 'wild analysis in committee', rather than considering more carefully the external realities that may be affecting a student's progress in the training. This 'analysis' in committee should never be allowed. There is an urgency for immediate changes to be made in psychoanalytic training so that the problems discussed, with more care being taken, should be prevented from happening. Too often, however, an institutional resistance to change dominates discussions in committee, and in society meetings, with the result that little or no change takes place even after years of debate.

Authors who have an impact on candidates' training

The authors consider the influence that a sense of geographical and cultural ties of candidates from different regions has on their theoretical interests. They question the way that this is taken into consideration in psychoanalytic training. The function of theory, both in terms of its transmission and the creation of new knowledge, is explored from this perspective. The results of an Internet survey are presented. The candidate sample for this survey (N = 250) was drawn from Europe, Latin America and North America, and candidates were asked to indicate their degree of interest for each of the 55 authors in a given list. The results showed that there were significant differences in the areas of theoretical interest of the candidates depending on the geographical region. Furthermore, what is also significant is how these differences in areas of theoretical interest were linked to those authors who had developed their work in the same geographical region as the candidates. These differences are shown to be connected to the candidates' sense of regional belonging. Data are also presented about which authors have the greatest impact in a given region, along with the influence values of the authors in relation to each one of the regions. Finally, the candidates' interest in each of the authors is specified in terms of a general mean rank and a regional mean rank, thus showing which authors candidates find most interesting in each of the regions. The study concludes by arguing that the results of the investigation enable us to question how psychoanalytic theory is transmitted, and, more specifically, how it is transmitted within institutions at a regional level. It is also suggested that the means be found to uncover the inconsistencies linked to cultural ties. It is proposed that further research be conducted to look more deeply into how cultural differences play a part in the different theoretical languages in the training of psychoanalysts.

Learning from experience in case conference: A Bionian approach to teaching and consulting

In case conferences as well as didactic seminars, the power of the group can bring psychoanalytic education to life. However, primitive anxieties activated by group dynamics may also interfere with teaching and learning. The authors offer the example of a stalemated private practice case conference that had unconsciously organized against learning as the members began to read Bion's work. The case conference leader, an analyst, presented her case conference, which was mired in basic assumption dependency dynamics, to our peer consultation group. Drawing upon Bion's early contributions on groups, as well as his later ideas about thinking and mental growth, the peer group facilitated the case conference's return to work-group functioning and learning from experience. Activated in the peer group, commensal container<--> contained processes gradually spread throughout the entire relational system of peer group, case-conference leader, case-conference members, and patients. This example underscores the importance of promoting within our institutes a culture in which faculty view themselves as part of an evolving intersubjective matrix that works to foster the containing capacities of candidates, patients, and faculty alike.

The crisis of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical training: The suffering of the candidate on the long road towards qualification

The author assesses the impact of the so-called 'crisis of psychoanalysis' on the training of candidates, and on those who accompany them through the course. Different causes of the most relevant symptom of the crisis, i.e. the difficulty of finding patients for a four-sessions-weekly analysis, are considered. According to the author, analysts themselves must bear some of the responsibility for it. She draws attention to a number of interrelated phenomena, such as: trainees' tension in their encounters with potential analysands, due to awareness of their own needs as trainees; the necessity to accept very disturbed patients whose selection might arouse criticism from the training committee; analyses in which trainees seem to become patients' hostages because of ever-present fears of interruption; the difficult construction of a psychoanalytic identity in trainees who also are in full-time psychiatric practice; trainees' profound uncertainty about the future both of psychoanalysis in general and their own careers in particular. In agreement with Kernberg, the author stresses the importance of considering the 'crisis of psychoanalysis' as a phenomenon whose development may be influenced by the analysts themselves.

Thinking about Psychoanalytic Curricula: an Epistemological Perspective

The author discusses the role that curriculum development can play in preparing psychoanalytic candidates to understand the challenges created by theoretical pluralism in our field and by the growth of knowledge in neighboring disciplines. Curriculum design can be used to encourage the development of epistemological perspectives that can serve as organizing frameworks to help candidates think critically about psychoanalytic knowledge. It is possible to teach these complex matters in a way that students find accessible and useful. The author presents exemplars taken from the curriculum at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York.

Questioning Authority in the Psychoanalytic Classroom

Psychoanalytic educators today, like their predecessors who trained them, struggle to maintain respect for and make use of candidates' various kinds of professional expertise while offering instruction in "the subject." But unlike their predecessors, today's educators teach in the wake of various challenges to authority and knowledge in recent decades from across the disciplines. Some of the most important work of teaching in this context begins when teachers recognize that they have assumed the position of objectivity in the classroom--that they have closed down the possibilities for open discussion--and figure out (with and in front of their students) what to do next.

Learning and Doing: Working With Fromm and Applying What I Learned

From 1960 to 1970 Erich Fromm was my teacher, analyst, and colleague. For the next ten years, we regularly corresponded about our work and views of public policy. As my analyst, Fromm had strengths and weaknesses. He influenced my research and practice on leadership and on transforming organizations to further both productivity and human development. His concepts can help us understand the current global political and cultural crisis that, while rooted in profound historic social, economic, and technological change, calls for depth psychological insights.

Will This Case Count? The Influence of Training on Treatment

Mandated use of the couch-whether specifically stated or tacitly communicated by supervisors and colleagues-to fulfill requirements for graduation or certification is a significant disservice to candidates and their patients. In its training standards, it is argued, APsaA and its member institutes should state explicitly that a treatment can qualify as a psychoanalysis, regardless of whether the patient is using the couch, as long as the process is analytic and the candidate's thinking is demonstrably analytic. The mandate, however conveyed, that one must use the couch interferes with candidates' optimal analytic functioning, jeopardizing their patients' analyses. Data from infant observation, neuroscience, and facial expression studies-unavailable to earlier generations of analysts-support a more nuanced view of use of the couch. Each analysis is unique, and some analyses might well benefit from use of both the couch and the chair at different phases of treatment, but unless this is spelled out by ApsaA and its member institutes, candidates and junior analysts will be prevented from freely contemplating the clinical benefits or detriments of their use in specific cases.

Psychoanalytic Teaching by Video Link and Telephone

In this era of global connectedness, there is great interest in using distance video platforms such as Skype and VSee, as well as the telephone, for conducting psychoanalysis and psychotherapy across geographic distance. Little, however, has been written about the use of technology for psychoanalytic education. The International Psychotherapy Institute has extensive experience in the use of videoconference and telephone technology in the teaching of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, including didactic teaching, infant observation, and individual and group supervision, with individuals and groups across the United States and overseas. Use of this technology for tele-education has facilitated the spread of psychoanalytic ideas, recruitment of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic trainees, and ongoing training for members living at great distances from one another and from the institute. This work is in many ways similar to ordinary psychoanalytic teaching and supervision, and yet presents significant differences in technique, opportunity, and group dynamics. Further implementation and study of this methodology can greatly aid in the dissemination of psychoanalysis in the digital age.

Institutional, Financial, Legal, and Cultural Factors in a Distance Learning Program

As psychoanalytic institutes evolve, adapting to the contemporary financial and social environment, the integration of new technologies into psychoanalytic education presents opportunities for expansion to candidates residing beyond the usual geographic boundaries. While the teaching of analytic content through distance learning programs appears to be relatively straightforward, factors including legalities, traditional mind-sets, and cross-cultural issues need to be considered as complicating the situation, as illustrated by one U.S. institute's distance learning initiative with a group in South Korea.

On psychoanalytic supervision as signature pedagogy

What is signature pedagogy in psychoanalytic education? This paper examines that question, considering why psychoanalytic supervision best deserves that designation. In focusing on supervision as signature pedagogy, I accentuate its role in building psychoanalytic habits of mind, habits of hand, and habits of heart, and transforming theory and self-knowledge into practical product. Other facets of supervision as signature pedagogy addressed in this paper include its features of engagement, uncertainty, formation, and pervasiveness, as well as levels of surface, deep, and implicit structure. Epistemological, ontological, and axiological in nature, psychoanalytic supervision engages trainees in learning to do, think, and value what psychoanalytic practitioners in the field do, think, and value: It is, most fundamentally, professional preparation for competent, "good work." In this paper, effort is made to shine a light on and celebrate the pivotal role of supervision in "making" or developing budding psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Now over a century old, psychoanalytic supervision remains unparalleled in (1) connecting and integrating conceptualization and practice, (2) transforming psychoanalytic theory and self-knowledge into an informed analyzing instrument, and (3) teaching, transmitting, and perpetuating the traditions, practice, and culture of psychoanalytic treatment.

The twilight of the training analysis system

This paper briefly reviews challenges to psychoanalysis at this time, including those derived from both external, societal origins and internal psychoanalytic problems. It focuses attention on serious conflicts around psychoanalytic education, and refers to the training analysis system as a central problem determining fundamental constraints on present-day psychoanalytic education. These constraints are examined in some detail, and the general advantages and disadvantages of the training analysis system are outlined. The effects of all these dynamics on the administrative organization of the American Psychoanalytic Association are explored, and a proposal for a fundamental reorganization of our educational system to resolve the correspondent problems is outlined.

The beginnings of psychoanalytic supervision: the crucial role of Max Eitingon

Psychoanalytic supervision is moving well into its 2nd century of theory, practice, and (to a limited extent) research. In this paper, I take a look at the pioneering first efforts to define psychoanalytic supervision and its importance to the psychoanalytic education process. Max Eitingon, the "almost forgotten man" of psychoanalysis, looms large in any such consideration. His writings or organizational reports were seemingly the first psychoanalytic published material to address the following supervision issues: rationale, screening, notes, responsibility, supervisee learning/personality issues, and the extent and length of supervision itself. Although Eitingon never wrote formally on supervision, his pioneering work in the area has continued to echo across the decades and can still be seen reflected in contemporary supervision practice. I also recognize the role of Karen Horney-one of the founders of the Berlin Institute and Poliklinik, friend of Eitingon, and active, vital participant in Eitingon's efforts-in contributing to and shaping the beginnings of psychoanalytic education.

Theodor Reik: architect of the subjective approach to psychoanalytic treatment

An overview of the life and work of Theodor Reik is presented. Because of the confluence of various personal qualities and circumstantial factors, Reik's contributions to twentieth-century psychoanalysis were significant, varied, and controversial. His major contributions include the following: (1) He demonstrated the critical importance of unconscious guilt and masochism in human affairs, on an individual basis as well as man's social institutions. In effect, all neuroses have underlying unconscious guilt and punishment issues. (2) He emphasized that the mission of the analyst is to create an intimate clinical relationship with the patient by utilizing his or her (the analyst's) unconscious in concert with the unconscious of the patient. (3) In establishing the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis in 1948, Reik became the father of nonmedical psychoanalytic training in America. (4) Over a thirty-year period after his arrival in New York City in 1938, Reik published over twenty books on psychoanalysis, Reikian style. The most read and influential was Listening With the Third Ear (1948). As a result, Reik became America's primary educator of psychoanalysis.

On the experiential and psychotherapeutic dimensions of psychoanalytic supervision: an interpersonal perspective

I advocate in this article for supervision to provide a frankly psychoanalytic (i.e. psychotherapeutic) experiential encounter for the supervisee, and the stipulation that it convey experientially the very idiom it is intending to impart. I contend that the psychotherapeutic and experiential potentials of psychoanalytic supervision have often been prescriptively delimited, to the detriment of its participants' potential transformations and evolutions as psychoanalysts and persons. I address some of the unique contributions interpersonal psychoanalytic theories offer in support of conducting psychoanalytic supervision in terms of my suggested modifications.

A national survey of candidates: II: motivations, obstacles, and ideas on increasing interest in psychoanalytic training

A national survey of candidates was conducted to identify motivations for pursuing psychoanalytic training, obstacles that prevent progression or completion, and candidates' ideas on how best to increase interest among potential trainees. In 2009-2010, 40 percent of candidates on the affiliate member e-mail list completed an anonymous web-based survey. Candidates strongly endorsed contact with a personal psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, or supervisor as the most important influence in discovering psychoanalysis and deciding to pursue training. They identified the total cost of analytic training as the greatest obstacle. This was followed by the cost of personal analysis, loss of income for low-fee cases, time away from family, and difficulty finding cases. To enhance training, local institutes should work to improve institute atmosphere and provide assistance with finding cases; national organizations should increase outreach activities and publicize psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic institutes could recruit future candidates by working to increase personal contact with psychoanalysts, reducing the cost of training, improving institute atmosphere, assisting with case-finding, enhancing outreach activities, and widely publicizing psychoanalysis. Narrative comments from candidates and the implications of these findings regarding engagement of future trainees are discussed.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy in psychiatry: the missing link?

Polarization of biological and psychosocial aspects of psychiatry determines the artificial division of the "biological" psychiatrists and psychiatrists "psychotherapists". This division resulted from a certain dose of mystification of the psychotherapeutic work of those practicing, and fear of psychological determinism of the functioning, of those who are looking for answers in the biological substrate. The gap of polarization is now described as a form of Cartesian dualism, the division of the mind and the brain. The integration of psychotherapy in psychiatry is the trend in psychiatric specialization, virtually erasing this dualism. This paper describes novelties related to psychotherapy training, as defined by the Section of Psychiatry within the European Union of Medical Specialities and the Psychiatry Residency Review Committee in the U.S.that provided guidelines for the psychotherapeutic competences of future psychiatrists. We are also describing the situation in Serbia, where there was a formal specialization in psychotherapy at the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, for over thirty years, and education in psychodynamics of adults, at the Mental Health Institute, from 1978 to 2007. In addition, there are a number of other schools of psychotherapy, providing training for psychiatrists. This framework allows the authors, based on their experience and previous research, to present their views concerning the future of training in psychodynamic psychotherapy in psychiatric education.

Phantasm of Freud: Nandor Fodor and the psychoanalytic approach to the supernatural in interwar Britain

The paper examines the appearance of "psychoanalytic psychical research" in interwar Britain, notably in the work of Nandor Fodor, Harry Price and others, including R. W. Pickford and Sylvia Payne. The varying responses of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones to the area of research are discussed. These researches are placed in the context of the increasingly widespread use of psychoanalytic and psychological interpretations of psychical events in the period, which in turn reflects the penetration of psychoanalysis into popular culture. The saturation of psychical research activity with gender and sexuality and the general fascination with, and embarrassment about, psychical activity is explored.

The incommensurability of psychoanalysis and history

This article argues that, although psychoanalysis and history have different conceptions of time and causality, there can be a productive relationship between them. Psychoanalysis can force historians to question their certainty about facts, narrative, and cause; it introduces disturbing notions about unconscious motivation and the effects of fantasy on the making of history. This was not the case with the movement for psychohistory that began in the 1970s. Then the influence of American ego-psychology on history-writing promoted the idea of compatibility between the two disciplines in ways that undercut the critical possibilities of their interaction. The work of the French historian Michel de Certeau provides theoretical insight into the uses of incommensurability, while that of Lyndal Roper demonstrates both its limits and its value for enriching historical understanding.

Letter to Freud: on the plight of psychoanalysis

In the form of a letter, the writer communicates to Freud her appreciation for the incomparable richness and complexity of the psychoanalytic enterprise in its century-long evolution from classical, Freudian origins to new developments in theory and technique. At the same time, concern is expressed about the continuity and survival of psychoanalysis in a cultural milieu that has absorbed its once radical ideas about sexuality and unconscious motivation while resisting its viability as a method of treatment.

Psychoanalytic education in the twenty-first century: a syllabus for all seasons

I am suggesting that psychoanalytic training facilities restructure their curriculum to include opposing views, in an effort to avoid the inevitable disintegration of the field at large. Without a sense of requirement for any particular viewpoint, I have suggested the model of class modules, usually based around three differing positions, be applied in as many classes as possible. This method enhances the very nature of psychoanalysis while it extends the educational provenance of each separate institute, and specifically each teacher of psychoanalysis. In so doing, candidates across the board will feel and think in a more collegial manner, and may find that learning psychoanalysis is to learn something new and exciting.

Toward a tripartite vision of supervision for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapies: alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship

The psychoanalytic supervision relationship is examined as a tripartite phenomenon, comprised of the supervisory alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship. While most supervisory analysts would readily acknowledge that a real (or personal) relationship element exists in analytic supervision, that facet of the supervision relationship has not routinely been incorporated into considerations of psychoanalytic supervision. In this vision of supervision, real relationship, supervisory alliance, and transference-countertransference configuration are presented as integral and complementary constructs that define psychoanalytic supervision. Each of those three components is examined briefly with regard to its beginnings, evolution, and contemporary status; each component is also considered from an empirical perspective. While we have a growing quantitative and qualitative research foundation that supports psychoanalytic practice, psychoanalytic supervision has largely been ignored as a subject and object of scientific study. Supervisory alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship are explored as research ready variables. Some clinical hypotheses--eminently testable and worthy of investigation--are proposed with regard to each component of the model, and some ideas--albeit tentative and preliminary--about how to initiate such inquiries are offered.

Eternal hate and conscience: on the filiation between Freudian psychoanalysis and sixteenth and early seventeenth century Protestant thought

In his seminar on ethics Jacques Lacan suggests there exists a "filiation or cultural paternity" between Freudian psychoanalysis and a "new direction of thought" that starts with Luther's conceptualization of God's eternal hate of man, and is then futher continued in Calvinism. In this article this thesis is explored. The author argues that there is not only a familiarity between the Protestant doctrines of predestination and Freud's reconstruction of prehistoric events and primal scenes, but also that Lacan's views on conscience formation and his elaborations of the complexity of moral decisions resembles Calvinist thought on civil and spiritual conscience, and the longing for restoration of a lost image of God.

José Bleger: Jew, Marxist and psychoanalyst

The article analyses the trajectory of Dr. José Bleger (1922-1972), an Argentine psychoanalyst who tried to articulate his triple identity as a Jew, a Marxist, and a psychoanalyst. Bleger played a central role in the constitution of the 'psy movement' and, in more general terms, in the diffusion of a 'psy culture' in Argentina, a country that today is considered as one of the 'world capitals of psychoanalysis'. However, his trajectory showed not only the limits of his projects in the increasingly politically polarized Argentina of the 1960s, as well as their internal contradictions, but also the difficulties of articulating different identities in those agitated times. Through an analysis of Bleger's trajectory this article explores larger issues of Argentine political culture and their relations with the emergence of a psychoanalytic culture.

Fixing Freud: the Oedipus complex in early twenty-first century US American novels

Representations of Sigmund Freud in early 21st century US American novels rely on and respond to the image of Freud that emerged from investigations by Paul Roazen ("Brother Animal," 1969) and Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson ("The Assault on Truth," 1984), which cast doubt on the validity of the Oedipus complex. Relying on Roazen, Brenda Webster's "Vienna Triangle" (2009) links Freud's oedipal thinking to paranoia and male masochism. Working with Masson, Selden Edwards's "The Little Book" (2008) takes Freud to task for abandoning the seduction theory in favor of the Oedipus complex. Jed Rubenfeld's "The Interpretation of Murder" (2006) rethinks the Oedipus complex as a projection of adults onto their children. All three novels seek to celebrate Freud's understanding of the human psyche, while shifting the focus of the oedipal structure away from the murderous and lustful child toward the adult.

The Freudian subject and the Maoist mind: the diaries of Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and Lei Feng

Although written in vastly different cultural contexts and periods, Hermine Hug-Hellmuth's "Diary of a Young Girl" (1919) and Lei Feng's "The Diary of Lei Feng" (1963) both to a large extent were written as concept pieces, with the goal of illustrating specific theories of the self. In the case of Hug-Hellmuth, the underlying theory is the Freudian sexualized unconscious mind, whereas for Lei Feng, it is Maoist revolutionary optimism. Additionally, both diaries have unusually strong inauthentic or 'fake' aspects. Although Hug-Hellmuth never admitted to writing the diary, most critics believed it came from her pen. Lei Feng's diary was revised through his own attempts to present himself as politically progressive, by editors, and through successive political movements that focused on the person behind the diary and made him one of the most widely-recognized figures in China. As such, the diaries are excellent windows into powerful and long-lasting ideological constructs.

Mysteries of nature

This article examines a group photograph of the Psychiatry and Neurology section of the 66th Meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors in Vienna, 24-30 September 1894 which Sigmund Freud attended. The society's origins in Naturphilosophie are indicated and a number of the participants are identified on the photo. They and the events at the conference are related to Sigmund Freud's work at the time and to his gradual abandonment of anatomy and of heredity and degeneration as significant aetiological factors in the neuroses. Philosophical problems, such as how phenomena should be described and how 'nature' is conceptualized, are also considered in the light of their implications for Freud's life and thought at that period.

Research into witchcraft in psychoanalysis and history

Witchcraft and witch-hunting have been a topic for numerous historical and psychoanalytical research projects. But until now, most of these projects have remained rather isolated from one from the other, each in their own context. In this article I shall attempt to set up a dialogue between psychoanalysis and history by way of the example of research into witchcraft. However, I make no claim to covering the different psychoanalytical and historical approaches in full. As a historical 'layman', my interest lies in picking out some of the approaches that seem to me particularly well suited to contribute to reciprocal enhancement.

Freud's Mexican readers

This essay presents an overview of artists and writers who read Freud's work in Mexico between 1920 and 1968. The focus is on cultural readings of Freud: non-clinical interpretations of psychoanalysis that applied Freud's theory to literary, artistic, philosophical, or religious questions. The essay focuses on Salvador Novo, one of the poets associated with the Contemporáneos group, and his reading of the "Three Essays in the Theory of Sexuality;" Raúl Carrancá y Trujillo, a judge and criminologist who used psychoanalysis in his work, including the trial of Trotky's assassin; Octavio Paz, a poet and intellectual who wrote an essay on Mexican history, "The Labyrinth of Solitude," as a response to "Moses and Monotheism;" and Gregorio Lemercier, a Benedictine monk who placed his monastery in group analysis. These unorthodox readings of Freud opened the door for some of the most daring intellectual experiments in the 20th century.

The strange case of the Freudian case history: the role of long case histories in the development of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's five long case histories have been the focus of seemingly endless fascination and criticism. This article examines how the long case-history genre developed and its impact on the professionalization of psychoanalysis. It argues that the long case histories, using a distinctive form that highlighted the peculiarities of psychoanalytic theory, served as exemplars in the discipline. In doing so, the article extends John Forrester's work on "thinking in cases" to show the practical implications of that style of reasoning. The article illustrates how the form disappeared once the theoretical basis of the movement was set. The genre never became institutionalized, although the content of the five long case histories did, because of Freud's accepted role as theoretician of psychoanalysis.

Space travels of the Wolfman: phobia and its worlds

In this paper, we present a spatial reading of Freud's famous case study, "The Wolfman" (1918). By reading the Wolfman and his phobias spatially, we want to show how psychoanalysis is not a linear story of personal development, but reveals instead the unconscious estates and competing places that our desires both travel in, but also get stuck and waylaid in. The unconscious "estates" that the Wolfman travels through, constituting his phobias, is something we aim to illuminate. These worlds are not simply "many," they are specific -- but they nonetheless unfold in plural and non-linear ways. Phobias are the policemen of our desires keeping us safe and at home, within certain boundaries. And yet the Wolfman's phobias, his unconscious territories are arguably spaces that need opening up, not hypnotizing away. As Freud travels alongside the Wolfman through his worlds, he can never by sure where he is, where they are. And this is a good thing because if space travel in psychoanalysis is going to work, it has to be alive to the uncanny nature and the uncertain boundaries that constitute our desires. As a touchstone case study in psychoanalysis, the Wolfman's case points to the very uncertainty with which analysis must proceed. Psychoanalysis, in this view, is more about companionable travelling, without either a fixed point of origin or a predetermined destination, than about knowing where you have been, where you are and where you are going; more about creating a geography of possibilities than about determining which ones should or should not be taken.

Frontline: the liberal arts of psychoanalysis

In terms of process, psychoanalysis is more closely related to the disciplines of the arts and humanities than those of the sciences, however much the latter have contributed to our knowledge of the mind and our discussions of technique. Will we, accordingly, assert our support for liberal arts education, at a time when it is under unprecedented attack? Neuroscience has made remarkable strides in establishing the importance of artistic and humanist training to the plasticity and connectedness of mental functioning. But these discoveries have sadly done nothing to protect the academic disciplines of the arts and humanities from budget cuts and closings. It is as if contemporary boosters of technical and scientific education had no interest in, or knew nothing about, the new knowledge of the brain that scientists are actually producing. Will psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, for the sake of the arts and the sciences, support liberal arts education, or will we distance ourselves from it, and thus abandon the well-being of the very minds we will later be trying to tend in our offices? Is it not our responsibility to speak for the importance of thriving, since surviving depends on it?

Epilogue: Conversations between a psychoanalyst and a psychiatry resident

The authors discuss the importance of psychoanalytic training from the perspectives of a psychiatry resident about to begin psychoanalytic training and a psychiatrist who is a training and supervising psychoanalyst. Drs. Hyun and Alfonso discuss psychoanalytic motivations and engage in a dialogue reflecting on the relevance of psychoanalytic training in current psychiatric practice and the profession’s need for more dynamically trained psychiatrists. In doing so this article provides further insight from their firsthand experiences as to why young psychiatrists today still choose to engage in psychoanalytic training and its positive impact on their clinical practices.

Urine trouble: a social history of bedwetting and its regulation

Bedwetting has confounded the presumed boundaries of the human body, existing in a fluid space, between the normal and pathological, its treatment has demanded the application of a wide array of different technologies, each based on a distinct conception of the relationship between the body and personality, human organs and personal conduct. In tracing the social history of bedwetting and its regulation, this article examines the ontological assumptions underpinning the treatment of bedwetting and how they have changed over the past two centuries. Through the analysis of medical journals, newspaper articles and magazine advertisements, different topologies are identified which redefine the boundaries of the human body and its capacities. From 16th-century naturalism, in which the human body is subordinated to a cosmic totality, to the circumscribed space of 19th-century paediatrics and the expansive circuits of behavioural psychology and modern psychoanalysis, the body has become multiplied, differently enacted through the application of diverse technologies. It was be shown how coordinating the messy and divergent conceptions of the human body has posed an endemic problem for the human sciences, and how the enduring tension between object enactment and subject constitution is an expression of modern "baroque" subjectivity.