Psychoanalysis (original) (raw)
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An introduction to the concepts and writings in the "Freudian" psychoanalytic field for those training as Jungian psychoanalysts.
The Developmental school of Jungian psychology
An overview of the central themes in this post-Jungian psychology and introduction to some of the seminal literature in the field. Candidates will read some work of authors such as Michael Fordham, Rosemary Gordon, Andrew Samuels, Mara Sidoli, and Joseph Redfearn.
A major contributor to the de-moralizing trend in post-Freudian and post-Kleinian psychoanalysis is Harry Guntrip. The guilt evasion that characterizes certain trends within contemporary psychoanalytic thought and the contemporary culture to which they have adapted mirrors that of Guntrip himself. Despite his background as a Christian minister and his years of analysis with two of the most creative analysts in the field, Guntrip managed by the end (in my hypothesis) only a paranoid understanding of himself as a victim of a murderous mother, rather than a man crippled by a need to punish himself for his disowned murderous wishes toward a brother who died and toward the mother he hated and blamed. In focusing upon the roots of the "schizoid problem" or the "disordered self" in defective early objectrelations, Guntrip obscured entirely the role of guilt and the need for punishment in these conditions and promoted a cure based on reparative reparenting rather than analysis and resolution of inner conflict.
Some Thoughts about Schizoid Dynamics
For many years I have been trying to develop a fuller understanding of the subjectivities of individuals with schizoid psychologies. I am not referring to the version of Schizoid
The Drive: A Comparative Analysis of Freudian, Object Relations and Lacanian Theory.
2013
The development of Psychoanalytic Drive Theory has undergone a continual remodelling during the hundred years since the birth of psychoanalysis. In this essay, I trace some of its evolution from the earliest stages of Sigmund Freud's thinking and through to his post 1920 Structural theory. I then look at some of the key concepts of drive theory in Donald Winnicott’s inter-subjective psychodynamic Object Relations theory, and in Jacques Lacan’s poststructuralist psychoanalytic drive theory. (Freud, 1915; Winnicott, 1971; Lacan, 1977) Freud’s, Winnicott’s and Lacan’s drive theories will provide the materials for the main body of the essay and facilitate a comparative analysis and critique of their work towards the end. It will not be possible to avoid using the shared terms and concepts interchangeably at times, as often these traditions are seen as extensions and progressions of the same classical Freudian theory. However, there are clear differences between these three schools of psychoanalytic drive theory and the essay aims to demonstrate some of these.
Psychoanalysis has had a long gestation, during the course of which it has experienced multiple rebirths, leading some current authors to complain that there has been such a proliferation of theories of psychoanalysis over the past 115 years that the field has become theoretically fragmented and is in disarray (Fonagy & Target, 2003; Rangell, 2006). In this paper, I survey the past and present landscapes of psychoanalytic theorizing and clinical practice to trace the evolution of Freud's original insights and psychoanalytic techniques to current theory and practice. First, I sketch the evolutionary chronology of psychoanalytic theory; second, I discuss the key psychoanalytic techniques derived from clinical practice, with which psychoanalysis is most strongly identified; third, I interrogate whether Freud's original theoretical conceptualizations and clinical practices are still recognizable in current psychoanalytic theory and practice, using four key exemplars – object relations theory, attachment-informed psychotherapy, existential/phenomenological and intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy; and fourth, I discuss recent unhelpful, disintegrative developments in psychoanalytic scholarship. To this end, I critique the cul-de-sacs into which some psychoanalytic scholars have directed us, and conclude with the hope that the current state of affairs can be remedied. Psychoanalysis is simultaneously a form treatment, a theory, and an " investigative tool " (Lothane, 2006, p. 711). Freud used each of these three facets of psychoanalysis iteratively to progress our understanding of human mental functioning. Among Freud's unique theoretical insights into the human condition was the historically new idea that humans are primarily animals driven by instincts (Freud, 1915a, 1920) who undergo growth via universal developmental (psychosexual) stages that are influenced by family and social life. This was in opposition to the prevailing view of his time that humanity was God's highest creation. Freud (1908) challenged the cherished belief that humankind is rational and primarily governed by reason, replacing it with the disturbing notion that we are in fact driven by unacceptable and hence repressed aggressive and sexual impulses that are constantly at war with the " civilized " self. Freud himself and Freud scholars (Jones, 1953; Strachey, 1955) consider that the Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1893) mark the beginning of psychoanalysis as a theory and a treatment. These early papers place the causes of the symptoms of hysteria firmly in the psychological, not the neurological domain (although such a distinction is no longer sustainable), thus moving thinking about the cause of hysterical and other psychological symptoms from the brain to the mind. This insight underpinned a paradigm shift in thinking about the mental functioning of human beings, for which there was a scant vocabulary and embryonic conceptualizations. The theory that organized early clinical observations gradually unfolded, many precepts of which have entered the psychological lexicon as givens, concepts that are now taken for granted. Three of these bedrock concepts are the existence of the Unconscious, the notion of hidden meaning and the idea of repression.
Methods of Research into the Unconscious
Methods of Research into the Unconscious, 2018
The psychoanalytic unconscious is a slippery set of phenomena to pin down. There is not an accepted standard form of research, outside of the clinical practice of psychoanalysis. In this book a number of non-clinical methods for collecting data and analysing it are described. It represents the current situation on the way to an established methodology. The book provides a survey of methods in contemporary use and development. As well as the introductory survey, chapters have been written by researchers who have pioneered recent and effective methods and have extensive experience of those methods. It will serve as a gallery of illustrations from which to make the appropriate choice for a future research project. Methods of Research into the Unconscious: Applying Psychoanalytic Ideas to Social Science will be of great use for those aiming to start projects in the general area of psychoanalytic studies and for those in the human/social sciences who wish to include the unconscious as well as conscious functioning of their subjects. Kalina Stamenova, PhD, FHEA, is a research fellow and a lecturer at the University of Essex. Her research interests involve psychoanalytic research methods, psychoanalysis and education, and psychoanalysis and organisations. R. D. Hinshelwood is a British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has always had a part-time commitment to the public service (NHS and universities) and to teaching psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He has written on Kleinian psychoanalysis and on the application of psychoanalysis to social science and political themes. He has taken an interest in and published on the problems of making evidenced comparisons between different schools of psychoanalysis.