Aner Govrin | Bar-Ilan University (original) (raw)

Papers by Aner Govrin

Routledge eBooks, Oct 11, 2023

Frontiers in Psychology, Dec 9, 2021

Frontiers Research Topics

Routledge eBooks, Oct 3, 2018

Routledge eBooks, Mar 26, 2018

Frontiers in Psychology, Aug 21, 2019

Psychoanalytic innovation is easy to recognize but difficult to define. There is a dearth of lite... more Psychoanalytic innovation is easy to recognize but difficult to define. There is a dearth of literature exploring the nature of innovation in our field. My main thesis is that psychoanalytic innovation can be of two types. Psychoanalytic innovation of the first order is about new discoveries concerning facts related to the psyche, development, transference relations, or psychopathology. It usually emerges as a development of insights from canonical psychoanalytic theory; offers an original explanation for a choice of empirical psychic phenomena hitherto unexamined; is perceived as creative and useful when it succeeds to reconceptualize the relations between the patient's past, unconscious dynamics, and the transference relations; often resembles poetic expression; and registers a truth we knew but did not yet put into words. When it is of the second order, psychoanalytic innovation challenges either methodological or philosophical assumptions held by psychoanalysis, without pretending to replace existing theories. It constitutes a "sensibility" that its adherents strive to incorporate into the existing corpus. I distinguish between two types of sensibilities: cultural-philosophical sensibility represented by the relational approach; and methodological sensibility represented by infant research, and neuropsychoanalysis. In the last part of the paper I analyze psychoanalytic progress pointing to its merits and shortcomings.

Psychoanalytic Review, The, Aug 1, 2006

It is the year 2002. Waves of Palestinian suicide bombers flood Israel in coffee shops, malls, bu... more It is the year 2002. Waves of Palestinian suicide bombers flood Israel in coffee shops, malls, buses, hotels, and nightclubs. Hundreds of civilians are wounded and killed. Insraelis feel insecure; demand their government to take more militant actions against the Palestiniaisn. The dominant feelings are of fear, despair, patriotism and hatred directed to Arabs. Rivka* (age 42), a Jewish-Israeli journalist, has been politically active in anti-Zionist groups since her twenties, vehemently supporting the Palestinian struggle for independence. Over the past few years, during the Intifada, she has been active in a radical leftist group that supplies food and medical aid to Palestinian villages under siege. This political group also demonstrates against the Israeli army's and government's violation of Palestinian human rights. Rivka affirms the right of every Palestinian to return to his or her homeland, even if that means that Palestinians will be the majority in Israel. She claims that it is the Israeli government that should be held responsible for terrorist attacks. Some of her Jewish-Israeli colleagues resent her opinions: Although most of my colleagues vote for Zionist parties that support the peace process, they cannot possibly understand how I still show empathy to the Palestinians after suicide attacks. I tell them about the Palestinian suffering in the occupied territories and all sorts of horrible scenes I have seen with my own eyes, but that just makes them more furious. *All names are pseudonyms.

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Jun 1, 2006

It is in the best interest of psychoanalysis that new schools of thought (earlier examples of whi... more It is in the best interest of psychoanalysis that new schools of thought (earlier examples of which are the classical, Kleinian, and self psychological perspectives) evolve. Generating a new school of thought, however, is almost impossible in this postmodern era. The postmodern paradigm in psychoanalysis (intersubjectivity, dialectical constructivism, two-person psychology) does not strive to generate a “true” theory of mind that claims to fit reality, nor does it claim to be another school of thought. The creators of the classical, interpersonal, self psychological, ego psychological, Kleinian, Bionian, Fairbairnian, Winnicottian, and other schools cannot be postmodernists, for they all believed that their theories corresponded to reality and were therefore true. A shortage of analysts who “know the truth” today will make it extremely difficult for new schools of thought to arise in psychoanalysis, or for new and compelling theories and descriptions of the human psyche to be constructed. What is required is for pluralistic psychoanalytic institutions to empower analysts who are actively involved in the pursuit of new ideas and theories in psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis, self and context, Jan 2, 2022

ABSTRACT In this discussion, I would like to complement Perlitz’s argument by reminding that mutu... more ABSTRACT In this discussion, I would like to complement Perlitz’s argument by reminding that mutual imbeddedness requires conditions of existential security. Most traumas the author mentions occurred in the past. Thus, to process trauma and experience mutual imbeddedness a “background of safety” is needed. Only this enables the work of mourning, peace-making, and connection to other people. Many communities throughout the world, however, exist under extremely threatening conditions. Hence, I propose that mutual imbeddedness requires a complementary human capacity, which is equally vital, and expresses itself in conditions of existential threat or in a reality of protracted violence. This force is characterized by persecutory anxiety and the massive use of the mechanism of splitting, which issues in defense of the self using removing the adversary, using fight or flight. During times of protracted threat, people organize to defend themselves, their families, and their communities, and they will use any means to safeguard their existence. For this purpose, they activate a specific psychic dynamic: Trust is replaced by fear, enriching otherness now becomes dangerous otherness, open borders turn into high, impermeable walls, and where there was generosity, now there is cruelty. I want to offer two illustrations of the collapse of mutual imbeddedness in conditions of physical danger and existential threat: One is Israel’s political situation, and the other is the impact of the Covid pandemic on the fabric of human relations.