16 pages ; Sigmund Freud's work on psychoanalysis offers relief from the void left by World War II and accompanying frustrations with the American Dream. In acknowledgement of Freud's exposition of the danger of repression, noir permits the articulation of impulses repressed in the interest of war efforts through a narrative that functions as a nightmarish psychological expression. Furthermore, noir engages with Freud's work on unconscious motives to creatively and psychoanalytically explore potential motives behind behavior considered disordered according to American principles – such as crime and self-destructive behavior. Noir demonstrates the strong influence of a disordering environment on a protagonist's actions and motives, and promotes the value of a critically thinking "detective" who can explain disorder, encouraging the audience to fill this role themselves. Noir's demand for active audience interpretation works in contrast to World War II war efforts, which demanded complete faith in government propaganda. In this way, noir inspires the audience to themselves challenge the feasibility of achieving the American Dream through an American work ethic, the hardboiled tradition, the ideology of individualism, and American values and traditions as a whole.
Understandings of mental health and illness were transformed in the 1960s as a generation of psychiatrists began to question the orthodoxy of their profession, reframing the aetiology of psychic distress as a consequence of an alienating, consumer society. Though the movement's roots in existentialism and Marxist thought are often emphasised, this workshop will centre attention on how radical psychiatry developed through a critical engagement with psychoanalysis: both challenging the assumptions of the Freudian canon, and reinscribing concepts of the unconscious for the postwar age. It will also explore how the actors and theories of the radical psychiatry movement informed – and were shaped by – the political movements that emerged around 1968. We ask how ideas about social, institutional or technological coercion, either hidden or in plain sight, were mobilised by radical psychiatrists, echoing contemporaneous political critiques of 'modern civilization'. Beginning with a short presentation of Camille Robcis's recent work on Félix Guattari's involvement in the development of Institutional Psychotherapy in France, the workshop will then discuss a text by Guattari himself, alongside a contextual delineation of his work by Dagmar Herzog. The second half of the workshop will cast light on comparable practices and debates which unfolded in the USA, UK, Algeria, Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe. By placing radical psychiatry in its broader international context, we will trace the dialogues and transformations that occurred as concepts crossed political and geographical borders.Schedule 14:00-16:00 Part I Introduction and discussion of pre-circulated texts 16:00-16:30 Coffee break 16:30-18:00 Part II Situating French Institutional Psychotherapy in an international perspective 18:00-19:30 Break 19:30-21.00 Keynote by Camille Robcis Disalienation: Philosophy, Politics and Radical Psychiatry in France ; Radical Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and 1968 , workshop, ICI Berlin, 23 April 2018 ...
The arrival of psychoanalysis in pre-state Israel in the early 20th century presents a unique chapter in the history of psychoanalysis. The paper explores the encounter between psychoanalytic expertise, Judaism, Modern Hebrew culture and the Zionist revolution. It offers a look at the relationship between psychoanalysis and a wider community, and follows the life and work of Jewish psychoanalysts during World War II. The coming of psychoanalysis to pre-state Israel, where it rapidly penetrated the discourse of pedagogy, literature, medicine, and politics, becoming a popular therapeutic to establish its identity in the face of its manifold European pasts and discipline, is regarded as an integral part of a Jewish immigrant society's struggle with its conflict-ridden Middle Eastern present.
The arrival of psychoanalysis in pre-state Israel in the early 20th century presents a unique chapter in the history of psychoanalysis. The paper explores the encounter between psychoanalytic expertise, Judaism, Modern Hebrew culture and the Zionist revolution. It offers a look at the relationship between psychoanalysis and a wider community, and follows the life and work of Jewish psychoanalysts during World War II. The coming of psychoanalysis to pre-state Israel, where it rapidly penetrated the discourse of pedagogy, literature, medicine, and politics, becoming a popular therapeutic to establish its identity in the face of its manifold European pasts and discipline, is regarded as an integral part of a Jewish immigrant society's struggle with its conflict-ridden Middle Eastern present.
The following paper seeks to describe the trajectory of psychoanalytic endeavours in South Africa since the political thaw of the 1990s. The first part, written by Elda Storck – van Reenen, centres on the alignment of psychoanalytic training to international standards and the formation of institutions to contain these developments. Encouraging demographic and professional diversity and addressing the deficit of personal therapy – «Selbsterfahrung» – in formal training modalities are of primary importance. The second part, written by Mary-Anne Smith, elaborates on the application of basic psychoanalytic concepts to community and outreach work in an impoverished and traumatized society. In addition, the aspiration of engaging the interest and support of governmental agencies around the value and relevance of psychoanalytic thinking for primary and preventative health care is explored.
The following paper seeks to describe the trajectory of psychoanalytic endeavours in South Africa since the political thaw of the 1990s. The first part, written by Elda Storck – van Reenen, centres on the alignment of psychoanalytic training to international standards and the formation of institutions to contain these developments. Encouraging demographic and professional diversity and addressing the deficit of personal therapy – «Selbsterfahrung» – in formal training modalities are of primary importance. The second part, written by Mary-Anne Smith, elaborates on the application of basic psychoanalytic concepts to community and outreach work in an impoverished and traumatized society. In addition, the aspiration of engaging the interest and support of governmental agencies around the value and relevance of psychoanalytic thinking for primary and preventative health care is explored.
For Freud, famously, the feminine was a dark continent, or a riddle without an answer. This understanding concerns man's relationship to the question of 'woman' but femininity is also a matter of sexuality and gender and therefore of identity and experience. Drawing together leading academics, including film and literary scholars, clinicians and artists from diverse backgrounds, Femininity and Psychoanalysis: Cinema, Culture, Theory speaks to the continued relevance of psychoanalytic understanding in a social and political landscape where ideas of gender and sexuality are undergoing profound changes. This transdisciplinary collection crosses boundaries between clinical and psychological discourse and arts and humanities fields to approach the topic of femininity from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives. From object relations, to Lacan, to queer theory, the essays here revisit and rethink the debates over what the feminine might be. The volume presents a major new work by leading feminist film scholar, Elizabeth Cowie, in which she presents a first intervention on the topic of film and the feminine for over 20 years, as well as a key essay by the prominent artist and psychoanalyst, Bracha Ettinger. Written by an international selection of contributors, this collection is an indispensable tool for film and literary scholars engaged with psychoanalysts and anybody interested in different approaches to the question of the feminine.
El feminismo de esta última época irrumpió en la cultura como un nuevo agente político, vino a cambiar un orden. A partir del impacto en la política, la subjetividad y en las relaciones sociales que trajo este movimiento, se plantea como necesaria una conversación entre feminismo y psicoanálisis. A pesar de las diferencias, ambas teorías comparten preocupaciones como la sexualidad, el deseo y el amor. ; Feminism in recent years has burst into the culture as a new political agent, it is here to change an order. As of the impact this movement has brought about on politics, subjectivity and social relations, a conversation between feminism and psychoanalysis is regarded as necessary. In spite of the differences, both theories share concerns such as sexuality, desire and love ; Fil:Merlín, Nora. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Políticas. Buenos Aires; Argentina
How does one grasp, historically and conceptually, the relatively recent phenomenon that gay identity politics is systematically mobilized to support racism and imperialism, a phenomenon theorized as "homonationalism" (Puar) and "gay imperialism" (Haritaworn, Erdem & Tauqir)? This dissertation examines psychoanalysis, sexuality, and nationality in late Habsburg Austria in the light of recent analyses of homonationalism and gay imperialism in order to contribute to a better understanding of the long intertwined histories of sexuality, individual selfhood, and racial modernity.Sigmund Freud's theories of sexuality and gender--especially the theories of castration, sexual difference, and Oedipus--form the core of a psychoanalytic understanding of the self. Despite, and in some cases precisely through, their alleged universal character, these theories participate in a battle over the meanings of Czech, European, German, Jewish, and Christian identities brought on by drastic changes in the social and political organization of late Habsburg Austria: industrialization, mass migrations, competing nationalisms, and the rise of the antisemitic movement.In four chapters, titled "Coming Out, Castration, and the Biopolitics of Parental Narcissism," "Sexuality, Antiquity, and the Embodiment of European Culture," "Ritual Murder and Sexuality in the Hilsner Affair," and "Suggestion and Certainty: Two Approaches to a Critique of Antisemitic Knowledge," I read Freud's theories of sexuality and gender together with documents of contemporary social, political, and cultural events: the state's establishment of a social welfare program in 1917; the Badeni affair of 1897 and the politics of Czech and German language rights; the production of King Oedipus at the Viennese Burgtheater in 1886; the Hilsner affair of 1899/1900 and the antisemitic ritual murder discourse. Psychoanalysis, Sexuality, and Nationality in Late Habsburg Austria suggests that psychoanalytic accounts of gender and sexuality normalize and justify racialized notions of individuality.
Emerging out of an era in which the 'paranormal' was viewed with skepticism by most and asquackery by the scientific community, Freud steered psycho-analysis clear of any association with telepathy or thought transference - phenomena which, however, were reported with some frequency within its domain of inquiry.Although he began by rejecting the whole subject, over the years and through personal experiences, he wrote several papers advocating that psychoanalysts embark on a serious inquiry of this phenomenon, approaching it as a normal rather than paranormal aspect of unconscious functioning.Yet despite the legitimization of psi phenomena through government sponsored research and the Princeton (PEAR) studies, psychoanalysis remained at odds with a phenomenon that appears most commonly and quite dramatically in Dreams. Insecurities about the "scientific" merits of our 'talking cure' pushed the subject underground, with only occasional papers emerging every few years which present evidence of telepathic material, but without offering major new theoretical insights.This paper, instigated by personal experience in my practice, searches for the operative roots of dream telepathy as a normal, deeply non-conscious resonance phenomenon, through broad interdisciplinary readings in quantum physics; the Holographic Paradigm; current neuroscience and paleoneurology; Prehistoric Art; developmental studies; psychoanalytic dream theory and group processes; literature on psi from the early 20's, and our own psychoanalytic literature. From within the framework of a revision of Freud's first topographical model viewed as a continuum from biological to semiotically mediated organizations of experience and modes of communication (Aragno 1997, 2008), the inquiry takes us to our distant evolutionary past when evidence of 'representation' first appeared, leaving traces of early hominid mental capacities. With support from contemporary neurobiology and a broad interdisciplinary base, relevant data is selected and synthesized, like pieces of a puzzle, drawing from this a comprehensive hypothesis for the roots of dream telepathy. The subject is approached from the perspective of a biosemiotic model of human interactions (Aragno, 2008) in which all unconscious communicative processes are viewed as natural rather than supernatural phenomena.
Psychoanalysis, as Carl Schorske claimed, was a child of its own epoch. Marked by the political situation in Austria, Victorian moral codes, the German language and its literary tradition, readings of Classical Greco-Roman culture, and bourgeois middle-European culture, however, Sigmund Freud conceived of psychoanalysis as universal. But when in its early days psychoanalysis began traveling across the world, what came to the fore was its situated and local character rather than its universality. Once established in different locales, psychoanalytic technique adapted to different populations, fundamental texts of the discipline began to be read in other languages, and new psychoanalytic concepts emerged. What made it possible for psychoanalysis to function clinically in other contexts was a process of translation. In this article, I propose to understand the process of translation that takes place in the international circulation of psychoanalysis as one that is informed by the psychoanalytic concept of transference. I explore the kind of translation that psychoanalysis underwent in its international circulation, focusing on its history in India, with specific reference to Girindrasekhar Bose, who founded the Indian Psychoanalytical Society in Calcutta and is often considered the first non-Western psychoanalyst. I focus not only on the versions of psychoanalysis that result from this process of translation as transference, but also on what those translations of psychoanalysis might reveal about Freudian thought.
International audience ; Objectives. – The aim of this article is to explore the psychiatric origin of many psychoanalytical theories of "trans-sexuality" and pinpoint their limits, so as to envisage the possibility of post-trans-sexuality psycho- analysis. The article asks whether psychoanalytical theory can move away from theoretical dogmatism and recover its heterotopic viewpoint.Method. – The article starts by proposing heterotopia as a motive common to trans-identities and psycho- analysis. Trans-identities, whether they mimic the binarity of gender or overturn it, invariably generate heterotopias of femininity and masculinity. The psychoanalytical approach too, by way of its functioning, is also aiming for a heterotopic dimension: it sets out a paradoxical "knowledge of the unconscious" that deconstructs positive knowledge categories, and questions the origin and the recipient of any discursive position. In this respect, it follows the six Foucauldian types of heterotopia. Our paper goes on to consider the historical dimension of certain metapsychology categories that prove to be theoretically and clinically harmful, and proceed from essentialized conceptions of sex and gender. The generally flexible perspective of psychoanalysis can rigidify in the setting of certain theories of "trans-sexuality" assimilating it to psychosis or perversion, or to a denial of sexual differences.Results. – Certain psychoanalytical and psychiatric tools need to be deconstructed in order to reappraise trans-identity. The reorganisation is theoretical: the aim is conceive to a form of heterotopic psychoanalysis that is Foucauldian and open to the fertile perspective of what are known as "gender, queer and transgender studies". This multiplicity of approach is intended to enable an apprehension of the aporiae of binarity and identity. The reorganisation also concerns the clinical sphere, endeavouring to question official protocols, pinpoint deleterious "therapeutic" perspectives, and restore the expertise to the "trans" subjects. Discussion. – How can we reconcile the relevance of theoretical tools and their veridiction (their archaeology and genealogy), in order to resignify them? The task is to try to design metapsychological and clinical tools liable to reflect the specific identifications and experiences of trans-identity, escaping from the social, cultural and political normativity of sexual binarity.Conclusions. – There is a need in psychoanalytical approaches to lend an ear to local and minority knowledge. There is likewise a need for these approaches to look beyond psychiatric assessments of "trans-sexuality" and determination of the "real sex" of an individual. The hyper-singularity of every "trans" subject should be reasserted, freed from the general nosographies and etiological categories. And there is a need to re-think the theoretical and clinical counter-transferences generated by these questions, and to historicize the category of "sexual difference". ; Objectifs. – Repenser la filiation psychiatrique de nombre de théorisations analytiques de la « transsexualité », en désigner les points de butée, pour voir si et comment il est possible de penser une psychanalyse de la post-transsexualité. Chercher à voir si la théorisation psychanalytique peut se départir de certains dogmatismes théoriques et recouvrer sa visée hétérotopique.Méthode. – Mise en exergue de l'hétérotopie comme motif commun aux transidentités et à la psychanalyse. Qu'elles présentent un mimétisme de la binarité de genre ou une conception transgenre bouleversant cette binarité, les transidentités produisent des hétérotopies des modèles du féminin et du masculin. L'approche psychanalytique vise, elle aussi, dans son fonctionnement, une dimension hétérotopique : elle articule un paradoxal « savoir de l'inconscient », où le savoir et ses catégories positives sont déconstruits, dans un questionnement de l'origine et de l'adresse de toute posture discursive, et suit, elle aussi, les six principes foucaldiens de l'hétérotopie. Mise en exergue de l'historicité de catégories de la métapsychologie, perpétrant une préoccupante maltraitance théorique, clinique et idéologique, et procédant de visions essentialisées des sexes et des genres. La fluidité de la théorisation analytique se rigidifie dans certaines théorisations des « transsexualités », les rapprochant de la psychose ou de la perversion et les inscrivant dans un refus de la différence des sexes.Résultats. – Déconstruction de certains outils analytiques ou psychiatriques pour repenser les transidentités. Les réaménagements sont théoriques : il s'agit de penser une psychanalyse hétérotopique, foucaldienne et ouverte aux apports féconds des Gender, Queer et Transgender Studies. Il s'agit également d'aborder par la multiplicité les apories de la binarité ou de l'identité. Les réaménagements sont également cliniques et articulent une tentative de repenser les protocoles, de pointer la maltraitance des visées « thérapeutiques » et de restituerl'expertise aux sujets trans.Discussion. – Comment concilier la pertinence d'instruments théoriques et leur véridiction (leur archéologie et leur généalogie), pour les resignifier ? Le propos est de concevoir des instruments métapsychologiques et cliniques susceptibles de rendre compte de la spécificité des identifications et des vécus transidentitaires, et construits par delà la normativité sociale, culturelle et politique de la binarité des sexes.Conclusions. – Nécessité pour une approche psychanalytique d'écouter les savoirs locaux et minoritaires.Nécessité pour cette approche de se détacher des visées psychiatriques d'évaluation de la « transsexualité » et du « vrai sexe ».Nécessité de réaffirmer l'hypersingularité de chaque sujet trans par delà la généralité de la nosographie ou des catégories étiologiques.Nécessité de repenser les contre-transferts théoriques et cliniques induits par ces questions et d'historiciser la catégorie de « différence des sexes ».
My aim in this paper is to draw attention to the position of psychoanalysis regarding the opposition between the quest for truth and relativism. It is a conventional opposition of contemporary thought. On one hand, the quest for truth, and on the other, relativism, as the fundament of our intellectual and political life. I do this by means of Lacanian teachings. My objective is to take on the theoretical tools of psychoanalysis and the consequences of clinical facts, in order to enable a critical reflection on this topic. Before proceeding to the precise argument, I briefly introduce the historical ground correlated to modern subjectivity, characterized by the vanishing of the guarantee of both truth and knowledge. Then I then go into the topic by means of a survey of Lacan's reading of the path of modern logic. Lacan interprets the whole history of logic as a bungled action, "every bungled action is a successful discourse." In fact, it points to the cardinal place of lack, which is the topic of psychoanalysis. It opens towards a deeper understanding of the role of the signifier of signification – the Bedeutung des Phallus. Lacan's interpretation of the whole history of logic transforms the achievements of modern logical thought into the writings of a point de capiton for collective rationality. The key here is to focus on the capital role of what I call in conclusion "an inaccessible point" for both individual and collective life. This is the issue I address in the last point. The article is divided into five points: 1. the relativistic drift; 2. the guarantee of knowledge; 3. the guarantee of truth; 4. logic and point de capiton; and 5. the signification (Bedeutung) of the Phallus.
This thesis argues for a rapprochement between Hannah Arendt's novel theory of totalitarianism and psychoanalysis. Julia Kristeva has recently suggested that Arendt's conceptualization of politics comes close at points to delivering a theory of the political conscious and unconscious. However, what has received little to no attention from scholars is that Arendt's own analysis of the subterranean pathologies which she claims to necessitate totalitarianism -- diminishing human agency and political freedom; the paradox that as mass culture and capitalist consumption abound, we are also less equipped to control human action -- indeed closely remind one of the very mechanisms proposed by psychoanalysis. However, she never discussed this explicitly and certainly never cited psychoanalytic tools in her work. By examining the specific moments of Arendt's theory which address the intersection of individual psychic life and the oftentimes conflictual world of appearances, we will be able to answer the fundamental question left unanswered by Arendt herself: how does one explain the psychic transformation of the subject to the extent that he readily desired and even enjoyed his role in the active constitution of the fascist project? By reading Arendt's political thought alongside psychoanalytic writers, such as Freud, Lyotard, Lacan, Adorno, and Kristeva, we find that the enjoyment and desire to have oneself recognized through action and speech assumed a dramatically different form within totalitarianism. Instead of the enjoyment of human freedom in politics, totalitarianism sprang from the fantastical enjoyment of human superfluousness and objectification from within the 'closed-circuit' totalitarian imaginary.
This thesis argues for a rapprochement between Hannah Arendt's novel theory of totalitarianism and psychoanalysis. Julia Kristeva has recently suggested that Arendt's conceptualization of politics comes close at points to delivering a theory of the political conscious and unconscious. However, what has received little to no attention from scholars is that Arendt's own analysis of the subterranean pathologies which she claims to necessitate totalitarianism -- diminishing human agency and political freedom; the paradox that as mass culture and capitalist consumption abound, we are also less equipped to control human action -- indeed closely remind one of the very mechanisms proposed by psychoanalysis. However, she never discussed this explicitly and certainly never cited psychoanalytic tools in her work. By examining the specific moments of Arendt's theory which address the intersection of individual psychic life and the oftentimes conflictual world of appearances, we will be able to answer the fundamental question left unanswered by Arendt herself: how does one explain the psychic transformation of the subject to the extent that he readily desired and even enjoyed his role in the active constitution of the fascist project? By reading Arendt's political thought alongside psychoanalytic writers, such as Freud, Lyotard, Lacan, Adorno, and Kristeva, we find that the enjoyment and desire to have oneself recognized through action and speech assumed a dramatically different form within totalitarianism. Instead of the enjoyment of human freedom in politics, totalitarianism sprang from the fantastical enjoyment of human superfluousness and objectification from within th"closed-circuit" totalitarian imaginary.
