Patricia Cotti | Université de Strasbourg (original) (raw)
Papers by Patricia Cotti
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (en español)
Journal of Threat Assessment and Management
This is a psychoanalytic case study of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the terrorist who bombed the Boston Mar... more This is a psychoanalytic case study of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the terrorist who bombed the Boston Marathon in April, 2013, with the help of his younger brother. The focus is upon the nexus between his psychopathology and ideology, in this particular case an arguable paranoid and psychotic disorder and his growing commitment to radical Islam, culminating in his identification as a jihadist warrior and a renunciation of Western ideals. The theoretical approach is both object relations and developmental, with empirical reliance on both primary and secondary source material, including the testimony of those within his family and social network at his brother's trial. The nexus of psychopathology and ideology in this case is the degree to which conspiratorial belief systems blaming, among others, an international Jewish conspiracy and a covert CIA program-which he found in both the virtual (Internet) and terrestrial (travel to Dagestan) worlds-helped alleviate the anxiety of a decompensating mind.
Data Revues 00143855 00670002 02001330, Jul 16, 2008
Cliniques Mediterraneennes, Oct 1, 2002
Http Www Em Premium Com Data Revues 02416972 00320272 19, Jan 28, 2011
Champ Psychosomatique, 2003
Http Dx Doi Org 10 3366 Pah 2004 6 2 237, Jan 16, 2008
Between 1905 and 1911 a perspective slowly appeared in Freud's works -- a perspec... more Between 1905 and 1911 a perspective slowly appeared in Freud's works -- a perspective which he considered "historical" and which he eventually named "history of the libido's development" ("Entwicklungsgeschichte der Libido") in 1911. By reading again "The Rate Man," "Schreber" and "The Wolf Man" we can understand how Freud, thanks to the analysis of his case histories, outlined the particularities of this "history of the libido's development," which lies at the core of infantile prehistory. We will also study how this "history of the libido's development," in providing a stereotyped interpretation of psychic material, could lead to a reduction of the very movement of the analysis.
The Psychoanalytic Review, 2015
On 22 July 2011, the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik carried out two attacks in Oslo that cost t... more On 22 July 2011, the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik carried out two attacks in Oslo that cost the lives of 77 people, injured many others, and plunged the entire Norwegian nation into mourning. When he was arrested, Breivik presented himself as a member of the Knights Templar, whose mission is to defend the Christian Western world. He considers that he has sacrificed himself by his actions for his people and says that he has prepared himself for martyrdom. In analysing Breivik's words and writings, this article attempts to identify the thought mechanisms involved in Breivik's idea of election (megalomania) and martyrology. It highlights the importance of a mechanism of "return to the sender," whereby Breivik returns the reproaches directed at him by an agency of judgment (ego ideal or superegoic object). It emphasizes the existence of a "burning desire" and yearning (Sehnsucht) for this same persecuting superegoic object, an object that Breivik constantly wants to find again, even if in death. Taking into consideration Searles's hypothesis that the sense of being persecuted is a defence against the impossibility of mourning, and also H. Blum's hypothesis that persecutory feelings are indicative of fears of a "regressive loss of object constancy," the different psychic mechanisms and modes of functioning underlying Breivik's terrorist determination are related here to what we know about his affective development and infantile relationships.
The International journal of psycho-analysis, Jan 14, 2015
On 22 July 2011, a 32 year-old Norwegian launched two planned murderous rampages claiming the liv... more On 22 July 2011, a 32 year-old Norwegian launched two planned murderous rampages claiming the lives of 77 victims. Shortly before his attacks, Anders Behring Breivik uploaded to the internet a self-styled compendium written in English in which he explained the motivation for his attacks. By deconstructing this text and the documentation contained in the first [court-ordered] psychiatric evaluation of Breivik, we can undertake to analyse his sense of persecution. In pursing this analysis, we start with Breivik's description of his personal concept of contemporary European history and politics, and then proceed to the autobiographical and phantasmic aspects of his discourse. The analysis reveals the transformation of love into hate, the original persecutor, the installation of a projection mechanism, notions of betrayal and their subsequent development into an ideology. With Breivik's conceptions thus revealed, we conclude by comparing different psychoanalytic hypotheses which...
History of psychiatry, Jan 19, 2014
Could Reinach's Cultes, mythes et religions (1908) have served as a model for the theory of r... more Could Reinach's Cultes, mythes et religions (1908) have served as a model for the theory of religion that Freud was later to put forward in Totem and Taboo (1913)? This hypothesis has been tested by examining Freud's marginalia in his personal copy of Cultes, mythes et religions. In this way it is possible to reconstitute the line of thinking that led Freud to declare, in late summer 1911, that he had found an answer to the question of the origins of tragic guilt and religious sentiment.
Soins. Psychiatrie
The semiology of delusions and hallucinations corresponds to precise definitions. Systematised or... more The semiology of delusions and hallucinations corresponds to precise definitions. Systematised or not, their mechanisms and their themes are varied. Psychodynamic and biological approaches give an insight into the therapies to use with patients who are affected.
Cliniques méditerranéennes, 2002
Cliniques méditerranéennes, 2004
International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2007
"The interpretation of dreams" was the first text in which Freu... more "The interpretation of dreams" was the first text in which Freud referred to the system of two drives (drive of self-preservation and the sexual drive). In order to understand how this question was at work in Freud's mind, one has to go back to 1898, when Freud began to write the third chapter of "The interpretation of dreams". One can then see, in contrast with Sulloway's assertions, how Freud was inspired by Schiller, whose shadow haunted his dreams between April and December 1898. The analysis of these dreams emphasizes how the references to Schiller's works and to the drive of self-preservation cover sexual impulses, in particular, those connected with the relationship to the father. The food drive or drive of self-preservation also enabled Freud to construct a heroic romance. He was thereby able to bury an internal criticism which was at odds with his persistence in describing the father as a seducer, and to conceal scenes in which he was defeated and sexually subdued by another boy.
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (en español)
Journal of Threat Assessment and Management
This is a psychoanalytic case study of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the terrorist who bombed the Boston Mar... more This is a psychoanalytic case study of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the terrorist who bombed the Boston Marathon in April, 2013, with the help of his younger brother. The focus is upon the nexus between his psychopathology and ideology, in this particular case an arguable paranoid and psychotic disorder and his growing commitment to radical Islam, culminating in his identification as a jihadist warrior and a renunciation of Western ideals. The theoretical approach is both object relations and developmental, with empirical reliance on both primary and secondary source material, including the testimony of those within his family and social network at his brother's trial. The nexus of psychopathology and ideology in this case is the degree to which conspiratorial belief systems blaming, among others, an international Jewish conspiracy and a covert CIA program-which he found in both the virtual (Internet) and terrestrial (travel to Dagestan) worlds-helped alleviate the anxiety of a decompensating mind.
Data Revues 00143855 00670002 02001330, Jul 16, 2008
Cliniques Mediterraneennes, Oct 1, 2002
Http Www Em Premium Com Data Revues 02416972 00320272 19, Jan 28, 2011
Champ Psychosomatique, 2003
Http Dx Doi Org 10 3366 Pah 2004 6 2 237, Jan 16, 2008
Between 1905 and 1911 a perspective slowly appeared in Freud's works -- a perspec... more Between 1905 and 1911 a perspective slowly appeared in Freud's works -- a perspective which he considered "historical" and which he eventually named "history of the libido's development" ("Entwicklungsgeschichte der Libido") in 1911. By reading again "The Rate Man," "Schreber" and "The Wolf Man" we can understand how Freud, thanks to the analysis of his case histories, outlined the particularities of this "history of the libido's development," which lies at the core of infantile prehistory. We will also study how this "history of the libido's development," in providing a stereotyped interpretation of psychic material, could lead to a reduction of the very movement of the analysis.
The Psychoanalytic Review, 2015
On 22 July 2011, the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik carried out two attacks in Oslo that cost t... more On 22 July 2011, the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik carried out two attacks in Oslo that cost the lives of 77 people, injured many others, and plunged the entire Norwegian nation into mourning. When he was arrested, Breivik presented himself as a member of the Knights Templar, whose mission is to defend the Christian Western world. He considers that he has sacrificed himself by his actions for his people and says that he has prepared himself for martyrdom. In analysing Breivik's words and writings, this article attempts to identify the thought mechanisms involved in Breivik's idea of election (megalomania) and martyrology. It highlights the importance of a mechanism of "return to the sender," whereby Breivik returns the reproaches directed at him by an agency of judgment (ego ideal or superegoic object). It emphasizes the existence of a "burning desire" and yearning (Sehnsucht) for this same persecuting superegoic object, an object that Breivik constantly wants to find again, even if in death. Taking into consideration Searles's hypothesis that the sense of being persecuted is a defence against the impossibility of mourning, and also H. Blum's hypothesis that persecutory feelings are indicative of fears of a "regressive loss of object constancy," the different psychic mechanisms and modes of functioning underlying Breivik's terrorist determination are related here to what we know about his affective development and infantile relationships.
The International journal of psycho-analysis, Jan 14, 2015
On 22 July 2011, a 32 year-old Norwegian launched two planned murderous rampages claiming the liv... more On 22 July 2011, a 32 year-old Norwegian launched two planned murderous rampages claiming the lives of 77 victims. Shortly before his attacks, Anders Behring Breivik uploaded to the internet a self-styled compendium written in English in which he explained the motivation for his attacks. By deconstructing this text and the documentation contained in the first [court-ordered] psychiatric evaluation of Breivik, we can undertake to analyse his sense of persecution. In pursing this analysis, we start with Breivik's description of his personal concept of contemporary European history and politics, and then proceed to the autobiographical and phantasmic aspects of his discourse. The analysis reveals the transformation of love into hate, the original persecutor, the installation of a projection mechanism, notions of betrayal and their subsequent development into an ideology. With Breivik's conceptions thus revealed, we conclude by comparing different psychoanalytic hypotheses which...
History of psychiatry, Jan 19, 2014
Could Reinach's Cultes, mythes et religions (1908) have served as a model for the theory of r... more Could Reinach's Cultes, mythes et religions (1908) have served as a model for the theory of religion that Freud was later to put forward in Totem and Taboo (1913)? This hypothesis has been tested by examining Freud's marginalia in his personal copy of Cultes, mythes et religions. In this way it is possible to reconstitute the line of thinking that led Freud to declare, in late summer 1911, that he had found an answer to the question of the origins of tragic guilt and religious sentiment.
Soins. Psychiatrie
The semiology of delusions and hallucinations corresponds to precise definitions. Systematised or... more The semiology of delusions and hallucinations corresponds to precise definitions. Systematised or not, their mechanisms and their themes are varied. Psychodynamic and biological approaches give an insight into the therapies to use with patients who are affected.
Cliniques méditerranéennes, 2002
Cliniques méditerranéennes, 2004
International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2007
"The interpretation of dreams" was the first text in which Freu... more "The interpretation of dreams" was the first text in which Freud referred to the system of two drives (drive of self-preservation and the sexual drive). In order to understand how this question was at work in Freud's mind, one has to go back to 1898, when Freud began to write the third chapter of "The interpretation of dreams". One can then see, in contrast with Sulloway's assertions, how Freud was inspired by Schiller, whose shadow haunted his dreams between April and December 1898. The analysis of these dreams emphasizes how the references to Schiller's works and to the drive of self-preservation cover sexual impulses, in particular, those connected with the relationship to the father. The food drive or drive of self-preservation also enabled Freud to construct a heroic romance. He was thereby able to bury an internal criticism which was at odds with his persistence in describing the father as a seducer, and to conceal scenes in which he was defeated and sexually subdued by another boy.