DIVISION REVIEW DIVISIONA QUARTERLY PSYCHOANALYTIC FORUM NO.4 SUMMER 2012 A QUARTERLY PSYCHOANALYTIC FORUM NO.19 SUMMER 2019

DENT | Christian, Gherovici, Plotkin Psychoanalysis in the Barrios INTERVIEW

BOOK REVIEWS

WORDS & SEEING RELATIONAL SELF PERVERSION TODAY MATHES | Fried ROTHSCHILD | Kieffer WOLFF BERNSTEIN | Knafo & Lo Bosco

COMMENTARY

BENVENUTO | GENGA, FLABBI, PEDICONI, TSOLAS | AUTISM & PSYCHOANALYSIS A ROUNDTABLE: HEALING AND TERMINATION

ALCÉE | READING THE CHANGES: FREUD’S IMPROVISATIONAL ART

2019 SCHILLINGER PRIZE

GROSE | FROSCH REMINISCENCE

PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID HUMPHREY

Psychoanalysis in the Barrios A coversation with Loren Dent

Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, for that reading is one of them. The bi-di- following conversation with Loren Dent, Class and the Unconscious (2019) is a col- rectional interplay among theories, histo- (Web Site Editor, DIVISION/Review). lection of thirteen essays explicitly on the ry, and practice is told in reference to the relationship between psychoanalysis and Latin American story but the lessons to be LD: Please share a bit about how this ‘the Latino population’. However, its latent learned are for psychoanalysis in general. collection came to be. meanings go far beyond that focus. How This past spring, two of the Editors culture and history not only are read by of the collection (Patricia Gherovici and CC: The origin really was prompted psychoanalysis but how they in turn write Christopher Christian) and one of the by a number of very successful events that the psychoanalysis that is then the frame contributors (Mariano Plotkin) had the we had at the New School, co-sponsored

Official publication of Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association Psychoanalysis in the Barrios laughing and clapping—there was just an LD: The introduction of the collec- A coversation with Loren Dent from page 1 enormous amount of energy around the tion speaks to the segregation of the psy- film and the issues that we were address- chotherapies across class, ethnicity, and by the New School and Institute for ing. Following the success of the film, which race. Those who have trained and/or Psychoanalytic Training and Research since has been screened across the United worked in community health settings are EDITOR (IPTAR). One of them was a conference States in different institutions, it seemed nat- familiar with a culture of hopelessness and CONTENTS David Lichtenstein on Latin American contributions to psy- ural to think of developing an edited book a dynamic that is still ubiquitous, where- SENIOR EDITORS choanalysis. And, a year later, anoth- on the subject, and Patricia was the obvious by Latino and Hispanic patients, among Steven David Axelrod, J. Todd Dean, William Fried, er conference titled Psychoanalysis in the person to contact as co-editor. She agreed. other racial and ethnic minorities, are William MacGillivray, Marian Margulies, Bettina Barrio. The third thing that was instru- deemed “treatment resistant,” “unanalyz- INTERVIEW Mathes, Henry Seiden, Manya Steinkoler mental in making us think later about the PG: I owe my participation in this able,” “concrete,” and so on. Such patients 1 Patricia Gherovici The Interview on Psychoanalysis in the Barrios CONTRIBUTING EDITORS book was the documentary, Psychoanalysis project to Chris, who approached me. are often referred to skills groups or other Ricardo Ainslie, Christina Biedermann, Christopher Christian & A coversation with Loren Dent in El Barrio [2016], which was funded by What convinced was a surprising experi- symptom-focused treatments. Chris Bonovitz, Steven Botticelli, Mariano Plotkin Ghislaine Boulanger, Muriel Dimen, a grant from Psychoanalytic Electronic ence. I have been to many psychoanalytic Patricia Gherovici, Peter Goldberg, Publishing. When we premiered the docu- events and often find the tone serious, if not PG: There has been a de-politici- Adrienne Harris, Elliott Jurist, Jane Kupersmidt, mentary, we were struck by the enormous somber. Sometimes, we sense a fear that zation of the American development of Paola Mieli, Donald Moss, Ronald Naso, BOOK REVIEWS Donna Orange, Robert Prince, Allan Schore, amount of enthusiasm it generated, espe- psychoanalysis might not survive. When psychoanalysis, because in the United Robert Stolorow, Nina Thomas, Usha Tummala, cially from younger clinicians. I had been we had the opening night for the documen- States, it became a sub-medical specialty. 7 Bettina Mathes Critical Flicker Fusion: Psychoanalysis at the Movies Jamieson Webster, Lynne Zeavin on the program committee at IPTAR and tary, it felt like a party, which is quite un- Psychoanalysis developed as a very profit- by William Fried usual; we had such a lively response in the able profession. The goal that was that the WEB SITE EDITOR we had hosted a number of talks over the Loren Dean past couple of years, including talks by re- audience. As Chris said, there was laughing, psychoanalyst should make as much mon- 10 Louis Rothschild Mutuality, recognition, and the self: nowned speakers such as Elizabeth Dantos cheering, clapping, people were comment- ey as the plastic surgeon, which entailed Psychoanalytic reflections BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Brian Smith and George Makari. For these events, we ing out loud, and there was this very ex- a deviation, a forgetting of how psycho- by Christine C. Kieffer were used to getting rooms that typically cited atmosphere, it felt like psychoanaly- analysis was conceived by Freud himself. PHOTOGRAPHY BY sat about 100 to 160 people. sis had something new to offer. This made In his famous speech in Hungary between 12 Jeanne Wolff Bernstein The Age of Perversion: David Humphrey Well, within a week of announcing the me think that perhaps it was the reverse. It the two wars, he proposed psychoanaly- Desire and Technology in Psychoanalysis and Culture IMAGES EDITOR screening of Psychoanalysis and El Barrio, we was not so much that psychoanalysis had sis for the people that should be as avail- by Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco Tim Maul had over-filled the capacity of 100 seats, and something new to say. Rather, that there able as the treatment for tuberculosis. So, DESIGN BY needed to move the premiere to the Alvin was something that the barrios could bring this particular development in the United Hannah Alderfer, HHA design, NYC Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, a beautiful, his- back to psychoanalysis. Here was the inspi- States goes along with a certain prejudiced 2019 SCHILLINGER PRIZE WINNING ESSAY DIVISION|REVIEW toric theatre that could accommodate 300 ration for the collection. Rather than taking position, which often means that one as- a quarterly psychoanalytic forum published by the guests. And we still had a waitlist! All of psychoanalysis and applying it to the bar- sumes that the other, the Hispanic other, 16 Michael Alcée Reading the Changes: Freud’s Improvisational Art Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the us who participated in the screening were rio, our idea was to bring back some of the is inferior, that minorities are not equal American Psychological Association, moved by the energy and the enthusiasm liveliness that we experienced in that room others, and this ends up generating a pro- 2615 Amesbury Road, to the field of psychoanalysis. cess of infantilization and adaptation. This REMINISCENCE Winston-Salem, NC 27103. that night. There was cheering, there was Subscription rates: 20 Richard B. Grose Allan Frosch: Portrait of a Clinician $25.00 per year (four issues). Individual Copies: $7.50. Email requests: divisionreview@optonline. com or mail requests: Editor, Division/Review Banner Day—On the Photography of David Humphrey COMMENTARY 80 University Place #5, New York, NY 10003 Letters to the Editor and all I put the finishing touches on the last that occasion, and so I emailed a snapshot into it or to conjure things and beings from 26 Sergio Benvenuto Autism: A Battle Lost by Psychoanalysis Submission Inquiries email the Editor: painting for my 2017 exhibition at Fredericks from my phone to be printed five by seven it. Each painting here emerged from a series [email protected] or send to Editor, & Freiser the day before the election and feet on vinyl with grommets. I picked it up of improvisations or gestures. Sometimes Division/Review had my opening the night of the inaugu- the next day on the way to my studio and squeezing a tube of paint onto the print and 80 University Place #5, New York, NY 10003 ROUND TABLE ON HEALING AND TERMINATION ration. The first day of the show was de- thus began a yearlong adventure collab- pushing it around was enough to establish Advertising: clared “a day without art” in solidarity with orating with, vandalizing, augmenting, or contact with the photograph’s weird other- 33 Maria Gabriella Pediconi, What Healing Has to Do with Termination: Please direct all inquiries regarding advertising, the Women’s March happening around the haunting photographs taken mostly during ness. The oscillating process of damage and Luca Flabbi, Endings and Interruption: Introduction professional notices, and announcements to [email protected] country, which I attended in its New York that routine Long Island City commute. repair gives my relationship to the image a 35 Maria Gabriella Pediconi Beyond Termination version. Most days are a day without my art, Protagonists could be conjured from banal charge that I hope anticipates the way pass- © Division Of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American but I was as appalled and traumatized as the locations. Garbage, dirty snow, or construc- ing viewers will regard these artworks on the Freud and Lacan on Healing: Principles and Practice Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Nothing in this publication may be reproduced people around me and happy to focus on tion sites could be recycled as the unexpect- black and white pages of DIVISION/Review. 38 Glauco Maria Genga Healing as a Problem, a Challenge, or a Solution: without the permission of the publisher. the collective gesture of protest. The works edly special. Please draw on them. in that show acquired unexpected new Sidewalks and streets are an ever-chang- The Concepts of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Technique: DIVISION|REVIEW accepts unsolicited A Brief Summary manuscripts. They should be submitted by email meanings in that context, but the political ing ground for painting-like marks, spills, David Humphrey is a New York art- to the editor: [email protected], prepared landscape also inflected how I was to devel- and assemblage. Gravity holds everything in ist who has shown nationally and interna- 42 Vaia Tsolas The Shadowing of the Object: according to the APA publication manual, and no op new work. An exhibition is often a time place as we move over it on foot or in a vehi- tionally. He has received a Guggenheim longer than 2500 words A Case of Abrupt Departure in the Analytic Process to pause or reflect on one’s practice before cle. When the seen thing becomes a printed Fellowship and the Rome Prize, among beginning again, but my nausea at the turn photograph, one has time to linger on all the other awards. An anthology of his art writ- DIVISION|REVIEW can be read online at in American politics was too fresh and dis- details we presumably saw but sensibly for- ing, Blind Handshake, was published by divisionreview.com 45 Luca Flabbi What Healing Has to Do with Termination: orienting to be productive. got because our brain would explode if we Periscope Publishing in 2010. He teach- Endings and Interruptions Between my home and studio in didn’t. But in a painting, it is rewarding to es in the MFA program at Columbia and ISSN 2166-3653 Long Island City was a (now gone) sign care about each and every detail, and to care is represented by the Fredericks & Freiser and banner printer that I had imagined again and again. Painting on these enlarged Gallery in New York, NY. z could be employed to make artworks if snapshots was a way to reinhabit a recently davidhumphreynyc.com the right occasion arose. Aporia provided exited past with the ability to project back David Humphrey

2 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 3 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

Psychoanalysis in the Barrios A coversation with Loren Dent from page 3 exactly what we’re talking about. What is is actually engaging Freud, who then re- between World War I and World War II, the minimum common thing that allows sponds. I think that’s what is so exceptional there was a very strong politicization, that attitude is coupled with the prevalent idea term ataques? One of the earliest writings the medical establishment. That’s a flip that us to talk about the same thing? Something about that exchange. psychoanalysis was associated with social that a psychoanalysis will require certain on the subject was by Ramon Fernandez struck a chord and that I would say, you similar happened in the rest of the world too. change. There was a very progressive stance level of sophistication that is mostly grant- Marina, who wrote that by employing the know, caught us by pleasant surprise. One If you look at Europe, in France, psychoanal- LD: An undercurrent of the book in psychoanalytic practice that we wanted to ed by income. term Puerto Rican Syndrome, psychiatrists that’s in contrast to the somber note that ysis was at the same time appropriated by as well as this conversation seems to be highlight in the collection, and symptomat- One of the more horrifying conse- would not investigate some of the psychotic Patricia is describing. right-wing and left-wing doctors and intel- the possibility of psychoanalysis as resis- ically, this feature has been forgotten in the quences is a naturalization or essential- processes that were present in their Puerto lectuals, and they were sort of arguing one tance to colonialism and other forms of United States. As Rubén Gallo’s excellent ization of class difference. We have to be Rican patients. His point was that the term LD: Something that seems to link the against the other. In Argentina and Brazil, oppression. book on Freud in Mexico [Freud’s Mexico: reminded that class is the result of his- was employed in the service of an avoid- Latin American and North American con- we had forensic doctors who were thinking Into the Wilds of Psychoanalysis (2010)] has torical conditions. There is a tendency to ance of listening in any detail to the subjec- texts is the lingering effects of colonial- that psychoanalysis was a great tool to disci- PG: There is one common point in shown, there is a Latin specificity to the transform social and material conditions tive experience of these Hispanic patients. ism, both in a historical and material way, pline the population. each of the contributions: the clear aware- Hispanic reception of Freudian ideas. There into psychological features. So, the oth- It reflects a distancing that is pervasive to but also as an attitude. There is a certain ness that there is a strong political compo- is a specific brand of psychoanalysis that ers who happen to be of dark skin and this day in training, and you see it in clinical European attitude, within psychoanaly- LD: It seems that the intrinsic angst nent in psychoanalysis, that the practice of developed in Latin America, that has to do poor will be essentially different; because internships. It’s marked by an authoritarian, sis as well, that struggles with what to do provoked by deviations in psychoanalysis psychoanalysis is political, whether or not with a specific politicization of psychoanaly- they’re lazy, they decide to be poor. There psychoeducational approach that the clini- with the other. Mariano, in your chapter was in Freud’s immediate, European envi- you align yourself with the left or the right. sis. It was not how it developed in the North are absurd constructions, that the poor cians assume, which ultimately drowns out in the book, you describe a tension that ronment, but was only amplified by colo- It’s something that was another element that American context. will decide unconsciously to occupy this the voice of the patient. Freud and psychoanalysis have faced be- nial angst. we discovered when sharing our project, a position, and the treatment echoes oppres- tween a wish to be universal and having to certain surprise in the North American con- MP: I’m not sure, because you’re talking sion. There’s this clear racism in position- PG: The effect of that alienation of the dialogue with someone that is seemingly MP: If you look at Freud’s correspon- text. When we look at the history of psy- about a small portion of psychoanalysis. The ing treatment as a pedagogical correction, other as an inferior other, who becomes an exterior or exotic. dence, you would find that he hardly had choanalysis, the psychoanalysis in the Latin psychoanalytic institutions in Latin America telling people what to do, that they’re object, is also negative for the person in the theoretical or clinical discussions with peo- American development, and also psycho- have defined themselves as being apoliti- not mature enough, developed enough. position of the so-called provider of service, MP: Exactly, in certain places like ple who are outside of Europe or the United analysis in the early days of Freud’s group, cal essentially. In 1980, in the worst of the Therapy interventions become corrective such as the therapist, psychoanalytically Latin America, but also India, and in some States. Most of the correspondence he has orthopedics of behavior, trying to teach trained psychologist, or social worker. This cases the margins of Europe. Freud was in with Indian or Latin American psychoan- them, guide them, in a way perpetrating could explain why many people in such some ways a typical 19th, early 20th cen- alysts, or people interested in the practice the same model of oppression that these settings experience “burnout”—they must tury intellectual with all the limitations of of psychoanalysis, was very basic: “Thank subjects already occupy. So, in new ways, provide a treatment following a certain set coming to terms with otherness. At some you very much, it’s great you’re looking at the dominant mode of class oppression is of rules, like recipes that will always pro- point, an Indian psychoanalyst sent Freud that in your country, you’re moving for- repeated in the therapeutic model. duce the same result with the pressures of one of these little figures, an antique from ward to expanding psychoanalysis.” But signing a contract. A patient with suicidal India for his collection, and Freud thanked there was very, very, very little theoretical CC: What is being pointed out is ideation has to promise that they will not him, and said he appreciated that figure or clinical discussion in the way he kept [in something everyone who has been in train- commit suicide; otherwise, they will break because it showed how far psychoanalysis touch] with the European psychoanalysts. ing recognizes, this notion that because the contract. Having to fill out such absurd had gone in the conquest—that’s the word The only more or less theoretical discus- the Hispanic poor are so consumed with treatment plans alienates not only the per- Freud uses—of the world. Classical figures sion I found in one of Freud’s letters to a the demands of everyday life, they need son asking for help, but also the provider. have some value for Freud; Indian figures Latin American correspondent was not in very concrete interventions that are myo- What I concluded working in mental have a different value for Freud. But that’s a letter sent to one of these famous intel- pically symptom-focused. They’re in need health centers was that they’re located as not something to blame Freud for. He was lectuals interested in psychoanalysis, but of guidance, because they’re so disorient- places for social buffering. There is some- a product of his time. He was a very for- to a medical student, who had made some ed. There’s a tendency to infantilize the thing ethically important to consider when ward-looking person, but at the same time, criticism of Freud, and then Freud took the Latino patient affected by poverty. Often, we treat the other person as a subject and he had the limitations of an intellectual of time to answer him. But in general, it looks the clinician orients himself to a concrete not as an object. In a psychoanalytic model, his age. The epistemological problem is the as if Freud was not taking very seriously the diagnosis, and the diagnosis takes prece- the person coming to us for help is consid- bottom line—how do we define psychoanal- Latin American scenario of producing psy- dence over listening to the patient. In to- ered to be a subject. And for an oppressed ysis as opposed to something else? That’s choanalytic theory. One of Freud’s Latin day’s market-driven practice of treatment, minority, as is the case for Latino people part of the richness of the book. American correspondents was Doctor we have diagnoses that come paired with coming to a mental health center in the bar- Honorio Delgado, with whom he kept a ready-made interventions. Panic attacks, for rio, it is extremely important to be heard, to LD: The history of psychoanalysis is correspondence for more than 20 years. example, already have a treatment plan that provide a position where the provider is lis- marked by this question of what defines They were friends; they were exchanging is implied by the diagnosis that takes prior- tening, and where they can be heard. the discipline. Freud allowed for certain gifts, presents, and photographs and so ity over the unique aspects of the person’s deviations in theory and practice as the forth. I couldn’t find in the whole corre- life. What ensues is an avoidance of listen- CC: What we’re talking about is what price for psychoanalysis being adopted in spondence a single theoretical or clinical ing to the person. Alfredo Carrasquillo, struck us then about the documentary other parts of the world. discussion. And that’s interesting, because who was also one of the authors in the when we showed it. The contrast that we Delgado was one of the earliest biographers book, points to something that I think is observed was that in place of distancing, MP: In Latin America, as well as in the of Freud in any language. important: there’s a kind of fear of listening there was now a sense of familiarity, of rest of the world, psychoanalysis means many to Latino patients affected by poverty, and closeness. The laughter was an expression things for many different people, sometimes CC: It’s still an attitude of distancing it’s not due to racism, necessarily, or xeno- of recognition. So, the otherizing that we’re even opposite things for different people. In with Latin America. In Mariano’s chapter phobia. He brings up this term, aporopho- describing, the alienating effects of diagno- Latin America, at the same time, psycho- in our collection, you see a Freud not par- bia: a fear of poverty. Rafael Javier has made ses, for example, was in stark contrast with analysis was interpreted as a tool for cultural ticularly interested in what Latin America a similar case—we need to be vigilant of this the experience of familiarity on the night modernization, as a tool for sexual freedom, can bring to psychoanalysis, but rather, well-noted countertransference to poverty. of film. And by the way, it was present in as a tool for disciplining the population, as a how the Latin American authors give evi- Consider the history of the term ataque the film itself, where we were interviewing new way of talking about all obsessions, like dence to the expansion of psychoanalysis in de nervios. Why was the term Puerto Rican people on the street. The voices of people sexuality, or dreams, all of that at the same the rest of the world. It’s a sad story. What Syndrome so readily adopted by psychia- in the barrio was clearly put front and cen- time. The problem that I sometimes have marks the difference with the student that trists in the 1940s and 1950s to replace the ter, rather than the authoritative opinion of as a historian of psychoanalysis is to define Mariano describes in the chapter is that he worker

4 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 5 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS military dictatorship, the president of the MP: Another top military man who was inner-city clinics, the help being offered is Argentine Psychological Association was president had a daughter who was a psy- quite limited and segregated. To include psy- Words of Seeing Bettina MATHES boasting that now psychoanalysis could fi- chologist who practiced in psychoanalysis. choanalysis as a possibility leads to opening 1. Born in Europe in the last years of Ten years earlier, Harvard psychologist produces meaning and shapes the spectator nally reach the larger society. Psychoanalysts up more options. One interesting experience the 19th century, psychoanalysis and the Hugo Münsterberg had likened the cinema as gendered subject. Concepts such as un- who were engaged in politics were a minori- PG: I was curious, when listening to you, in the U.S. was the Lafargue Clinic that was moving image are siblings. So, of course, to Freud’s theory of the mind in his now conscious signifier, dream work, screen memory, ty and not the mainstream psychoanalysts. to know whether you have any hypotheses opened in Harlem in the 1950s, where, influ- they had a complicated relationship. In classic study Das Lichtspiel (The Photoplay). mirror stage, the gaze, voyeurism, phallus, and Psychoanalysis expanded as never be- as to why the word “psychoanalysis” calls up enced by the ideas of Franz Fanon, psycho- 1925, Georg Wilhelm Papst prepared a pro- Meanwhile, father Freud was not amused: fetish were instrumental in ushering in a new fore in the dictatorships, and I’m not say- so many different and contradictory concepts, analysis was made available specifically to he famously disliked the movies, believing kind of film criticism, concerned with nam- ing by any means that they were complicit theories, and even ethical practices. the African-American community. This ex- Critical Flicker Fusion: Psychoanalysis at the Movies. films had nothing to contribute to psycho- ing and critiquing the powerful effects of or anything like that. A few years ago, I ample proves that psychoanalysis can offer By William Fried analysis and vice versa. the cinematic apparatus on the spectator’s put out the volume called Psychoanalysis MP: That’s a long discussion, but something that helps in undoing the effects Karnac 2017, 184 pages, $30.93 Starting in the 1970s, scholars like unconscious. Most recently, Winnicottian and Politics with [Joy Damousi] that focus- I guess you could make a similar argu- of social and racist oppression. (Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Jean-Louis Baudry, Christian Metz, Laura notions such as the transitional object, po- es on the development of psychoanalysis ment for almost any set of ideas. What is Societies series on the boundaries of psychoanalysis) Mulvey (who is also a film-maker), Teresa tential space, and holding environment have and the conditions of political restriction. Marxism? For a different project, I went to CC: I think there’s a danger of pros- duction of his silent film Geheimnisse einer de Lauretis and Tania Modleski began to been used by both scholars and therapists There were psychoanalysts who were the Argentine Navy School and looked at elytizing. That is, as the notion that psy- Seele (Secrets of a Soul) collaborating with employ psychoanalytic theory—for the to understand more about how spectators very active in politics and tried to polit- what the Navy officers learned about psy- choanalysis is coming in as missionaries to Karl Abraham (who did not live to see the most part drawing on Freud and Lacan— experience and “use” the films they watch icize their discipline. But the mainstream chology in the 60s and 70s. It was psycho- a foreign land, the barrio, and extolling the movie) and Hanns Sachs as consultants. to explain the ways in which the cinema (Sabbadini, 2011; Kuhn, 2013). of psychoanalysis was not that. In fact, analysis. So it’s very complicated. virtues of psychoanalysis, and of the experi- By the beginning of the new millenni- the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association ence of being appreciated, not as an object, um the effort to uncover the cinema’s ma- refused to condemn the military dictator- LD: I want to return to the North but as a subject. There’s a long history of nipulative ‘subtext’ had become formulaic ship. The same thing happened in in Chile American environment and the premise psychoanalysis pathologizing cultural dif- and predictable. Article by article, book by and Brazil. of the book, bringing the barrios back to ferences, such as different definitions of self book confirmed the power of the moving psychoanalysis. What does this imply for and different definitions of connectedness. image to serve up ‘bad objects’ that control- PG: But how do you account for American analysts regarding ethics and So, the message can’t be: “Here’s how, led the viewer’s unconscious, reactivated the experience in Argentina in the 1970s, responsibility? if you adapt to psychoanalysis, you’ll be early trauma of castration, and reaffirmed where psychoanalysts would go into shan- saved.” There’s a long and painful history outdated psychoanalytic concepts. Each tytowns to provide psychoanalytic thera- CC: The solution cannot simply be that in Puerto Rico of that type of experience. study also confirmed its author’s power to py? Many psychoanalysts before the 70s in order to make analysis accessible in the In a recent presentation, we had someone halt the flow of the movie, break it up into dictatorship clearly identified as Marxists. barrio, I need to sacrifice my own income, say, “You know, I hear you speaking, but we bits and pieces, insert psychoanalytic and Marxist groups would also adopt a sort of although there’s something to be said about have real needs. This all sounds too intellectual.” philosophical references, and reassemble it Althusserian psychoanalytic discourse as a that too. There is a political dimension, where It generated a great discussion and raised thereby creating a new narrative—the narra- tool for social change. Social change had to something needs to change in our system the question of who the intended audience tive of the one who interprets, the one who be infused psychoanalytically. such that psychoanalysis can be treated like of our theories and clinical presentations knows, as it were. It was obvious: psycho- other medical expenses, covered by insur- was. I think it requires that we examine analytic film criticism had exhausted itself. MP: In terms of a theoretical appropri- ance companies, with open access to care, as some basic tenets of psychoanalysis that Time to pause. Time to remind ourselves ation of psychoanalysis by Marxists, which is the case in many other wealthy countries. are ill-conceived and that over-patholo- of what got lost in the process of disman- also happens in some sectors of the United We know that insurance companies will of- gize cultural norms. And by saying that, I tling a film’s defenses: that most of us go States, this was not mainstream psychoanal- ten limit the number of sessions a patient can am not saying that we need to alter psy- to the movies (or watch films at home) to ysis; they were marginal groups. You have have, ignoring the well-known fact that many choanalysis such that we make it more be moved (both emotionally and spatially), people who tried to articulate psychoanal- so-called short-term treatments are really supportive, more symptom-focused, and that watching a movie is pleasurable and, ysis and Marxism in Argentina and Brazil “chronic, short-term treatments,” meaning less expressive to accommodate the poor. sometimes, satisfying; that we derive plea- and the United States, but is that the main- that the person is constantly having treat- That’s condescending. We don’t need to sure and gratification from moving on and stream of psychoanalysis? I wouldn’t say so, ments arbitrarily be time-limited only to cycle water down psychoanalysis and make it through the sensuous fabric of the screen. although some senior analysts participated back into another short-term treatment. psychodynamic therapy. But we need to To say it with Giuliana Bruno: “A film’s in those groups and left the psychoanalytic bring the barrio back to psychoanalysis and spectatorship is a practice of space that is association in 1971. PG: What I always find astonishing is allow it to inform and challenge our under- dwelt in,” Bruno writes in her splendid Atlas There were psychoanalysts were per- the economy and management of insurance standing of psychoanalysis. This includes of Emotions. And: “the realm of motion is secuted by the military, as well as lawyers companies. They seem to forget that if suf- a new understanding, for example, of dif- never too far from the range of emotion.” and doctors, professionals. If anything, they fering could be put into words, we could ferent modes of relatedness and the value The viewer’s pleasure is the surface plea- were persecuted for the political activity, save additional expenses. If somebody is of interdependence. It entails appreciating sure of a traveller. And film-making is the not because they were psychoanalysts. In having a panic attack, they may be admitted the contributions that the barrio can make “making of (e)motional space” (2002, p. 62, 1977, at the very beginning of the dictator- to the emergency room for symptoms that to psychoanalysis and rejecting something 69). In her recent Surface (2014) Bruno asks ship, the government was financing a Latin could be taken as a heart attack. By talking akin to a colonialist psychoanalysis coming us to be at her side as she explores the ma- American psychoanalytic conference. The about their suffering, they will not need to to the rescue of poor people in the barrio. terial pleasures of visual images, as she dis- whole system of mental health during the let their bodies speak on their behalf. z covers, over and over again, that the surface dictatorship became psychoanalytic, if you For me what is shocking is that in men- REFERENCES is rarely ever superficial. look at the official publications. tal health clinics, psychoanalysis is excluded Christian, C. (Executive producer), Reichbart, R. (Exec- In recent years, a growing number of as an option, considered too expensive, or utive producer), & Winograd, B. (Director and producer). (2016). Psychoanalysis in el barrio [Video]. United States: psychoanalysts have been eager to analyze PG: One argument we could make, requires certain conditions for the person PEP Video Grants. individual films, despite Freud’s rigorous which is mentioned in the introduction requesting the service. Of course, poor peo- Damousi, J. & Plotkin, M. B. (Eds.). (2012). Psychoanalysis aversion to the cinema. Unlike film scholars, (of the book [2019]) and also by Nancy ple may need help and resources for “real and politics: Histories of psychoanalysis under conditions of restricted political freedom. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. though, who have developed an extensive Hollander in her chapter, is that one of the problems.” The fact that they’re coming to Gallo, R. (2010). Freud’s Mexico: Into the wilds of psycho- vocabulary to engage with the symbolic di- spokespersons of the military in Argentina us for help does not mean they’re not trying analysis. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Gherovici, P. & Christian, C. (Eds.). (2019). Psychoanal- mension of the formal and technical aspects declared three enemies of Western civiliza- to do something about other type of prob- ysis in the barrios: Race, class, and the unconscious. Abingdon, of the cinema (what makes a film a film and tion: Einstein, Marx, and Freud. lems elsewhere. But when they come to the UK: Routledge. bags

6 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 7 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS not, say, a play), psychoanalysts, despite the underlying meanings of which can another milestone in film history, his aim is very specific temporality, images that evoke of me, hoping they will carry a charge that even, by the visual (nonverbal) images that their best intentions, tend to focus on (lin- be discovered by a process of exegesis to “comment on some of the fundamental a preverbal immediacy (their effect is in- resonates within the analysand. In this come to me, pass by me, transport me guistic) content and meaning at the expense […] that will result in an …elucida- differences between Freud’s world view and stant, derived from my sense-perceptions), sense, the words that I speak are met- somewhere else. It is to receive the surface of almost everything else that distinguishes tion of the work’s themes and motifs” that of the neo-Freudians” (p.97). images that, unlike spoken or written lan- aphors, and they are both mine and not (because that’s all I’ve got) in an accommo- film from literary genres like dramas, novels, (pp. xxii - xxiii) Fried has organized his book themat- guage, are excessive and contained at the mine. This is why I speak differently with dating and kind way, with empathy. It is to, short stories, and poetry. Which is some- ically, with each chapter discussing two same time (they say everything at once and every patient. If all goes well enough, every as Susan Sontag has asked us, first “supply what surprising, given that without its “tech- In the preface to the book, Frederic or more films. The chapter on “secrets” is yet hold themselves together). psychoanalytic couple creates their own a really accurate, sharp, loving description nical elements” (what is nowadays called the Perlman, the editor of the series in which followed by chapters on “time and death,” Others have asked these questions be- idiom. If things don’t go well enough (and of the appearance of [the] work of art” frame), psychoanalysis wouldn’t be any dif- Fried’s book appears, presumes a “natural al- “love and lust,” and “human identity.” His fore (though not necessarily regarding film things often don’t go well), and the ana- and use that as the basis for interpreting. ferent from ordinary conversations. In his re- liance of art and analysis [which] clearly re- associations with the films he discusses take criticism). I’m thinking of Julia Kristeva, lyst, for instance, over and again speaks to It is to pay attention to editing, montage, cent book, Andrea Sabbadini (2014), (found- flects the parallel nature of their purposes—to author and reader far and wide: he roams who, confronted with the paintings and the patient in preconceived ideas, he sabo- pace, framing, and color. It is to be moved ing) director of the European Psychoanalytic represent otherwise hidden truths” (p. xiv). the lands of poetry and drama (Shakespeare, frescos by Giotto, wondered whether to tages the process. Freud and Dora learned by the movement on the screen—and lat- Film Festival in London, lists among the Not surprisingly, many would disagree Yeats, Coleridge, Wordsworth), philosophy “insert the signs of language” into the there- this lesson the hard way. Maybe because er, sometimes a long, long while later, to “rewarding results” of watching and writ- with Perlman that the purpose of psycho- (Aristotle and Blaise Pascal, among others), ness of the image required the viewer to Freud was too impatient. be moved into words, words that can be ing about movies that movies may help the analysis (or art) was to represent otherwise and history, bringing back treasures that “open out, release, and set side by side what The psychoanalytic process takes time, shared in a review or an essay. Words that analyst to better understand a patient, “to hidden truths; just like not every analyst make for an interesting, sometimes surpris- is compact, condensed, and meshed” (1988, sometimes a very long time. Much of this fit the movie and my reception of it. It is illustrate a number of psychoanalytic ideas (or analysand, for that matter) approaches ing reading experience. What is lacking, p.27). A “finding our way through what sep- time is spent waiting. Waiting for the pa- to interpret not what is supposedly hidden and convey a sense of what analytic work a session as a coherent entity awaiting the however, is attention to the films as films. arates the place where ‘I’ speak, reason, and tient’s unconscious to take shape in the ana- beneath the screen (what isn’t there but consists of” (p. xv). In writing about individ- analyst’s exegesis (Fried’s word for interpre- Almost completely absent are the names understand from the one where something lyst and in the space between them. Waiting should be there), but to describe and an- ual films, psychoanalysts (including himself), tation). Whether we call it a “holding en- of actors/actresses as well as information functions in addition to my speech: some- for attachments to form. Waiting for a sig- alyze what becomes apparent in myself as he states, are mostly interested in content, in vironment” (Winnicott), the emergence of on the duration, color, format, projection thing that is more-than-speech, a meaning nal the analyst can catch: a sound, a silence, spectator. Put in Freudian terms, I’m wait- “the unconscious aspects of characters and “the Real” (Lacan’s term for the breaking gauge, and film material (film stock, video, to which space and color have been added” a gesture, a word. Waiting for an opening. ing to be taken from thing-presentation to stories” (p.xv). down of signification), “chora” (Kristeva’s digital). Likewise missing is a discussion (p. 27). A kind of “put[ting] back into words And sometimes waiting for something to word-presentation.2 I don’t dispute that movies (like other word for preverbal experience), “the un- of the respective director’s visual choices, that from which words have withdrawn” happen, not knowing what that something Of course, I’m not saying that psycho- art forms) can indeed contribute to our un- thought known” (Bollas), or “unformulat- e.g., editing, framing, camera position, col- (p. 27). I’m thinking of Susan Sontag’s pas- might be. Waiting to recognize repetitions, analytic theory does not have its place in derstanding of the psychological, political, ed experience” (Stern)—psychoanalysts of or palette, sound, etc. As if it didn’t make sionate (and somewhat desperate) call for mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, and timings. the kind of film writing I’m advocating here. and cultural dynamics we encounter in the quite different analytic persuasions have a difference whether a film was 20 or 200 an “erotics of art, for a criticism that would Waiting not knowing how much longer to It does! In fact, every time I write about a consulting room. Of course they do! But a urged us to make space for nonsense to minutes long, whether it was shot on 35 serve the work of art, not usurp its place” wait to be able to say words that feel true movie in the way I have suggested, I con- film that tells a story (not all films do) tells come forth in a session. Interpretation (the mm or 16 mm, whether it employed lay (1964/1990, p.12). to the patient’s and the analyst’s experience. tribute to psychoanalytic theory. My view- it in a visual and auditory way. Absent from analyst’s tool to assert his authority as the actors or world famous actresses, whether For both Kristeva and Sontag, it is the Words that touch, move, perhaps even cut. ing experience and the words I come to put this almost exclusive focus on meaning and one who knows) is thus necessarily pushed it was shot in color or in black-and-white, “technical elements” that deserve close at- Words that make a difference. Waiting to to it might enliven, examine, expand, and motivation is the consideration of form and into the background. whether it was produced for TV or the tention: color, rhythm, texture, tempera- recognize the ways in which patient and even alter theoretical concepts. Used this technology as independent elements, that And then there’s transference, or rath- cinema, whether the spectator watched it ture, tone of voice, form, genre, and style. analyst unconsciously express, edit, and way, films do not illustrate or explain the- is to say of how the characters appear on a er the lack of it. In a psychoanalytic session, in a movie theatre, on his home screen, or And it is precisely in the domain of techni- frame their experiences of themselves and ory, but theory stands (or fails to stand) the screen, of how the stories are told visually and patient and analyst both actively create a on her smart phone. Fried considers these cality that, I believe, psychoanalysis as prac- the other. test of movie goers. in time. And what about films that don’t tell transference relationship that goes both technical aspects of film-making negligi- tice has an important contribution to make If films are not sessions and the charac- I realize that my understanding of a story in which characters act out their un- ways. Films invite the spectator’s projec- ble, perhaps even trivial. His inattention to film criticism. Which is another way of ters in them are not patients, how can what waiting in the transference is one among conscious fears, wishes, or complexes? tions, but characters in a movie do not is a choice, not an oversight (p.xxi). In an saying that some analysts know more about I have said about waiting and words be use- many ways of doing psychoanalysis. It is, To focus on content is to interpret, develop transferences to the audience. To appendix (pp.123-128), he spells out what visual images than they know. ful for the kind of film criticism that serves I do believe, the version of psychoanalysis to push through the visual (and auditory) treat films like psychoanalytic sessions is, I in his view (not everybody would agree) How so? both the film and the viewer? that makes a genuinely psychoanalytic (be- surface of the film in order to uncover its think, a misleading analogy. are the connections between filmic mise-en- In order to answer this question, it is In contrast to the still image (painting, cause process-based) contribution to film “real” meaning. Plot, story, dialogue, char- Finally, and importantly, and regard- scène, dreams, and psychoanalytic sessions. necessary to first say something about how photography), films are anticipatory. They writing, adding our clinical sensibility to the acter development, and motivation are the less of the question of whether watching He does not, however, offer an example of analysts (and patients) arrive at the words ask me to become a person-in-waiting. theory- and history-oriented film criticism materials which, that is the assumption, a film resembles being in a session with a how these perceived similarities might be they put to unconscious or dissociated Before DVDs and streaming platforms were practiced by film scholars, art historians, contain the film’s secret, its hidden truths, as patient, the overemphasis on internal co- used in a film review. Fried’s exclusive focus experience. invented, which allow me to stop, rewind, and cultural critics. it were. While such an approach can yield herence and exegesis cannot address film on content, wide-ranging and interesting as As psychoanalysts, we work between or fast forward a film at any time, to watch Words of seeing. fascinating insights and confirm the pow- as art. All (now classic) movements in the it is (Fried is a perceptive and jargon-free words and that which at the same time re- a movie I had to go to the cinema, where er of psychoanalytic thinking, especially if history of the cinema—German expression- writer), does not “do justice” to the films in- treats (recoils, as it were) from language, once the movie had begun, I adapted to the REFERENCES Bruno, Giuliana (2002). Atlas of Emotions: journeys in art, the author has a wide range of extra-film- ism, Italian neorealism, the French nouvelle cluded in the book. In fact, we learn nothing even though created by it, and is amenable tempo and the rhythm of the film. When I architecture and film. New York: Verso. ic material to draw on (literature, drama, vague, the metaphysical films by Tarkovsky about the films as films, but a lot of interest- to it: metaphor and the unconscious. What watch a movie, I’m always waiting for the Bruno, Giuliana (2014). Surface: matters of aesthetics, materiality and media. Chicago & London: University of philosophy), it implies that the psycho- and Bergman, or the cinema of Ozu and ing things about Fried’s literary preferences. some analysts refer to as “working in the next image. If I don’t check the time on my Chicago Press.. analyst-as-critic doesn’t trust the image as Kurosawa—are not important because of By focusing on verbally relatable content, transference,” I would describe as allowing watch (or my cell phone), I have no way Fried, W. (2017). Critical flicker fusion: Psychoanalysis at image, doesn’t quite believe what unfolds the content matter they present. As art, the Fried, more than he seems to know, shares a patient’s unconscious to take shape in of knowing how long I’ve waited and how the movies. (CIPS series on the boundaries of psychoanaly- sis) London, England: Karnac. on the screen before his very eyes, doesn’t cinema has the unique ability to examine in Freud’s aversion to the cinema. He does me over time. (Whether we characterize much more there is to wait for. Depending Kristeva, J. (1988). Giotto’s joy. In Norman Bryson have a vocabulary that respects the sensu- and offer an experience of the never settled take psychoanalysis to the movies—with it as unformulated experience, dissociated on my early experiences, cinematic wait- (Ed.), Calligram. Essays in new art history from France (pp. 27-52). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ous, the superficial, and the nonverbal. relationship between sight and sound; time eyes wide shut. self-states, projected identifications, un- ing can be comforting or deeply frustrating Kuhn, A. (Ed.). (2013). Little madnesses: Winnicott, In his new book, Critical Flicker Fusion, and space; movement and stillness; image, conscious signifiers, or unthought known (and everything in between). As psychoan- transitional phenomena and cultural experience. London, 2. As a psychoanalyst, what can I of- UK: I.B. Tauris. William Fried is this kind of critic. Here’s thought, and word. It does so not through is not important for my argument.) To alyst-at-the-movies, I can accept the neces- Sabbadini, A. (2011). Cameras, mirrors and the bridge how he describes his approach to the films content but through formal, technologi- fer film criticism? What kind of clinically receive and feel texture, temperature, and sary waiting as an invitation to register the space: A Winnicottian lens on cinema. Projections, 5(1), that he included in his book: cal, and stylistic choices. Thus, when Fried informed psychoanalytic commentary is tone, to be carried by its rhythm and pace, ways in which the film carries me, and the 17-30. Sabbadini, A. (2014). Moving images: Psychoanalytic re- 1 writes about a film by an auteur, Kiarostami’s useful when engaging with visual images? and to put (my) words to what I receive. I places it takes me—if, that is, I have learned flections on film. London, England: Routledge. I think analysts would do greater justice Certified Copy, all he can offer are “general Images that move according to their own give a part of myself over to what cannot to wait. Sontag, S. (1990). Against interpretation. In Against interpretation and other essays (pp.3-14). New York, NY: to movies if they approached them as reflections that may elucidate the film with- 1. This is not to deny the auditory dimension of the ci- yet be spoken by the patient. I put my abil- Writing about movies, from the place Picador. (Original work published1964) they do sessions, that is, as potentially out addressing its particularities” (p. 66). In nema. However, I don’t have the space here to also think ity to feel, think, and speak at the service through what we do when we put written words to sound of the clinical practice I have sketched, is 2. In her essay on Giotto, Kristeva (1988) makes a simi- coherent, internally consistent entities, the section on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and music. of the patient. And I reach for words inside to let myself be moved, afflicted, infected lar but also slightly different point.

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writing. Kieffer writes of patient/analyst parents. Another patient, a midlife male anced consideration of relational psycho- Mutuality, recognition, and the self Louis ROTHSCHILD mutuality as being similar to that of par- five years into group therapy, moves from analysis in contact with other schools for ent and child, where she asks if indeed one of Kieffer’s groups to another, where its capacity to avoid reading boundaries In his book on Winnicott, Rodman work with narcissistic resistances to losing tantly, Kieffer also highlights that in order empathic attunement might well include after a few months he mentions that he between schools as signs bearing warnings (2003) also considers Bion in an adversarial a sense of omniscience through awareness to break out of an impasse, an analyst needs the occasional well-timed criticism as part believes himself to be Kieffer’s favorite pa- against trespass. For its integrative import, Los Angeles. Specifically, Rodman consid- that one’s favorite theory does not succeed to acknowledge their contribution to the of mirroring. Two cases that stood out for tient of the former group. Here, cultivation the book is a breath of joyful air, and I rec- ers challenges by Kleinian and Kohutian as a totalizing theory while being in session. impasse, so that the patient may be able to me span age, gender, and group/individual of empathy is the lens brought to focus on ommend it as such. z This capacity to sit with uncertainty enables feel such a change in the dyad. modalities. One regards a standoff in the being a favorite that seeks to avoid sham- Mutuality, recognition, and the self: a felt clinical need to appreciate fluidity In further regard to a practitioner’s waiting room. The waiting room first ap- ing in service to a differentiated awareness REFERENCES Psychoanalytic reflections Akhtar, S. (2005). Objects of our desire. New York: Har- while standing in multiple spaces. Simply, it contribution to the dyad, Kieffer turns to pears in this book as a space like an analyt- in order to work with narcissistic disequi- By Christine C. Kieffer mony Books. is no simple matter to stand in multiplicity Faimberg’s classical and multigenerational ic institute, where one may recognize that librium. In these and other cases found in Amati-Mehler, J., Argentieri, S., & Canestri, J. (1993). London, England: Karnac Books, 2014 The babel of the unconscious: Mother tongue and foreign lan- while sitting a step behind emergent phe- view of countertransference (2005). Here, siblings are present. Yet, the waiting room this volume, Kieffer illustrates Winnicott’s ???pp., $??? guages in the psychoanalytic dimension (J. Whitelaw-Cucco, nomena in the consulting room. With such unarticulated narcissistic links are consid- may also be a place of isolated waiting. A observation (1989) that fear of present Trans.). Madison, CT: International Universities Press. thought to ego psychology as responsible multiplicity, the challenge of divisiveness is ered across three generations to build an young teenage girl with a younger autistic breakdowns signals past breakdowns that Bion, W. R. (1992). Cogitations. London, England: Karnac. Eigen, M. (2012). Kabbalah and psychoanalysis. London, for local tensions that then led to a mul- quickly encountered, as Kieffer writes that alienated Oedipal resolution of intersub- brother in her second year of treatment lacked a witness and that a broad concept England: Karnac. tiplicity of schools. In contrast to the divi- Kohut has been criticized for using Gun- jective stasis due to children having been sits outside an open waiting room door for of après-coup may be utilized to reconstruct Faimberg, H. (2005). The telescoping of generations: Lis- tening to the narcissistic links between generations. New York, siveness of that climate, Rodman adds that trip’s and Fairbairn’s works without proper utilized for narcissistic regulation. Kieffer periods of extended time before crossing agony (cf. Faimberg, 2005; Green, 2005). NY: Routledge. “[t]hose who were drawn to Winnicott’s acknowledgment. As such a claim amounts moves from classical theory to relational the threshold. One day, when time in the Faimberg (2005) wonders how other Fajardo, B. (2001, September). The therapeutic alliance: waiting room began to eclipse the time al- traditions deal with après-coup and from Coupled oscillators in biological synchrony. Presented at the work never formed into a coterie. This was to a reworking of links that were previously considerations of dissociation in order to Chicago Psychoanalytic Society, Chicago, IL. the consequence of Winnicott’s own atti- obstructed, it would be helpful to her argu- compare how theorists from both schools lotted for a session, Kieffer answered her which perspectives. In many respects, Kief- Green, A. (2005). Play and reflection in Donald Winn- tude” (Rodman, 2003, p.315). ment if Kieffer were able to cite those critics. engage countertransferential textures that telephone. The patient entered the con- fer may be read as an answer to Faimberg icott’s writings: The Donald Winnicott memorial lecture given by Andre Green. London, England: Karnac. The role of charisma as a cure or cause Although Kohut may have been implicitly include “enigmatic gaps and silences” (Kief- sulting room to say that it was her time, from relational-self psychology, which Kieffer, C. C. (2014). Mutuality, recognition, and the self: of rigidity may continue to be debated, yet fond of object relations, Kieffer finds that fer, 2014, p.59). Of interest here is Kieffer’s not another patient’s, before returning to could well be a newer tradition. I recom- Psychoanalytic reflections. London, England: Karnac. Rodman, F. R. (2003). Winnicott: Life and work. Cam- differences between schools, Winnicott, the self-psychological tendency to consider recommendation to struggling candidates the waiting room. The need for a sturdy mend this book to anyone practicing from bridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1989). The and an attitude of openness all figure sig- an impasse to be an empathic failure may to read fiction for help conducting dream container emerged through discussions of a self-psychology perspective, yet to stop psychology of madness: A contribution from psycho-anal- nificantly in the work under review. Chris- miss opportunities that relationally minded work with dissociation and countertransfer- Kieffer’s aggression in answering the phone there would be a loss. Additionally, I rec- ysis. In C. Winnicott, R. Shepherd, & M. Davis (Eds.), D. W. Winnicott: Psychoanalytic explorations (pp.119-129). Cam- tine Kieffer’s collection of papers entitled analysts find in cycles of rupture and repair ence (cf. Bion [1992] on artists aiding dream and the patient’s experience with fragile ommend it to anyone interested in a nu- bridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Mutuality, Recognition, and the Self: Psycho- as a part and parcel of successful treatment, work). There, she considers how narratives analytic Reflections centers on challenges to and that such an orientation may tilt the may distinguish the fetishistic use of an ob- the limits of a school that, like any school, frame in a manner that affords a significant- ject in the service of stasis from a transition- may at times embody the rigidity of a co- ly different tenor, thereby enabling work to- al object use that facilitates mobility. terie. Here, the reader does not journey to wards developing capacities that can make In line with her consideration of flexible Los Angeles, but to Chicago, the land of use of such relational experiences. object use, Kieffer considers familial struc- Kohut, where Kieffer conducts psychoanal- The concept of the third is of course tures such as sibling number and extends ysis with individuals and groups. Kieffer, an integral part of rupture and repair, and Faimberg’s work on multigenerational dy- a faculty member of the Chicago Institute while Kieffer spends ample time illustrating namics (2005) by turning to experiences of of Psychoanalysis, describes a non-linear varied relational analysts’ conceptions of immigration. Her treatment of immigration yet systematic path that has led to an as- thirdness, she devotes significant and par- is informed by Akhtar’s treatment of nos- semblage of papers that traverses in order ticular attention to Benjamin’s process-ori- talgia (2005), whereby an immigrant may to illuminate links between object relations ented view that embodies Winnicottian use touchstones to aid stasis or transitions. and self psychology. In keeping with Winn- conceptions of transitional space. Kieffer Kieffer looks to her own Italian roots and icott’s democratic attitude, Kieffer sets her views Benjamin’s conception as one that considers how her grandfather was trau- sights on an inclusive and critical integra- facilitates a patient’s capacities in the de- matized in the racial climate of the early tion through writing under the label of re- velopment of a mutuality in the sense of twentieth century in the United States in a lational self psychologist. This volume does in self and other, and argues that Benjamin’s manner that thwarted his ambition, while my opinion, succeed in its task to stand as a theory is most “useful for working within a his brother prospered before dying sudden- whole through the successful integration of selfobject theory paradigm” (p.147). Here, ly. She traces the impact of these traumas divergent schools while exploring areas as Kieffer maintains that Benjamin’s concep- in that paternal line, in addition to the ma- diverse as intergenerational family dynam- tion of the capacity to recognize that the triarchal line of her grandmother, whose ics and work with adults, children, individ- other’s subjectivity is in fact independent spontaneity and ambition were impacted as uals, and groups. is close to, but qualitatively different from, she married Kieffer’s grandfather through Although Winnicott with an open at- Kohut’s concept of a mature selfobject. an arranged marriage. The personal quality titude is a significant part of her project, so Kieffer’s consideration of such granular dis- of this historicity is much more than reflec- are other object relational thinkers. Here, tinctions makes for an engaging read as she tions on countertransference, and the book Kieffer works to make explicit the implic- considers that Benjamin illustrates the pro- is stronger for it. Alongside this personal it links between the works of Guntrip and cess of the development of a mature selfob- history is an awareness that countertrans- Fairbairn in Kohut’s work. These links are ject function. Kieffer highlights that mutual ference is overdetermined, as language is illustrated in her treatment of schizoid with- recognition is not a static achievement, but not so much a dialogism but a polylogism, drawal as a conflict between fear and desire, one of breakdown and recovery (cf. Eigen, where language itself is overdetermined which affords an ample way into her cen- 2012) that she notes is consistent with Fa- (cf. Amati-Mehler, Argentieri, & Canestri, tral argument that relational psychoanaly- jardo’s (2001) view of analyst and patient 1993). In the spirit of this work is an idea sis may aid self psychology in work with as coupled oscillators who begin to operate that what is not represented can and does dissociation born of narcissistic injury. Such regularly and rhythmically in response to return through other routes. injuries are not limited to patients, as Kief- each other, thus being able to discern mo- Helpful clinical illustrations harmo- fer addresses the enabling of capacities to ments of harmony and difference. Impor- nize with her theoretical and personal curbside

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For the French analysts, regardless of “love-dolls” made to the specifications of Jack’s very decision to do so allows Knafo to The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology Jeanne Wolff BERNSTEIN whether they are of the Lacanian tradition the customer’s detailed wishes. The cheap- speculate that Maya may not just function or not, they depart in their thinking from est doll sells for $5,009; the deluxe model, as a life-like fetish, but as a possible transi- There could not have been a timeli- Instead of experiencing the pain of loss, the both Kernberg’s and Stein’s theories lies Freud’s fundamental idea that “perversion like Maya, sells for $10,000. “A man,” she tional object, which would eventually allow er book written right now than Danielle sadist and masochist form a perverse pact the view that perversion “uses manipula- is the negative of neurosis” and that “per- writes, “can create his ‘ideal woman’” and her patient to transition out of his magical Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco’s book, The to recant loss and to turn loss into a lustful tion, domination, seduction, and psychic version,” as Knafo recalls, is based upon it is of course not lost on Knafo that these idolization with Maya. Knafo views herself, Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology act. Knafo also interjects Kernberg’s theory, bribery to exploit the other” (p.38). Before “the operation of disavowal that denies “Abyss Silicone Dolls” are the modern ver- in her role as analyst, as the transitional ob- which focuses on “the mechanization of sex, Knafo shifts to the French perspectives on castration” (p.38). While Joyce McDougall sions of the Pygmalion fantasy come true. ject through whom Jack learns eventually The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in devaluation of the other’s personality, and perversion, she also cites Thomas Ogden’s placed more emphasis upon the fact that However, one important fact of these love to say good-bye to Maya, but not before Psychoanalysis and Culture failure to integrate aggression with love” thought that perversion is “a substitute for “perversion is a failure to symbolize the and sex dolls, “who fill the void of compan- he does bring the real doll (weighing 100 By Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco (p.37). Closely aligned with Kernberg’s idea inner deadness that originates in the fanta- primal scene” and “is a psychotic solution ionship,” is that they are not supposed to pounds) into Knafo’s office. Knafo describes Routledge Press, 2017 is the contribution of Ruth Stein, who de- sized deadness of the parental couple.” The which maintains an ego identity,” Lacan, look too human; otherwise, they risk enter- this moment very vividly: ???pp., $??? fined perversion as a power strategy used pervert enlists others to live a lie of sexual quite separate from his French colleagues, ing into what is known as “the uncanny val- in Psychoanalysis and Culture. Ever since yet indebted to Freud’s fundamental theo- ley,” a concept created by Masahiro Mori, When he picked her up and set her on the Danielle Knafo spoke about the very same ry about perversion, viewed perversion as a Japanese professor of robotics, who pro- couch next to him, I gazed at her, frankly aston- subject in Vienna last year, her sharp anal- a fundamental structure and not as a set posed the idea that human beings do devel- ished. She looked almost, but not exactly, like a ysis of how technology has pervaded the of behaviors (page 42). The key element op a sense of revulsion if their robotic love beautiful woman. There she sat with a passive, most intimate human relationships and which distinguished the perverse structure objects become too life-like and resemble frozen expression, a full grown sister of Barbie, has replaced the human body with highly from the neurotic structure for Lacan is that too closely a human being (cf. Knafo, p.67). a glistening Galatea—the archetype of woman- stylized silicone dolls or robotic devices has the pervert remains attached to being the Mori introduced this concept, lean- ly beauty, with her thick wild mane of auburn never left my mind. Nearly every week, I mother’s “play-thing,” becoming the instru- ing upon Freud’s essay “The Uncanny” hair and huge, almond-shaped green eyes and would find articles in various newspapers ment of her excessive jouissance, which finds (1919/1955) as he was conducting research plump-lipped sensual mouth. Her hands and alerting and alarming their readers how no limit in the embodiment of a paternal upon the human responses to robots. He feet were fine and delicately crafted, and her robots were taking over our lives, be it in structure. However, unlike the psychotic, found that anthropomorphic qualities in well-shaped nails were polished in hot pink….I intimate affairs, the war, or even now in who has no awareness of a Law or a Third robots provoked positive responses; as the was uncomfortable, too, because the scene felt agriculture as a means of replacing migrant structure, the pervert knows about the Law, robots appeared more human-like, people uncanny: two of us talking about Jack’s letting workers, who are no longer allowed into but does not want to know about it at the found them more appealing. But at some go of someone—this beautiful container for fan- the USA because of Trump’s immigration same time. He invents his own laws and point of anthromorphism, the robots be- tasy; a lifeboat cast upon the lovely sea of exis- policies. Wherever there is a lack, loss, or abides by them, or as Lacan would say, he come disconcerting, Mori explains: tence. (p.79) danger, a life-like doll or an almost human creates his own version of the father, i.e., look -a-like robot can serve as a substitute his “pere-version.” For Lacan in particular, Recently, owing to great advances in While Maya constitutes a “life saver” and take over the task deemed to be too and Laplanche thereafter, the overwhelm- fabrication technology, we cannot distin- for Jack to rid him of his cold self-sufficient threatening, both physically and emotion- ing jouissance of the mother becomes an guish at a glance a prosthetic hand from aloneness, for others, like Davecat, the ally, to the human body. excessively painful, yet also joyous, experi- a real one. Some models simulate wrin- life with a whole family of dolls remains One powerful argument threading its ence that the child does not know how to kles, veins, fingernails, even fingerprints. a self-encapsulated cocoon, from within way through Knafo and Lo Bosco’s book translate into an ordinary experience. “The Though similar to a real hand, the pros- which no desire is detected to reach out is that “as we are becoming to some extent child,” as Knafo rightly concludes, “builds thetic hand’s color is pinker as if it had anymore to other human beings. Life at dehumanized, our objects, especially our its psyche out of (often failed) efforts to just come out of a bath. work and life with his doll family are split off electronic devices, are becoming increas- make sense of these ‘enigmatic signifiers’ One may say that the prosthetic vertically and lead Davecat to identify him- ingly humanized” (xv). through fantasy or translation” (p.47). hand has achieved a degree of resem- self as an “iDollator and robosexual” (p.85). Before Knafo leads the reader into her With this broad vocabulary of dis- blance to the human form, perhaps on He is not a patient of Knafo, but a young own consulting room with her patient Jack, avowal of loss, perverse pacts, manipula- par with false teeth. However, once we African-American man who lives with his who suffers from intimacy problems, hav- tion, dehumanization, exploitation, inner realize that the hand that looked real at three different silicone dolls at home. Each ing been married and divorced twice, she deadness and excess jouissance, mise-en-scène first sight is artificial, we experience an doll has a different function and also a differ- offers a remarkable summary of various and rigid scripts, Knafo brings us into her eerie sensation. …When this happens, we ent age. His first doll, Sidore, is 15 years old psychoanalytic theories about perversion. initial therapy sessions with Jack, who tells lose our sense of affinity, and the hand and functions as his first wife, “the Missus” That first chapter alone could serve as a her about his girlfriend Maya , who, unlike becomes uncanny. In mathematical terms, (p.85). Sidore obtained a companion in much-needed text to teach perversion at his former wives, never fights with him, is this can be represented by a negative val- a second doll when Davecat purchased our institutes. It is a clever way to start her always friendly with him, and has great sex ue. Therefore, in this case, the appearance Shi-chan, whom he bought so that Sidore book, since one or the other theory pre- with him. “She is a real doll,” he says (p.62). of the prosthetic hand is quite human-like, would not feel lonely when he was away sented in the first chapter percolates in the When Knafo inquires further, she discovers but the level of affinity is negative, thus for work, “she’d have a fellow synthetic to reader’s mind as various cultures of tech- to her utter surprise that Maya is a real doll: placing the hand near the bottom of the hang out with” (p.86). A second doll also no-perversion; black markets for organs, “she costs over 10 grand but is worth every valley. (1970/2012, p.99) prevents Davecat from committing bigamy. guns, and drugs; and sex trafficking are elu- penny” (p.63). Knafo’s curiosity mounts, “I have no intention of making any other cidated in this book. Knafo’s survey reaches and she listens sensitively to Jack’s past For Jack, there still exists enough met- dolls for my wife. I’m not into the bigamy from Stoller’s theory that perversion is mise- plights and current enjoyments with Maya, aphoric room to create a fantasy life with thing, but of course I do have a relationship, en-scène, involving risk-taking and danger “who never complains or is needy” (p.65) his love doll Maya. He knows enough to romantic and sexual with the other dolls” activities which were once experienced as and keeps him “constant company” (p.65); separate reality from fantasy, he is not psy- (p.93). The third doll Davecat acquired is being traumatic and which are now being in addition, sex is better with her, since sil- chotic, Knafo assures us, and in addition to not a silicone doll but has a lighter wooden re-enacted in powerful and dehumaniz- icone dolls have stronger vaginal suction his ability to separate fantasy from reality, structure; she is considered to be more of cement truck ing ways towards the other—trauma being functions than real women. he knows he needs therapeutic help to ad- a flat-mate rather than a romantic partner. turned into pleasure—to Sheldon Bach’s idea to derail the other. Citing Stein, “Perversion excitement to disavow that deadness, “the Knafo’s therapeutic work sends her on dress his feelings of loneliness and shame Davecat has invented a life story for each of that perversion is constituted by a transfor- is a dodging and outwitting of the human key to perversion is self-deception, the de- a mission to find out first-hand about this from living with a life-size doll. Most men his dolls, from where they come and with- mation of the other into a thing which pri- need for intimacy, love, for being recog- ception that one feels alive when, in fact love doll industry, which is a multi-mil- who construct a whole family life with sev- in which families they were born, and he marily serves as a means to disavow loss. nized and excited” (p.37). At the core of one feels dead inside” (p.39). lion-dollar market, offering a variety of eral life-size dolls do not seek therapy, and had even learned Japanese to communicate

12 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 13 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS better with his first doll Sidore, who was These new developments reveal the brings them happiness and fulfillment, who now creating its own extinction through fabricated in Japan. powerful role fantasy plays in our rela- are we to argue otherwise? And yet, there is the fabrication of synthetic duplicates, the It is clear from her description how tionships and raises the question of how this whisper throughout Knafo’s book that downloading of peoples’ consciousnesses, well Knafo succeeded in gaining Davecat’s much love and sex—whether with a hu- wants to appeal to the human perspective and through its seemingly endless addiction trust for him to reveal to her his most in- man, a doll, or a machine—are one-sid- of this argument and wants to warn against to mechanical replacements and robotic at- timate thoughts about his otherwise out- ed products of our own imaginations. the ever-expanding possibilities of AI intel- tachments. I think Knafo is right to contend wardly isolated, but inwardly extremely Understanding our relationship to tech- ligence, Abyss Silicone Love Doll products, that our culture of narcissism has changed vivid, life. In her easy and unjudgmental nology exposes and amplifies the limita- and robotic devices. into a culture of perversion “where the ob- access to Davecat, Knafo reminds me of tions of human connection. (p.82) Knafo warns mildly and sometimes ject always trumps the subject” (p.240) and the photographer Diane Arbus, whose more severely of the double-edged nature where the boundaries between humanity unobtrusive approach to her subjects al- Jacques Lacan’s theory about love ad- of perversion, which expands humanity and technology are irrevocably intertwined lowed her to take photographs of people dresses the one-sided and narcissistic nature on one hand and kills it at the same time. and increasingly indistinguishable. whose worlds would otherwise remain of love. His definition that “Love is to give At one point, she poignantly asks, “Do we undisclosed to the eyes of others. To learn what one does not have to somebody one become divorced from our humanity or The future might include technology how Davecat thinks, how he makes sense doesn’t know” (Seminar III, p.26) points are we extending the limits of its possibil- that can store a person’s mind and upload of his world, how he invests in his fan- towards the necessity of acknowledging ities?” (p.83). it to a manufactured body, create virtual tasy life, hovering constantly between his one’s own lack and one’s own recognition In the subsequent chapters, Knafo selves living endlessly in virtual worlds, own created world and an external world, that this lack is the greatest gift one can give describes various current developments or code minds that may be combined into provides for a fascinating reading. In psy- to another. “What we give in love,” Lacan which not only illustrate men’s’ ever-in- a hive mind. In a brave new technologi- chiatric terms, Davecat “is suffering from writes elsewhere, “is essentially what we do creasing use and reliance on machines and cal world, individuality may become an perversion and would be diagnosed as an not have and when we do not have what re- robotic devices, but also on the increasing obstacle, perhaps even a perversion or a agalmatophile or Pygmalion, a lover of turns to us, there is undoubtedly a repression need of mostly women to turn themselves crime. (p.247) dolls, statues, mannequins, or other stand- and at the same time a revelation of the way into machines and fashion their looks into ins for a woman” (p.85). Unlike, however, in which we failed the person in represent- ever more doll-like appearances. She re- Near the end of her book, Knafo asks the Austrian painter Oskar Kokoscha, ing his lack” (Seminar X, June 30, 1963). ports on women who have their bones re- the important and necessary question, who also ordered himself a doll—made Knafo’s characters, be it her patient moved to resemble more closely a “Barbie out of cloth—after his dramatic break-up Jack or the iDollator Davecat, live in a doll”; and if women do not turn themselves Does the technological dominance with Alma Mahler, or Nathaniel in E. T. world galaxies away from an experience of into life-like dolls, they order silicone dolls of human embodiment foreclose other im- A. Hoffmann’s story “The Sandman,” who loss, lack, and desire. Their lives are saturat- not for sex, but to prolong their maternal portant ways of being human, and if so, fell in love with the ever-smiling Olympia ed with illusion, delusion, and omnipotent desires. Mostly older women order fake how? …What are we losing in all that doll, Davecat has remained living with his fantasies as a means of shielding themselves dolls, reporting thereafter a calming effect we gain? How much room is left for the dolls over decades and has not destroyed from an ordinary human life filled with upon their psyches—a release of oxytocin living subject in the technological frame? them as he ages with them. In contrast, suffering, loss, joys, and disappointments. and prolactin—as they get to hold a baby Where now stand imagination, intimacy Oskar Kokoscha had a doll made, seem- Marked deeply by their own chaotic early once again, which they can care for at an and love, the soul of a person, the poetry of ingly imitating the looks of Alma Mahler, lives, they have turned their own trauma advanced age. “Men go for sex dolls and and music of life, the narratives of unique but shortly after he received her and lived into an endless series of lustful yet stable women choose baby dolls or turn them- selves, the vital and spirited vectors of he- with her, he burnt her in total horror and seemingly predictable existences. selves into dolls” (p.143). What is common redity and history? (p.244) of himself and the lack of semblance to One may ask oneself, “Who would to both groups, men and women, is that Alma Mahler. In contrast, life with objects fault them?” Who are we (who-ever the we they both spend an extraordinary amount Her question points directly to the is safer and more predictable for Davecat: are) to judge them? If a life-size silicone doll of time taking care of these dolls, since the knotty issue of imagination and fantasy, “You always know where you are with a which is not lacking in this perverse world, thing” (p.88). broken bags but which has gone hay-wire, violating all “iDollators like Davecat,” Knafo ar- care, particularly of a tall ,100-pound sil- Once Knafo leaves the world of dolls, limits, trespassing all borders, and seeking gues, “seek docility, consistency, compli- icone doll, takes a great deal of time and she leads us into the somber channels of an endless supply of jouissance in an ever-ex- ance, peace and quiet. They avoid tension, aptitude. Men living with sex dolls, or even techno-perversions like the Dark Web, where panding omnipotent orbit that no longer confusion, conflict, arguments, and neces- marrying them publically so they do not die slaves, drugs, weapons, and new identities discriminates between a machine and the sary compromise. They also avoid mutual- as widowers, or older women attentively can be bought and traded, and deaths can be human mind. Given these horrific visions ity and reciprocity, though in fantasy, they caring for their silicone babies, also rely on ordered and executed. It is a frightful descrip- that Knafo has portrayed so vividly and may imagine those qualities exist” (p.102). an environment that plays along with their tion of how the human mind has successful- convincingly throughout her book, I agree I think the element of “fantasy” plays an fantasy world, reminiscent of Christian ly created a web in a few decades through with her final conclusion that “Perhaps it important, double-edged part in this idol- Andersen’s fairy-tale “The Emperor’s New which the most cruel and dehumanizing might be better to keep our dolls rather atory world. On one hand, it shows how a Clothes,” where no one dares to point to- services can be ordered under false or anon- than become them” (p.252). z man like Davecat can make his omnipotent wards the falsity of the spectacle for fear of ymous identities. Knafo describes here also REFERENCES fantasy come true and imbue his various injuring the fragile psyches hiding behind the practice of “catfishing,” where dates are Freud, S. (1955). The uncanny. In J. Strachey (Ed. and dolls with lives he is imagining for them, these elaborate and artificial creations. I arranged under false identities with women Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 17, pp.219-256). London, and yet, on the other hand, his way of re- think this “playing along with an artificial, posing as men and men posing as women, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1919) Freud, S. (1957). On narcissism: An introduction. In J. lating to the dolls also unveils something false deadening environment” also points leading invariably to huge disappointments Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 14, pp.67- about the powerful one-dimensional quali- towards an all-important feature of per- once the true intent and personality behind 102). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1914) ty of human fantasy when it comes to love, version, which holds the other captive to the pretended one is revealed. Betrayal, du- Knafo, D. & Lo Bosco, R. (2017). The age of perversion: as Freud already discovered in 1914, when the perverted person, be it man or woman, plicity, and humiliation seem to be an inte- Desire and technology in psychoanalysis and culture. Abingdon, since any sincere cry-outs—as that uttered gral part of the current cyber-dating scene, UK: Routledge Press. he argued in his paper “On Narcissism” Lacan, J. (1963/2016). Seminar X: Anxiety. Cambridge, (1914/1957) that love relationships are by the little boy in “The Emperor’s New making further use and abuse of the human UK: Polity. deeply narcissistic and self-centered un- Clothes”—would shatter their fragile souls loneliness that drives people to search for re- Mori, M. (2012). The uncanny valley (Karl F. Mac Dorman & Nomi Kageki, Trans.). IEEE Robotics & derneath a veneer of mutuality. Knafo ar- into the very shards their love objects are lationships on the internet in the first place. Automation Magazine, 19(2), 98-100. (Original work pub- gues as much when she writes, dancers made of. In its race against death, the human race is lished 1970)

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out realizing it, he was helping them find, as from the superhuman task of being consis- visational, intersubjective, and relational Reading the Changes: Freud’s Improvisational Art Michael ALCÉE Christopher Bollas (2015) says, their own tently focused for many hours of the day— equivalent of what Freud was working on ‘personal idiom’, their own special music like driving without blinking-and strained from the very start. This unfolding, like “The psychoanalyst’s job is to turn possibilities, and yet also brings us into As analyst Donald Kalsched (2015) that Duke Ellington said defies any particular to the point of burnout, allowing them to jazz improvisation, is fueled by multiplici- neurotic misery into personal suffering the non-linear emotional experience that points out, echoing Winnicott’s notion of genre, that which is ‘beyond category (Hasse, see multiple patients a day and without the ty—having a well-versed knowledge of the that is beyond category” emerges largely unbidden moment by mo- potential space (Winnicott, 2015), the cre- 1995).’ The point of analysis, like jazz improvi- need for notetaking. various chord changes in each ‘self-state’ or Freud/Ellington Mashup ment (Stern, 2017). It is at once formulated ative moment occurs at the space between sation, is to recognize and unearth old forms Cognitively speaking, the suspension of tune. The therapist learns how to put this and unformulated (Stern, 2009), with its Adam’s finger and the finger of G-d in Mi- and create new ones through the special ve- attention allowed the therapist to consider together not just through interpretation but A Jazz Art Form creative possibilities occurring, as Freud chelangelo’s great rendering on the Sistine hicle that is the relationship itself. We trade a wealth of possible interpretations without rather a shift in internal attitude which al- Unbeknownst to himself, Freud ush- (Breuer & Freud, 1995) originally showed Chapel. This is also the home of jazz, which fours back and forth in relational psychoanal- a confirmation and selection bias, expanding lows the relationship to change, enabling a ers in psychoanalysis as a jazz art form. us with Fraulein Elisabeth Von R., in the you can hear in the pregnant pauses and ysis, become equal partners in learning how the potential receptivity and the cognitive new form to emerge. As Stern (2009) notes: From his earliest work with Miss Lucy R. spaces and gaps: rests of a Miles Davis solo in the epic album to read our own changes and listen deeply to and emotional presence the analyst brought and Fraulein Elisabeth Von R. in Studies Kind of Blue (1959). each other, transforming our individual sto- to the relationship. As Robert Frost (Frost & “It is not the interpretations, per se, on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 2000), where “I would begin by getting the patient ries into creative works of art. Barry, 1972) instructed poets, it enabled an- that helped, but the freedom that made he guides patients to ‘concentrate’ and to tell me what was known to her and I Beyond Category alysts to remember that “No surprise for the the interpretations possible in the first yet openly report “faithfully whatever ap- would carefully note the points at which As the mashup quote above suggests, Playing the Blues writer. No surprise for the reader.” place (Stern, 2009, p116-117.).” peared before [their] inner eye or passed some train of thought remained obscure or Freud’s original objective for psychoanalysis Every patient comes into psychoanal- Freud’s dictum encouraged therapist through [thei]r memory at the moment” some link in the causal chain seemed to be was to help transform the patient’s neurotic ysis to play the Blues. Whether a 12, 16 or to learn something new and surprising Both the therapist and patient can be (Breuer & Freud, 1995, p.145), to his pri- missing (Breuer & Freud, 1995, p.139).” misery into ordinary suffering. And yet, with- 32 bar version or a round of multiple cho- about the patient’s internal life and create the authority in ‘knowing more’ at some mary advice to beginning therapists on ruses, it’s so often the melancholy found in a disciplined format within which the ther- moments, being a step ahead, and yet, like evenly hovering attention (Freud & Gay, that crushed blue note that inspires seeking apist can actively be on guard against facile good jazz players, listening intently to what 1995), Freud champions both free asso- an analyst to help ‘read the changes.’ But it confirmations of what is already known. they don’t know yet. They are free to not ciation and a disciplined approach to fol- doesn’t stop there. Donnel Stern (2017) echoes this 100 years know and engage both their ‘expert’s mind’ lowing the dynamic changes of the psy- In so many of our patients, sped up by later in his guideline for therapists to court and the Zen notion of beginner’s mind and che. His method requires and celebrates a the treadmill of anxiety and worry, yet sink- surprise, riffing on Noble prize winning use that to fuel the next ‘generation of clin- spontaneous and improvisational receptiv- ing in the quicksand of neurotic misery, we poet Symborska’s notion (Szymborska Ba- ical events (Stern, 2009).’ Improvisational at ity to experience. In allowing patients the come across the music of Coltrane’s Giant ranczak, & Cavanagh, 2000) that the job of its core, this is what Freud didn’t yet know, freedom to not worry about censoring any Steps (1974). Frenetically moving in and the poet is to continually say “I don’t know” his model starting in a classical analytic of their thoughts and feelings, he echoes out of interconnected key centers and cruis- and keep on going. frame but moving quite organically to a Jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris’ keen ob- ing at 120 beats per minute, a patient with two-person intersubjective relational mode. servation (Harris, 2011) that: “There are this inner tune finds it nearly impossible to Multiplicity no mistakes on the bandstand!” figure out how to even begin to solo on the Harry Guntrip (2018) said about Freud Right Brain Rising According to Harris (2011), one changes—and so do we!-and doesn’t have that as a pioneer his word was the first and This oscillation between freedom and shouldn’t force or commandeer the band the foggiest idea how to keep up with their not the last. While Freud laid the founda- discipline is also rooted in the brain. Freud’s but rather open and flow into new territory own relentless music. In fact, they feel like tion for the improvisational art that is psy- notion of primary and secondary process together, with both the ensemble and solo- there’s no other song that can be played. choanalysis, interpersonal relational work has now been validated in neuroscientific ist truly listening and expressing simultane- At other times, patients come in with a has truly brought this to its logical conclu- work that examines the specialization of left ously. With the complementary processes standard set of ‘Rhythm Changes’ or some- sion with the concept of multiplicity. and right brain functioning, and most re- of evenly hovering attention and free asso- times, if they’re too cool for acknowledging Multiplicity is the fundamental operat- cently, we have been seeing the ascendance ciation, Freud’s work mirrors the jazz aes- their own contribution to their problems, ing system of the psyche and what unites of the right-brain’s crucial role in creative thetic. His was a revolutionary movement they join us with ’So What’ chords, play- the unconscious and conscious that Freud growth and the healing of trauma. Allen towards mutual interplay and, to bend Sul- ing a modal tune that keeps them safe, but discovered and brings it together in a mod- Schore (2019) highlights how the implicit livan’s phrase (Sullivan, 1954), profoundly doesn’t allow them to expand outside their el of the mind and brain. It incorporates right-brain works largely through dream- observant participation. comfort zone. the mind’s capacity to dissociate, shift, and like image, symbol, metaphor, humor, and A 19th century poem by Frances Corn- transport itself amongst a variety of dif- spontaneity, and how crucial it is as the en- ford (1965) sums up this lovely process Evenly Hovering Attention ferent self-states, narratives, or as I like to gine of therapeutic change. best. Entitled “The Guitarist Tunes Up,” we How did Freud help us to work with think of it, different possible chord chang- Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio’s re- learn that this musician leans into their in- these myriad forms? Not coincidentally, he es (i.e. Blues, Rhythm Changes, So-What cent book The Strange Order of Things (Dama- strument with ‘attentive courtesy’: started psychoanalysis off on a solid jazz Modal Changes, ii-v-I turnarounds). Brom- sio, 2019) eloquently showcases the way in footing. In 1912, Freud (Freud & Gay, 1995) berg (2016) notes that: which our ‘right-brained’ feeling comes first, Not as a lordly conqueror who could developed the concept of evenly hovering inspiring and motivating our greatest cultur- Command both wire and wood, attention as a method to guide physicians “A flexible relationship among self- al innovations and products, and that joined But as a man with a loved woman might, starting out in the relatively new practice of states through the use of ordinary disso- together with the logic and language of our Inquiring with delight psychoanalysis. The simple approach was ciation is what allows a human being left-brains becomes something truly extraor- What slight essential things she had to say initially developed for pragmatic reasons, to engage the ever-shifting requirements dinary. Daniel Pink (2006) in In a Whole New Before they started, he and she, to play. resolving the myriad challenges that arise of life’s complexities with creativity and Mind illustrates the 21st century’s cultural sea in the sophisticated juggling act that con- spontaneity. It is what gives a person the change from a left-brained leaning comput- Jazz improvisation, like relational psy- stitute the therapist’s main tasks: listening remarkable capacity to negotiate character er age, to a right-brained leaning conceptual choanalysis, is a paradoxical enterprise and interpreting. Moreover, it resolved the and change simultaneously-to stay the same age that integrates right and left to make the of prepared spontaneity and disciplined problem of keeping in mind and not mixing while changing (Bromberg, 2016, p.2).” best of both worlds! freedom. It allows us to enter both into up the many details of the patient’s story— In short, we have come back to Da the highly technical and nuanced world names, dates, dreams, memories—and most Continuous Productive Unfolding Vinci’s model of the ideal-Vitruvian man of ever changing and dynamic harmonic importantly, of staying in the present flow Free association was the precursor to (Da Vinci, 1490)-- as uniting the square of moments, to study its complex architec- of the patient’s experience of these issues. Donnel Stern’s concept of continuous pro- logic and left brain functioning with the cir- ture in the myriad diagnostic forms and holiday glitter It enabled the analyst to free him/herself ductive unfolding (Stern, 2009), the impro- cle of feeling and right brain functioning.

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Music Lessons fall and fall far.” An image of Icarus’s wings this lovely moment in the tune where she the active participant, allowing us to both Damasio, A.R. (2019). The strange order of things: Psycho-spiritual Approach to Human Development and Its Life, feeling, and the making of cultures. New York: Vin- Interruption. Paw Prints. Bessie’s Blue’s by John Coltrane (1964) melting flashed through my mind. completely reharmonizes the lyric “when be subject and object in flexible and creative tage Books. Kind of blue[CD]. (1959). Columbia/Legacy. provides an immediately recognizable com- “Well, I was one of the few pianists you’re in my arms and I feel you so close to ways. As Freud had it, psychoanalysis ex- Da Vinci, Leonardo (1490). Vitruvian Man [Pen Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind: How to thrive pressed musical idea. In only three notes, a chosen for this program, and I don’t want me, all my wildest dreams come true” with pands our capacity to be free to love and and ink with wash over metalpoint on paper]. Gallerie in the new conceptual age. London: Cyan. dell’Accademica, Venice. Schore, A. N. (2019). Right brain psychotherapy. New focal theme (Grayson, 2002) is established all the other pianists who didn’t make it to chromatic substitutions. What is at once an work, to make new and original forms out Freud, S., & Gay, P. (1995). The Freud reader. Lon- York: W. W. Norton & Company. that is explored, varied, and reharmo- feel like I was beat by this impostor. It’s my open longing also becomes a melancholy of what is in our past and present, and in so don: Vintage. Stern, D. B. (2009). Partners in thought: Working Frost, R. & Barry, E. (1972). On Writing. Place of with unformulated experience, dissociation, and enact- nized much in the same way that occurs job to really show them that I belong here.” haunting, a complicated ache. We begin to doing, to be able to open up to the unchar- publication not identified: Rutgers University Press. ment. New York, NY: Routledge. in therapy. The capacity of the therapist “It’s like you don’t have room to slip, note how the possibility of moving outside tered territory both within and before us in Giant steps[CD]. (1976). WEA-Musik. Stern, D. B. (2017). Courting surprise. The Interper- to articulate that melody—the dominant that you’re not allowed to be with the fact the stereotyped romantic ballad into the the improvisational moment that becomes Grayson, P. A. (2002). Psychodynamic psychother- sonal Perspective in Psychoanalysis, 1960s–1990s,252-253. apy with undergraduate and graduate students. In F. doi:10.4324/9781315471976-2. trend or relational pattern that pulls the that being so successful also sucks!” difficulties of losing oneself in a relationship our future. z W. Kaslow & J. J. Magnavita (Eds.), Comprehensive Sullivan, Harry Stack (1954). The psychiatric inter- various strands of a patient’s story together Her eyes widened with what appeared can simultaneously coexist. handbook of psychotherapy: Volume 1, Psychodynam- view. New York: W.W. Norton. ic/object relations (pp.161–179). New York, NY: John Szymborska, W., Baranczak, S., & Cavanagh, C. (Grayson, 2002) — goes very far in clarify- to be the beginning of a mischievous grin. She started to think about her boy- REFERENCES Bessies blues[CD]. (1964). Crescent. Wiley & Sons. (2000). Poems, new and collected, 1957-1997. San Diego: ing to what has been troubling patients at “Yes, I said it, it sucks”, and we both friend, and how at times, he wouldn’t really Bollas, C. (2015). Being a character: Psychoanalysis Guntrip, H. (2018). Psychoanalytic theory, therapy, Harcourt Brace. the same time that it points in the direction laughed. “I think the other foot that you’re take in her interests or her needs, and in- and self experience. London: Routledge. and the self. London: Routledge. Vaughan, S., Eckstine, B., Treadwell, G., Monney, Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (2000). Studies on hysteria. Harris, Stefon (2011). There are no mistakes on the H., & Jones, Q. (2000). The nearness of you. On Sarah to how they can move forward. Much of not allowed to put on the ground is the stead would use it as a springboard to talk USA: Basic Books. bandstand [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www. Vaughan: Ken Burn jazz [CD]. Verve. the time, patients are playing the notes of one that is free to fail and fall. Without it, about his own. It reminded her of the jazz Bromberg, P.M. (2016). Awakening the Dream- ted.com/talks/stefon_harris_there_are_no_mistakes_ Wilde, O. (2017). The importance of being earnest & on_the_bandstand/up-next?language+en. other plays. London: Macmillan Collectors Library. their issues but are not aware of the mel- though, it’s no wonder you feel so wobbly concept of superimposition, when one plays er: Clinical Journeys. Mahwah, NJ: Analytic Press. doi:10.4324/9780203759981. Hasse, J. E. (1995). Beyond category: The life and ge- Winnicott, D. W. (2016). Through paediatrics to psy- ody and cannot synthesize it into a focal at times.” a whole different set of chord changes over Cornford, F.D. (1965). Collected poems. London: nius of Duke Ellington. New York: Da Capo Press. cho-analysis: Collected papers. London: Routledge, Taylor theme. They bring us their own invisible Like a dream, that golden child image another one. When done right and with a Cresset Press. Kalsched, Donald (2015). Trauma and the Soul A & Francis Group. lead sheet and are hoping that we will give kept stirring in me. It was like a riff I knew rhythm section that is really tracking the them feedback to be able to recognize their wanted to be brought back into the mu- shift, superimposition can sound really hip own music. sic. Internally, I remembered some of the and interesting, like McCoy Tyner’s solo on harmonic changes from her family story, Bessie’s Blues (1964). In that tune, he jumps Reading the Changes how she had been expected to make up for out of the regular blues chord changes, “How is it that we always discover new a brother who fell into drugs, and a father and soars into wholly new keys, making us things when we are talking together?” who had left the scene because of his own feel as if we are temporarily launching into I was talking to jazz pianist who strug- addiction problem. She was holding some- space and coming back down to earth. gling with performance anxiety at gigs— thing very important up—the mantle of suc- Unfortunately, my patient sighed, freezing up internally when it was time for cess and possibility—and up until this point, when a player is just trying to sound cool her to solo-- and confused in her relation- we had not yet found the form for it. and think about themselves, it all falls apart. ships where she tends to emotionally take a My mind wandered to a picture of She began to see that when her boyfriend’s back seat yet secretly yearns to be more in Ryan Seacrest. I imagined him doing some- narcissistic needs took over the music, they the spotlight. thing scandalous, petty, and mean, and the weren’t truly playing together. Moreover, troll-like backlash that would inevitably she began to notice how this played out “I don’t know, maybe it’s because crash against this polished and wholesome both in her relationships and in her family, we find something and fill in the spaces spokesman. I shared that I thought it would and how we were both recognizing and re- together. It’s funny how it just seems to be great if he did something like this, that configuring old forms into new possibilities. makes its way into our field of vision, isn’t he deserved it! It was no wonder that we were discovering it? It’s like we have this great melody that There was a tentative delight in this. so much each session together! we keep reharmonizing.” To be the devil so willingly seemed a whole new set of harmonic changes to incorpo- Bringing it All Together We had been talking, like many of my rate. It was like we put in some tritone sub- It has been patients like this who have conservatory students, about the paradox- stitutions and chromatic turnarounds to taught me that psychoanalysis, as Freud ical benefits and costs of Olympic level take one of those stately ballads and make truly intended it, is a jazz art form. Psycho- training, of the expansive straitjacket that is it dissonant and edgy. analysis makes room for us to be the trick- becoming an expert in a specialty craft. We She connected this to the feeling she ster like Thelonius Monk playing with syn- were riffing together on how being in the sometimes had in her relationship. She felt copated dissonances, the pensive Bill Evans role is a mixed blessing, how it’s not always like she so often had to play the role of the with his lush and sophisticated voicings, the so easy to be the golden child of the family. good girlfriend, the caring and thoughtful manic Charlie Parker frantically moving in She confided in me that it was being one who, like with her brother, had to be and out of his bop solos, or the soulful oth- in the position of soloing and possibly tak- ever-ready for something awful to happen. erworldly John Coltrane aching with love. ing away the focus from others was anx- My mind wandered again to another It is the art that celebrates the multi- iety producing. After all, she knew how work of art: Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband plicity of self, and provides a master class in competitive this field was and it just felt (Wilde, 2017). How difficult and challeng- learning the infinite variety of chord chang- cruel to be hogging so much. It wasn’t ing it is to be an ideal husband because of es that comprise it. For as we see above, easy being this chosen one. Like the bibli- the ways in which inevitably there will be within each self-state is a different set of cal story of Joseph, she wondered if people so little room for error. We began to riff on possible chord changes to know, share, and would resent her if she shined too brightly, how being an ideal girlfriend made it dif- enjoy, and this happens best in the mutual that maybe they would want to unseat her, ficult for her to try out any other possible improvisational interplay that Freud began. that she would lose her balance and fall. roles, or have the freedom to be too self-in- Psychoanalysis enables the patient to Or in Joseph’s case, would she be thrown terested and more assertive. be both bandleader, like Ellington quarter- into a pit? I began to hear Sarah Vaughan’s ver- backing the group, to virtuoso, dropping “It’s like you’re only standing on one sion of “The Nearness of You” playing in right in as the soloist. To riff on Harry Stack foot. And that foot is your expertise and my head (Vaughan, Eckstine, Treadwell, Sullivan (1954), psychoanalysis’s main task if you don’t hold it up, you will inevitably Monney, & Jones, 2000). I shared with her is to reconnect the benevolent witness and house of the composer

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At one point in their work, she felt is the first article that does not seem to have candidate asked Allan where he had been Allan Frosch: Portrait of a Clinician Richard B. GROSE that there was a parallel process occur- been prompted by an experience with a sin- trained, and without Allan’s answering di- ring. Just as the patient sometimes felt gle patient; rather, here he begins to think rectly, they discussed training options. In This is a portrait of Allan Frosch, a several perspectives Allan’s gift for appre- frame. Working with this patient was al- that she couldn’t see him, she began to about the implications of his clinical views the end, the candidate chose to be trained psychoanalyst trained and active for years hending others as they are, with reference ways challenging for her, as he continually feel that Allan couldn’t see her. Although for the field as a whole. at IPTAR, although Allan had never en- at Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and to his thoughts about analytic love, the nec- pushed the candidate’s internal and external it was hard to mention this, when she did, He continues to have wider implica- couraged or suggested that. He now credits Research (IPTAR), who died on October essary difficulty of the analytic task, and the limits. Eventually the patient abruptly end- Allan was very open and curious about tions in mind in his next article, focusing on Allan through his clinical thinking and his 28, 2016 after a ten-month struggle with intensity of the analytic encounter. ed the analysis, but the candidate continued the phenomenon, and supported her in the concept of analyzability, “The Culture interest in him with helping him identify lung cancer. In addition to being a psycho- This portrait will leave out his personal to see Allan for a time, which helped her expressing this feeling. of Psychoanalysis and the Concept of Ana- the kind of training he wanted. And the analyst, training analyst, and supervisor, life, of which I know two facts only: that he to remain analytically alive though she had Just before starting analysis with the pa- lyzability,” (2006b). Here he expands his ac- child’s treatment was transformed. he was twice president of IPTAR, and a was born and raised in the Bronx, and that been very much affected by the destruc- tient, the candidate had had a dream about count in two directions, towards a critique After taking his class, I felt that Allan highly respected teacher. His achievements before becoming a psychoanalyst, he was tive processes in this analysis. Allan made him that expressed anxiety about blurring of psychoanalytic culture, which, as he sees was someone I could talk to. A couple of as president and his record as teacher are for a time an actor. it possible for the candidate to continue to the boundaries between self and other. She it, tends to idealize technique and thereby years later I was in his office talking about worthy of detailed discussion but will not I first met Allan in 2001 as his student create meaning even when the patient was didn’t share the dream with Allan at first, designate difficult patients as unanalyzable, something that I don’t now recall, and I be treated here; rather, I will try to convey in the first-year development course at IP- aiming to destroy all meaning. The patient thinking that it was about her own anxiety and towards a critical view of some limita- found myself describing a very difficult mo- a sense of Allan Frosch, the clinician. To do TAR, “Adolescence.” I remember him main- later resumed the treatment, whereupon regarding starting analysis with this patient. tions of Freud’s own psyche, which also ment in my first analysis where I didn’t say this, I will look at his work with four su- ly listening very closely to all of our ques- the candidate returned to Allan and they Once the analysis started, the blurring of had their unfortunate effects on analytic a word to the analyst for four days and he pervisees, his reflections on psychoanalysis tions and my being very comfortable in his continued to work together. The candidate boundaries was understood as the main culture. In his next article, “The Effect of spoke only to end the four sessions. Allan in his journal articles, and some moments class. An indication of my unconstrained thinks that perhaps the patient returned struggle of this patient. After the patient left Frequency and Duration on Psychoanalyt- said, “That sounds like it was traumatic.” from my five-year analytic treatment with feeling with him is that I once made a joke feeling that the candidate must have sur- treatment, the candidate shared the dream ic Outcome: A Moment in Time,” (2011), His simple observation had the effect of a him. To try to create a unified portrait out that caused an explosion of laughter in the vived the destruction, which she indeed with Allan, thinking that it could be related he steps back from both clinical material well-timed and long–prepared intervention. of these various materials, my method will group. In retrospect, I now think that all of had with the help of continued supervision to the patient. Allan responded with ex- and critical reflection to dwell on how he At that moment, I was not his patient, and be non-linear, moving freely among these the various ways our relationship evolved with Allan. She credits him with helping citement and encouragement, saying that conceives of psychoanalysis. For the first yet this comment caused me to see a pain- three sources of information so as to invite were in some sense forecast in that first feel- her work with difficult patients, with the the candidate must have picked up this time, he introduces the concept of intensity, ful memory in a new light, not as reflecting resonances to emerge. The goal is a por- ing of being comfortable with him. challenging countertransference feelings information from the patient unconscious- seeing it as determining the difference be- my insufficiency as a patient or the dyad’s trait that may convey something of the way A candidate was being supervised by that they provoke, and with learning how ly even before the analysis started. For the tween psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. insufficiency but as arising at in part from Allan Frosch worked and what he thought Allan on a control patient with borderline to use these feelings to generate meaning candidate, this was an influential moment, Psychoanalysis is seen as an open system of the analyst’s choices. I felt real relief from a about it. By the end, I hope to show from features, who tested every element of the in analysis. as it shaped her approach towards and her (optimally) high intensity. In “Psychoanal- persistent self-reproach. understanding of her dreams about her ysis: The Sacred and the Profane,” (2014), Allan was without any question a patients. She began to present her dreams he begins by demonstrating Freud’s ability Freudian, if by this we understand him to in supervision (with other supervisors as to play with theory and to hold opposing be a clinician who always rendered his well), and has found this to be a rich area of views on important questions and argues clinical experiences using such Freudian learning about patients. She also began to against the ever-present tendency in psy- categories as thing presentation, word pre- develop a deep interest in regarding dreams choanalysis to enshrine theories as sacred sentation, self and object representation, as unconscious communications from the truths. He cites the theory of quantum psychic reality, defense, and resistance. It is patient, and understanding their import. mechanics, which posits that light is both worth noting, given how much he concen- Allan Frosch published eight articles a wave and a particle, as heuristic support trated on the intense relational experience in peer-reviewed journals. Read chronolog- for his argument for the ability to think of between the members of the dyad, that his ically, they reveal an organic progression opposites together. Finally, his last article, language for describing clinical events was of thoughts that can be seen from the titles “Warmed by the Fires of the Unconscious seldom Winnicottian or Kohutian. In light alone. His first article is “The Preconceptual or Burned to a Crisp,” (2016), returns to of this, his discussions of Freud are partic- Organization of Emotion,” (1995), which clinical material, which illustrates the con- ularly interesting. In his first three articles, explores a treatment that required him to ception of psychoanalysis that he had been Allan cites Freud the way most authors understand that the patient’s emotional life developing in the last three articles. He do, beginning a discussion of a key con- was organized at pre-Oedipal and precon- evokes the passionate, loving relationship cept with Freud’s handling of it. But in his ceptual levels. His next article, “Transfer- that must exist between patient and analyst fourth article, “Analyzability,” after mention- ence: Psychic Reality and Material Reality,” for the treatment to achieve the “magic” of ing him that way, he cites Freud’s warning (2002), discusses a similar treatment situ- work together that links the present to the “that sometimes we can use theory to de- ation, but deepens his account to consid- past but in a way that allows them to be fend against uncomfortable emotions,” that er the patient’s psychic reality, which be- separate in the patient’s mind. we can employ theory “to blame patients comes clearer when the treatment evokes A candidate in a child psychoanalyt- for not behaving as a theory dictates they archaic states in both parties. In “Psychic ic psychotherapy program at an institute should.” (2006a, p.836) He then applies Reality and the Analytic Relationship” other than IPTAR came to Allan for super- these maxims to Freud himself, specifying (2003), he continues his focus on psychic vision. In their first session, the candidate Dora (1905) and Beyond the Pleasure Principle reality, expanding the account to include presented a child case and described how (1920) as texts in which Freud uses theo- the analytic relationship. He describes the he understood the family and individual ry in precisely this way, to distance himself very uncomfortable moments that occurred dynamics of the patient. After listening, from patients that made him uncomfortable. when the patient’s acting out evoked in him Allan looked at him and said, “That’s a lot He writes, “Freud’s intolerance of his own difficult feelings, and discusses what kinds of malarkey.” The candidate was shocked feelings (particularly those around sepa- of forces the analyst can mobilize to tol- but became intensely interested in what he ration and loss) influence his perception erate and understand such moments. The would say next. Allan then explained how of repetition and action in analysis, even next article, “Analyzability,” (2006a), takes he understood the case, expounding both though he was well aware that they were off from the idea of the analytic relation- a theory and a method that made sense. In an attempt to master overwhelming affect ship to raise questions about the factors one moment, he swept away the notions (Freud, 1914, 1920)” (2006a, p.837). In short, horse that allow a dyad to work well or not. This that the candidate had been using. The he knew they were, but wrote as if he didn’t.

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Allan’s fifth article, “The Culture of engages the paradoxical unity and conflict contradictions by allowing themselves to the candidate and Allan that the only way Allan Frosch applied psychoanalytic ciations, and yet he is forced to conclude Psychoanalysis” (2006b), deepens this view of opposites” (2014, p.134). He cites two view Freud himself as both a brilliant the- she could continue in treatment was to be scrutiny to psychoanalysis itself. He did that both of them are performing in what of Freud. He takes the same two works to major Freud scholars, George Makari and orist, many of whose insights retain their granted considerable latitude to her desires. this in three ways in his eight published he comes to realize is an enactment. He show in greater detail how they represent Jean Shimek, who came to diametrically profound trenchancy, and as an unanalyzed The treatment came to a climax when articles. First, as noted above, he analyzed had to learn that her emotions are orga- Freud’s refusal to accept the discomfort opposite conclusions regarding Freud’s the- theorist, whose neurosis distorted some of the patient had an important exhibition Freud. Freud’s character, for Frosch, was nized at a far earlier level than he had been that comes in treating patients who do not ory of perception, as to whether with all of his theory. opening followed by an after party. The not sacred. It was potentially subject to unwittingly assuming, and when he was act as the analyst would prefer they act. He our subjective needs and distortions, we can A candidate had a control patient who patient very much wanted the candidate the same examination as that of any oth- able to make use of this insight, the treat- writes, “psychoanalytic theory [is] a com- be confident that we perceive the world out was needy and demanding but also seduc- to attend both. The candidate spoke with er human being. The fact that Freud was ment began to come together. In the sec- promise formation that, like all compromise there as it is: according to Makari, Freud tive, charming, and very idealizing. The Allan about this and they discussed the op- largely responsible for creating the tools ond article, he talks about how the patient formations, has wishful, defensive, adap- said, no, we can’t; according to Shimek, combination was a heady cocktail for the tions, including the option of going to the of intellectual inquiry used to understand in the third year of treatment was reacting tive, and maladaptive aspects to it” (2006b, Freud said, yes, we can. Frosch’s point candidate, resulting in frequent calls to Al- opening but not the after party. In the end, character did not mean that his own was to her growing need for Allan with mount- p.44). If theory is a compromise formation, is that they are both correct, that Freud’s lan about how to respond to the latest de- the candidate went to both. At the opening, exempt. Second, he asserted that psycho- ing panic and aggression as defenses. Her his argument implies, then the theorist’s genius lay in being able to hold opposite mand or gift. He always returned calls im- she was just one in the crowd, but the af- analytic theory, like all human produc- panic and her attacks caused in Allan a loss characterological compromise formations, views in his mind. mediately, and his answer was usually, “It’s ter party was a party, and she found herself tions, is a compromise formation, made of symbolizing function, so that “my inter- which are active in creating the theory, are Without saying so explicitly in his dis- up to you, if you think you can give this to having to glide around the question of how up of wishes and defenses, constructed to est was in controlling what happened rath- fair game. He cites Freud’s own self-charac- cussions of Freud, Allan is recommending her then go ahead and we’ll talk about it.” she knew the artist. She left with a strange make the theorist feel better about himself er than deepening my understanding of the terization as a “conquistador,” an intellectu- that analysts in our time would be well ad- This patient was a talented artist who had feeling, not really knowing why she had and his work. In so doing, he underlined transference, that is, psychic reality” (2002, al conqueror, as defining a major aspect of vised to emulate Freud’s ability to contain very poor self-regulation. It seemed to both chosen to go and what it had meant. In dis- the ineluctable subjectivity of psychoan- p.622). In his account, his countertrans- his self-image and a distinct source of plea- cussions with Allan, they could never quite alytic work, namely that it is founded on ference played into her enactment, which sure for him. He contrasts that with Freud’s decide if it had been a mistake, or what it one subjectivity making therapeutic con- took the form of running a credit check on loss of his “two mothers”: his biological actually meant. The patient, though, said tact with another subjectivity. He men- him. He shows that they were influencing mother, whose child, Julius, died during that it was great to have her there. At one tioned the perils of the “delusion of objec- each other leading up to the enactment, Freud’s second year, who then gave birth to point, Allan went to see this artist’s work to tivity” and he addressed the question of and acknowledges that his countertransfer- his sister Anna when Freud was two and a try to better understand the patient’s psy- verifiability, once objectivity is placed in ence was part of the picture. In other words, half years old, and thus could not be totally chic reality. quotation marks, by saying the test of all there is no clean separation of transference preoccupied with her first born during his The treatment ended suddenly and theorizing about a patient is whether the and countertransference here. Nevertheless, earliest years; and his nanny, to whom he painfully when there were almost simul- patient is helped. Third, he subjected the he is able to show that the sequence led to had transferred a lot of his early passionate taneous deaths in the families of both the culture of psychoanalysis to a critical an- a deeper understanding of the pattern in attachment and who was sent to jail when candidate and the patient. Thus, the patient alytic scrutiny. He talked about idealizing which the patient was caught. Freud was three. Allan then interprets lost both her family member and her ther- technique as a way of making analysts less Freud’s treatment of Dora with Freud’s psy- apist (since the candidate had to miss some uncomfortable about their work, especially The patient discussed in the third che in mind, that he needed her to confirm sessions), which produced feelings that with difficult patients. He talked about the article (Frosch, 2003) missed a lot of ses- his theories of hysteria, making him into a were intolerable to the patient. She abruptly danger of considering any psychoanalytic sions and was unable to reflect on why conqueror, and when she didn’t, he took left treatment. theory as a sacred teaching, thus causing that might be. Allan’s initial response was his revenge by refusing to work with her The then candidate is now an IPTAR it to die. The clear implication of these to “punish him in my thoughts for actions when she returned and asked for help 15 member who supervises candidates. She uses of psychoanalytic thinking is that that made me feel uncomfortable.” Allan months after having left treatment. Having says that her experience working with Al- psychoanalysts and psychoanalysis should was eventually able to see the missed ses- been left by two mothers, he leaves Dora lan was very important to her becoming not exempt themselves from the questions sions as an essential part of the process, when she is uncooperative. Allan writes, “In the supervisor that she is. Allan’s ability to that psychoanalysis brings to bear on the but only after moving past his initial re- today’s terminology, this could be thought take difficult situations and see the positive human subject. sponse and glimpsing the patient’s psychic of as a transference-countertransference en- in them is something that she consciously I had been in a long analysis, my sec- reality. This was structured around a actment and, for many, a potential prelude benefits from in her work with supervisees. ond, that had been very productive for feeling of being abandoned, to which he to productive analytic work” (2006b, p.45). I worked in 2008-2009 in the school the first half but that for quite a few years reacted by contriving to have the people in Then, in a dense and careful argument, he program at IPTAR, where I co-led a men’s seemed to be going nowhere. In 2011, I his life think about him in his absence. To- shows Freud doing something similar in his group with adolescent males, all young scheduled a consultation with Allan, during wards the end of the article, Allan brief- theorizing in Beyond the Pleasure Principle: men of color who were attending a sec- which I spent 45 minutes describing the ly discusses his own psychoanalysis. Not seeing the repetition compulsion not as a ond-chance high school because they had good years and then the fallow years. He idealizing his analyst, himself, or psycho- very difficult clinical phenomenon, but as been asked to leave their first high school. told me that the rule of thumb in these analysis, he says that in his own treat- an expression of the death instinct, and They all came from very tough backgrounds. cases is to ask whether you think there is ment, “There was no magic to this. It was thereby, as Allan views it, escaping into a Allan led a group of all those working in the a reasonable chance that the dyad could solid analytic technique that focused on bit of pseudo-philosophizing that made school program to help us process the dif- turn the corner. I said something pessimis- helping me to understand the world I had him feel himself a conquistador who had ficult treatment challenges inherent in deal- tic about that, because I had been talking constructed—my psychic reality” (2003, plumbed the essence of life itself. Thus, in ing with the terrible life situations of those about this very question with my analyst for p.611). In his final article, he makes use both of these works, Allan argues that in- we were trying to help. In a curious way, years. Then, the session being over, he sur- of his own clinical material, briefly dis- tensely uncomfortable states are handled Allan’s deeply held belief in giving patients prised me by asking, “Would you like to set cussing a patient who evoked in him an not by understanding them as a vital part of what they need made his leadership of this something up?” Three months later, I was archaic object such that he lost his ability the treatment, but by avoiding them. group less than optimal. One group mem- his patient. to symbolize. He re-creates the subsequent In “Psychoanalysis: The Sacred and ber felt particularly disturbed about his work In his first three articles and in his last, moment when his intervention brought the Profane” (2014), he turns from ana- in the school, and over a too-long period of Allan describes in some detail the emotion- the patient real relief from a troubling lyzing Freud’s characterological difficul- time, the discussion centered on his feelings al and theoretical blind alleys that he found fantasy that was important in her psychic ties to appreciating his intellectual genius. to the exclusion of other people and consid- himself in with four different patients. In reality. He then understands the loss of his He contrasts some contemporary analysts’ erations. Allan’s attunement to the needs of “The Preconceptual Organization of Emo- symbolizing function as vital for bringing belief that they are “on the side of the sa- one individual led to the needs of the group tion” (1995), he finds himself providing the past into the room, or as Loewald put cred” with the “richness and complexity not being met. Many of us found the group completely correct interpretations to which it, providing the blood “that awakens the of Freud’s thinking,” which “passionately discarded unsatisfactory for that reason. the patient responds with confirming asso- ghosts of the past” (2016, p.118).

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A candidate was supervised by Allan The concept of psychic reality, occur- ality that allows Allan to come out of the be able to work while he had those treat- he fell asleep. In the next session, he agreed In the end it came down to a phone call on a control patient who was always at- ring in the titles of two of his first three ar- resistant funk he was in. Third, in his last ments. He said the doctors were encouraging that that was what had happened. of less than five minutes in which he told tempting to merge with her. Anything that ticles, is central to Allan Frosch’s early pub- papers, he looks at the analytic process as him to work. He said, “It doesn’t look good Around the beginning of the summer, me that he couldn’t continue and he gave differentiated them, a movement, a sip of lished work. Psychic reality, which is where basically guided by mutual love. Without but I’m still here.” Later that session he said, I asked about immunotherapy, and he said me the name and number of somebody I water, blowing her nose, would be very everyone (patient and non-patient) lives, is this mutual love, there can be no analysis. “I guess you didn’t sign up for this, did you?” the doctors had held off on that because might consider working with. I then tried upsetting. The work was very difficult for a set of unconscious fantasies originating The patient gives up his neurosis for love In the first few months after the diag- the results of the chemo and radiation to express in a couple of sentences what I the candidate, and she often went to super- in early childhood that color the life and of the analyst, and the analyst gives up his nosis, he would intervene to point out when were turning out to be better than original- thought he had given me in these five years, vision feeling bad about her sessions. She restrict the choices of a person. Here are resistance for love of the patient. He even I defensively moved away from the topic of ly thought. I welcomed this as permission and he responded warmly. would present the sessions of the week, three examples of patients’ psychic realities, compares the love of analytic treatment to his health. He answered all my questions not to think about his illness, and during During these ten months, I would Allan would ask what she thought about paraphrased from Allan’s clinical vignettes: romantic love, in that the world is changed about his scans and doctors’ reports. Be- the next several weeks, he didn’t interrupt sometimes ask myself: what is the point of them, and she would usually focus on “My analyst is intentionally hurting me by in its presence. ing able to ask about anything meant that my concern with my own life. That ended going through this when the end is not far what she considered to be her mistakes. his indifference” (2002, p.624); “Anyone Even more important for Allan Frosch I would become anxious when I knew he when I again mentioned immunotherapy off and seems inevitable? But after Allan’s He would then speak for 10 minutes or so, whom I allow to be close to me is a threat than the concept of love, in my opinion, is was going to meet with his doctors and and he said he was going to start it soon. I death, when I regained some capacity for addressing himself to her deeper feelings to abandon me; therefore, I will be hard to the concept of intensity. He writes, “A neces- hear some results, but it also meant that he understood that to mean that he was likely thinking, I realized that somehow, while about the patient and the case. The candi- find” (2003, p.610); “I can’t bear contact sary condition for this extraordinary process wasn’t going to hide anything medical from in the last stage of his illness, since these enduring the great pain and uncertainty of date had no sense that he was trying to im- with people; there is nothing I want more [psychoanalysis] to occur is the analyst’s ca- me. Among other things, his openness al- days, the highly experimental immunother- this anguishing time, something had shift- press her with his interpretations; rather, he than contact with people” (2016, p.113). Al- pacity to experience the intensity of her own lowed me to express my hatred for his dis- apy is usually the last treatment offered. ed within me regarding a deep-set tangle spoke to where she herself was, affectively, lan describes how psychic reality can shape feelings, his own infantile primary process ease and my anger at him for being in its In succeeding weeks, it was difficult not of feelings that I understood as relating to in the moment, as the place within herself shift throughout life in complex ways, al- construction of the moment, and struggle clutches. Another consequence of his open- knowing if the current session might be the an unconscious relationship to death in my where she did the work. though it can always be inferred from look- to return to a more secondary process sym- ness was that he was open to my uncon- last one. When I voiced that, he said that if family. I now realize that Allan helped me He taught her to do something simi- ing at a person’s life experience. He more bolized position” (2016, p.118). Again, this scious, which on one occasion produced a he needed to end the treatment, he would most by staying open and connected to lar with her patient, to speak directly to the than once indicates that the term “psychic is the point of his continually showing us dream that was so disturbing to him that try to give me as much warning as he could. me even while he was in this struggle for feelings of the patient. She now sees this as reality” is preferable to the term “transfer- how he has been derailed by his powerful his life. His work with me in these last ten a teaching that she continues to use with ence” in understanding the patient’s psyche. experience with the patient through losing months of his life not only helped me with this and with all patients. This preference seems based on the desire his capacity to symbolize. Clearly, the rea- that tangle of feelings, but also showed me During this time, the candidate became to put the focus on the patient and his or son is to show us what clinical work looks that his devotion to psychoanalysis could pregnant and was fearful of losing the case. her functioning, rather than on the patient’s like at high intensity, fueled by the infantile make even his losing struggle with death The patient reacted by attacking the treat- feelings for the analyst. One clear implica- primary process feelings of the moment. In itself a crucial part of my therapy. ment, missing sessions, threatening to leave tion of psychic reality for Allan Frosch is his paper about the effect of frequency and After the consultation with Allan in treatment or reduce frequency. For the can- that it denotes the structure of the patient’s duration on psychoanalytic outcome (2011), 2011 that led to my becoming his patient didate, needing the case for graduation, the subjectivity, which is known only by the he continually argues for higher intensity was over, and after he’d made his surprising situation seemed desperate. Allan, however, subjectivity of the analyst. He implies that treatments, meaning treatments of greater offer to “set something up,” I opened the pointed out that although the patient had in order to understand the psychic reality frequency, but throughout the paper, the door to walk out, but instead of simply clos- missed many sessions and often threatened of the patient, the analyst must abandon phrase “high intensity” shimmers with this ing the door behind me, I turned and took to reduce her frequency, she had not actu- his or her idea that the patient’s psyche other meaning, the intensity of primary pro- a last look, hoping that he would give me a ally reduced her frequency. can be understood through any objective cess responses to patients as they begin to friendly nod. Instead, I saw that he had al- In the end, the candidate and Allan markers. In several of his case vignettes, it is re-create their primal fantasies. ready risen from his seat, and was standing, crafted a statement to address the patient’s the formulating or clarifying of the patient’s Allan Frosch’s vision of psychoanaly- three-quarters turned away, his hands on anxiety, acknowledging the difficulty of psychic reality that allows Allan to regain sis, taken as a whole, may be seen as hav- his hips, motionless, deep in contemplation, being in analysis four times a week, attrib- his equanimity in the face of a disturbing ing two basic components. First, he makes looking in the direction of the window. I uting her seeming logistical reasons for transference or countertransference. This the clinical task more perilous and less think he was checking in with himself after reducing frequency to her response to the indicates from another perspective the use- comfortable by removing the consolations an intense consultation. z pregnancy, but concluding that she (the fulness for him of the term psychic reality. of an idealized theory as well as the con- candidate) believed that a four times a Finally, the psychic reality of the patient is solations of idealizing Freud. By doing so, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS he removes whatever stands between the I would like to thank the following people for sharing week analysis was indeed what the patient the focus of the analyst’s love of the patient. with me their experience of Allan Frosch: Joseph Cancel- needed, keeping in mind her best interests. It is that which the analyst loves in the pa- analyst and an unprotected reception of mo, Elena Visconti di Modrone, Joan Hoffenberg, Ellen The message was that the candidate was tient, so that when he loses that love, he the patient’s pain, including the illusion of Marakowitz, Tuba Tokgoz, and Keith Westerfield. I would also like to thank Ellen Marakowitz for her careful reading not rejecting the patient even though she has been derailed from his analytic task and objectivity. And second, he points to love of a draft of this paper and Bill Fried for his many detailed was pregnant and even though the patient must find ways to get back on track. as the force that opens us to understanding editorial suggestions. had been difficult. Her sense was that the The concept of love grows in impor- the patient and later helps us endure and patient heard her. tance through most of these eight arti- survive the moments of hopelessness and REFERENCES Frosch, A. (1995). The preconceptual organization of The candidate had difficulty writing cles. Three different uses of love for Allan despair that can arise in a treatment based emotion. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, up the case, and Allan suggested that she Frosch can be identified. First, and perhaps on this openness. 43, 423-447. I was in treatment with Allan Frosch Frosch, A. (2002). Transference: psychic reality and take some time off from supervision and most important, is the love of the patient’s material reality. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 19(4), 603-633. come back when something was written. It psychic reality, as I just mentioned, that al- for five years, the last ten months of which Frosch, A. (2003). Psychic reality and the analytic rela- took her two years to write the draft, and lows the analyst to understand it. In these were under the cloud of his cancer diagno- tionship. Psychoanalytic Review, 90(5), 599-614. Frosch, A. (2006a). Analyzability. Psychoanalytic Review, unfortunately, when she returned with it, papers, there are several examples of in- sis. This is how he handled his illness in my 93 (5), 836-843. he had to tell her that he was sick and that sights that are attributed to the analyst’s sessions. Late in December 2015, Allan had Frosch, A. (2006b). The culture of psychoanalysis and the concept of analyzability. Psychoanalytic Psychology, he wouldn’t be able to focus on her paper love of and interest in the patient. Without canceled some appointments to learn why he 23(1), 43-55. properly, advising her to consult with an- that love, there would be no understand- was coughing so much. At the beginning of Frosch, A. (2011). The effect of frequency and duration other IPTAR fellow to edit her paper. Af- ing. Second, it is the love and the hope that my next session, I asked him how he was. He on psychoanalytic outcome: a moment in time. Psychoana- lytic Review, 98(1), 11-38. ter the last session, Allan sent her an email allies with it that allow the analyst to re- said, “I’m ill.” I asked, “Is it cancer?” He said, Frosch, A. (2014). Psychoanalysis: the sacred and the summarizing his thoughts about her as a cover from the rough patches when his or “Yes.” “Lung cancer?” “Yes.” “What stage?” profane. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 74, 133-146. Frosch, A. (2016). Warmed by the fires of the uncon- person and an analyst. He encouraged her her symbolic function is lost. In one case, “Four.” He told me that he would be starting scious or burned to a crisp. American Journal of Psychoanal- to enjoy the presentation of the case. it’s the thought of the patient’s psychic re- chemo and radiation soon. I asked if he would waiting ysis, 76(2), 111-121.

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This is a language game that an autistic of an injury, but a way of being that is more philosophical phenomenology, in particular Autism: A Battle Lost by Psychoanalysis Sergio Benvenuto person would certainly fail to understand. or less. For this reason today we tend to talk by Vittorio Gallese (2006a, 2006b), one of After all, the one thing the autistic person about the autism spectrum, a continuous se- the discoverers of mirror neurons (together For some time now, in many countries Klein, never advocated a similar theory: mind,” both of their own and of others. The does not have access to is a sense of humor. ries of traits. with a team led by Giacomo Rizzolatti). (including Italy and France), those who de- that all the “faults” of psychopathologies lie well-known awkwardness of autistic people It must be noted that in the case of au- But if the opposite of being tall is to be According to these neuroscientists, test psychoanalysis—organic psychiatrists, with the mother or with the first caregiver. in relating to others shows that they do not tism, mainstream psychiatry is moving from short, and if the opposite of being intelli- we directly perceive intentions, hints, im- cognitivists, evolutionary psychologists— Indeed, every subject brings his/her own understand what is going on in the minds of a categorical paradigm to a dimensional one. gent is to be stupid, what is the opposite of plicit messages, and metaphors of others take up autism as their main argument to contribution to the relationship, so to speak, others, whereas for most of us we may say A categorical approach considers each dis- autistic? As we will see, nowadays we tend not because we have constructed a theory launch a massive attack on psychoanalysis. and also to that with important adults. We it is something immediate, which needs no order as a discontinuous category, a break to believe that the opposite of autism is the of mind over time, as the cognitive model They say: autistic individuals, children and are not entirely the products of our mother special psychological insight. with normality, and implies a binary oppo- capacity for empathy. claims, but because we directly perceive the adults, should not be entrusted to the care or of early childhood caregivers. One of the greatest physicists of the sition between “healthy” and “ill.” A dimen- subjectivity of others. In the statement of the of psychoanalysts because the psychoan- The psychoanalytic approach to au- last century, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, sional approach instead sees everything as 2. The classical cognitive theory of au- physicist, “I don’t understand that formula”, alytic theory of autism has been proved tism rather lacks an understanding of what suffered from Asperger’s. Carlo Rovelli being more or less. Consequently, autism tism—supposedly the autist lacks a theory we all perceive—rather than “interpret”—that wrong. Better to resort to other techniques, autism really is. Firstly, it is necessary to ask (2014) writes that: tends to become dimensionalized. A person of mind (Baron-Cohen, 1988, 1989, 1991a, a question is being expressed. In short, au- perhaps of a cognitive-behavioral type, to the question, “What is it essentially?” Now, can be more or less autistic, the same way 1991b, 1995, 2001; Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & tism is agnosia of a very particular “object” rehabilitation systems such as applied be- it seems to me that a large part of psycho- During a conference [by Dirac], one is more or less tall or short, or the same Frith, 1985; Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg, that cognitivism cannot trace and concep- havior analysis. analysis—starting from Bruno Bettelheim, a colleague interrupted him: “I don’t way one has a more or less high or low IQ. & Cohen, 1994, 2000; Frith, 1989)—has tualize: of subjectivity, both our own and I must warn that my practice is that of the main exponent of the analytical theory understand that formula”. Dirac, after Thus, autism is not a pathology, the result been refuted by neuroscientists inspired by that of others. An autistic person does not a psychoanalyst. I believe that psychoana- of autism, who has been openly challenged a brief pause, continued as if nothing perceive subjectivity, and so perceives only lytic theory is very powerful and unjustly from various sides in these last decades— had happened. The moderator inter- cognitive minds, in which the function of underestimated by many psychologists and confuses the “autism” of which Eugen rupted him, asking him whether he metaphorization is very scarce. psychiatrists today. I believe this type of Bleuler spoke with the autism described lat- would like to answer the question, This situation is well described in a therapy, if carried out correctly, is a pow- er by Kanner and Asperger, or with autism and Dirac, sincerely amazed replied, Hungarian film, On Body and Soul, by Ildikó erful system of treatment. In short, I cannot as we know it today. Autism for Bleuler “Question? What question? The col- Enyedi: the female protagonist is a well-in- be suspected of being a Freud-eater. I do (1911/1950) was the basic symptom of league made a statement” (“I did not tegrated autistic woman; she works in a however believe that until now, psychoan- schizophrenia, or the psychotic mode of understand that formula” is an affir- slaughterhouse, but has difficulty grasping alytic theories on autism have been failures. withdrawal from the world and from re- mation, not a question...) It was not ar- the sense of desire for a man and the de- Amicus Freudus, sed magis amica veritas. lations with others, but has nothing to do rogance: the man able to see the secrets sire of this man, because desire is the fun- Those who are against psychoanaly- with what is now called the “autistic spec- of nature which escaped everyone did damental expression of subjectivity. This is sis have chosen to focus precisely on the trum” (Wing, 1988, 1995, 1996).1 In short, not understand implicit language, he also the specificity of Temple Grandin. psychoanalysis of autism and not on other psychoanalysis has continued to believe did not understand his peers and inter- Temple Grandin is perhaps the most fa- psychoanalytic approaches—for instance on that autism is a specific form of psychosis, preted all sentences literally.3 mous autistic person in the world.4 She has neuroses, psychoses, perversions, psychop- therefore explainable the same way other written many essays on autism, and is also a athy—because they sense that autism is the psychoses can be explained (Tustin, 1972; In this case, Dirac did not grasp what renowned specialist in animal husbandry (she Achilles’ heel of psychoanalysis. And that Ballerini, 2002). philosophers of language call the performa- invented a cattle slaughtering system that psychoanalysis does not adequately deal In my opinion, the clinical analysis by tive nature of words: the fact that language makes the process much less traumatic for with this heel. Just as in any war, the enemy non-analysts suggests something that is is not simply a series of statements, and that animals), a subject she teaches in the Animal is attacked in its weakest spot. more important. That is, to put it very sim- indeed we act with language. In the above Science Department of Colorado State ply, they have understood that autistic indi- case, Dirac’s colleague had posed a question, University. Her autobiography, published in 1. The fragility of psychoanalytic the- viduals are cognitive-behavioral subjects. Not and when asked a question one is forced, 1986 and titled Emergence: Labelled Autistic, is ories on autism thus far developed does in the sense that an autistic person believes in a certain sense, to give an answer; maybe a bestseller and has been translated into many not so much depend on the weakness in today’s cognitive and behavioral theories, even just saying one is not going to answer. languages (Grandin, 1986, 2006; Jackson, of its etiopathogenesis, as its detractors but in the sense that the functioning of the To use a distinction made by the philos- 2010; Sacks, 1996). A brilliant polemicist, she think. It is not so much a matter of what autistic mind more or less coincides with the ophy of language, that between ‘statement’ attacked Bettelheim’s vision and supports—as mainstream psychoanalysis invokes as the way behaviorists and cognitivists conceive of (énoncé) and ‘enunciation’ (énonciation), we do all learned autistic people—a purely neuro- essential cause of autism, an “inhuman” the mind in general. In other words: if the will say that an autistic person understands logical explanation of autism. mother-child relationship (the “refriger- cognitive-behavioral theory of the human statements but does not grasp enunciations. It should be noted that, as do many ator mother” theory, which for decades mind were universally valid, we would all be A statement is the literal sentence; an autistic people, Temple lacks erotic desire, informed the explanation of autism, espe- autistic. We may say that the pathology of enunciation is the subjective act of enunciating and sexual feelings are completely incom- cially in the United States). The weakness autism is cognitive-behavioral in essence. something, the meaning of which depends on prehensible for her. Temple is also known of psychoanalytic theories consists rather To say it concisely, autism, in its more the context and on unexplained intentions. for having built a mobile machine that mas- in their vision of autism as such, or in their or less severe forms, is a particular form of A good example of the difference between sages her, which she says gives her a sense way of considering its specificity. On this agnosia. That is, it is a kind of psychic blind- statement and enunciation is illustrated by a of well-being. Her friends have always told point, I believe that cognitive science is ness to something very particular. There are famous Jewish joke, told by Freud. her it is a hugging machine. Temple sees no ahead of psychoanalysis. various types of agnosia.2 According to cog- sense in the sensual embrace of a man or a Strangely, those who intend to sup- nitivists, in the case of autism, it is a blind- Two Jewish rivals in commerce meet woman, but she does in that of a machine. port the current psychoanalytic approach ness to recognizing the minds of others. on a train in Poland. One asks the other However, the autistic scientist has difficulty to autism at all costs limit themselves to That is, autistic individuals lack a “theory of where he is going, and the other answers: seeing how a human and mechanical em- attachment theory (which does indeed de- “To Krakow.” To which the man replies, brace might be related. Indeed, this is an 1. As is known, the DSM-5 also adopts the term Autism rive from psychoanalysis): in short, to the Spectrum Disorder (299.00) and places it among indignant: “Why are you telling me you eloquent example of the very nature of au- idea that the mother-child relationship Neuroevolutionary Disorders, so separately from the are going to Krakow so I will believe you tistic subjectivity. “psychotic spectrum”. explains everything, from schizophrenia are going to Warsaw, when in fact you In our non-autistic experience of an to autism, from perversions to sociopa- 2. I have dealt with Unilateral Spatial Neglect in particular, are going to Krakow?” embrace, also in the absence of sexual thies. However, the great thinkers of psy- which is a very specific form of blindness: the subject does not see what is on the left of his field of vision, or the left 3. Graham Farmelo (2009) wrote a biography of Dirac 4. For accounts of autistic people and their way of being in choanalysis, from Freud to Lacan and M. side of an object in front of him (Benvenuto, 2016, 2018). which speaks of his autism. smoker the world, see Williams (1992).

26 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 27 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 COMMENTARY COMMENTARY attraction for the person embracing us, at whether the psychotic person finds sense “bare skin” we are alluding to is our own least three different dimensions converge. in this signifying excess (as in systematized subjectivity, which covers and somehow One is the physical dimension of the “mas- paranoid delusions) or does not find it at all, softens our relationship with reality, which sage,” which in itself is pleasant—one need abandoning him or herself to the pure non- makes external reality less brutal. In fact, it only think of the various professional mas- sense of the unbridled flow of words that do is thanks to autism that, perhaps, we can sage practices available today. Another not circumscribe sense. infer the sense of what we call subjectivi- dimension is signification, we may say a In contrast, the world in which autistic ty, a concept that is very difficult to grasp. “symbolic” one: by embracing me, the oth- subjects live appears to us to be lacking of In fact, subjectivity is not consciousness er metaphorically includes me in him or signifier. An autistic person sees the other or self-consciousness (an autistic person is her, becoming the place that welcomes me, and also him or herself as a series of behav- very conscious), nor is it mind in the cogni- “internalizing” me bodily, as if he or she iors, but has difficulty seeing a meaningful tive sense. We may say that autism allows were eating me with his or her arms. There subjectivity behind them. We could indeed us to grasp something of our own subjec- is also a precise emotional dimension linked say that the autistic world is anti-hermeneu- tivity because of its lack or absence: that to the other: an embrace is a bodily way tic; it is a purely ontic world. It is therefore is, subjectivity is a void around which the of feeling loved by another person. Now it not correct to say that autistic people live world rotates in an orderly fashion. seems clear that for Grandin only the first in a world of their own: on the contrary, We are never completely exposed to dimension of the embrace is present, the they are completely absorbed by the real reality in its full insignificance; we always physical one, while the other two do not world, which is, however, completely de- modulate it subjectively, both with our appear; and this allows her to replace an- void of any metaphorical ambiguity, of any thoughts and by “reading” the thoughts and other human being with a machine she has subjective openness, and is for this reason feelings of others. Subjectivity seems to be built. The delicate question is as follows: is often unbearable. It is a bare being-in-the- the equivalent of a film soundtrack, which such an intense and soothing enjoyment, world, hence the horror caused by strong conveys sense to images and therefore which the autistic person draws from a me- sensations, by certain noises, gestures... The helps us take them in. An autistic person is chanical massage, only physical, or does the physical experience translate an experience with another subject and an experience of signification which are both “reified?” It is as if a mother took pleasure in continually feeding her little son despite not feeling any affection or love for him: yet the pleasure of feeding him mechanically might be seen as the surrogate of an unperceived love. In remembering the woods this case, she would most certainly be an not, in short, an empty fortress (The Empty through words. For autistic people lan- and that an autistic person is blocked in this autistic mother. Fortress is the title Bettelheim gave to his guage is something abstract, disconnected phase and is not able to progress. There main book on autism [1967]): autistic sub- from subjective expression. is, however, no autistic phase in children, 3. Everything we have said so far jects are indeed empty as to subjectivity, A common trait of autistic people unless they are already autistic. Autism is a should lead us to understand why autism but not because they have withdrawn from is that they look not into the eyes of the developmental disorder in the banal sense should not be confused with psychosis. On the world by building a defensive barrier person talking, but at his mouth. Also, very that we can say a person born blind will the contrary, I would say autism is its op- around themselves. If they have built such small ‘normal’ children, before the age of never develop sight. Blindness, however, is posite. In fact, we say subjects are psychot- a barrier, it is anyhow secondary to the two, already look at the eyes of adults be- not a developmental disorder; it is caused ic—schizophrenic, paranoiac, manic-depres- feeling of being “lost” in the world of those fore anything else. This difference is cru- by the absence of development of an organ sive—when in our opinion they attribute an who are not autistic. Rather, for them the cial. In our view, eyes are the “mirror of or a function. excess of signification to the world, espe- social world, the world of human relations, the soul” even though nothing comes out cially to the human world. That is, they see, is incomprehensible—and therefore threat- of them, and it is only subtle ocular varia- 4. It is not true, Gallese claims, that an they perceive, they mean far more signifiers ening—because they do not have the abil- tions that tell us what the other person is autistic person has not been able to con- than there actually are, and in this sense, ity to “read” the subjective and signifying feeling; eyes refer to something immaterial, struct a theory of mind, as is supported by we say they are delirious; they produce far part of the world. This is precisely what an that is, to the supposed location of subjec- cognitivists: according to them, the truth is more signifiers than what (for us) is nec- autistic person once said: “From an early tivity, which seems to be hidden behind the that a person can enter into contact with essary, as in a flow of ideas (disorganized age I felt isolated because I saw that other eyes. The “inner opening” (for intérieur in others only thanks to the construction of a speech, Ideenflucht). children were talking with their eyes. And I French), some say. From our mouth, on the theory of mind, not thanks to the immediate It is commonly understood that the couldn’t understand them.” other hand, material sounds, words, come intuition of the other’s subjectivity, which main pathognomonic trait of every psycho- For this reason, I would say that an out, and an autistic person is essentially a renders our relations with others fluid and sis is hearing voices. This means that for a autistic person is a “house with no walls”: materialist, so to speak, sensitive to what meaningful (at least to a certain extent). psychotic person, the world is much more that is, a house that is not actually there. comes out from another’s subjectivity, not to An autistic person does construct theories, talkative than it is for us. In psychosis, there In the most severe cases, as is known, subjectivity itself. The eyes of another per- correct ones, on the mind, the same way is always an excess of signifiers (which does autistic people do not even access articu- son refer us to a function that mirrors our we construct theories on the chemical el- not at all mean an excess of sense! Voices lated language. However, this lacking ac- own: the other looks at me just as I look ements of galaxies; we do not, however, can be pressing, continuous, pervasive, but cess to language is not caused by a cogni- at him. A mouth, however, does not mir- speak to chemical elements, or to galaxies, nonsensical). In the delusion of interpreta- tive deficit, the inability to use symbols to ror anything: the other speaks, and so my and for this reason, we need scientific the- tion of paranoid subjects, we are convinced the extent that they are abstract signs; the mouth must stay shut. The difference lies in ories. It is as if the other, in the eyes of an they read too much signifier in real events, cause for this closure to language is rather the assumption of the subjectivity of others. autistic person, were an object of an objec- which for us are irrelevant or casual. In the great difficulty in accessing the subjec- In my opinion, it is for this reason that tive investigation, not a being-with-me or short, we speak of psychosis when a subject tive dimension of language, the fact that it is not correct to speak of autism as a “de- a being-against-me. The other’s subjectivity lives in a world that is too signifying com- speaking is not merely putting words to- velopmental disorder”: this implies that does not manifest itself in what the other pared to “our” world, and this regardless of pooch gether, but manifesting something subjective each child goes through an autistic phase, person says or does.

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This allows us to understand why au- to the extent that empathy is the function, work, because psychoanalysis is a research cerebral constitution” theory. This rigid op- factor in the evolution of autism; but precisely 6. In fact, if everything I have just said is tistic people are good at math operations, we can say the affective function, that ac- program that deals with subjectivity—even position—we may call it “relationship versus because of this, the problem I pose here is not correct, autistic patients represent a difficult sometimes better than average, or opera- companies the perception of one’s own though psychoanalysis itself has many prob- state of the brain” —is however a trap, and psy- etiopathogenetic, but of essence. problem for psychoanalysts, especially for tions requiring calculation, memory, or pure subjectivity or that of others. Those who lems in describing it. Hence autism, precisely choanalysis should be careful not to fall into Behind this “relational” conversion of those who intend to operate therapeutically logic. Signifiers in mathematics require no reduce autism to a lack of empathy have because it lacks this quid, allows us to better it. Let’s imagine the discovery is made that psychoanalysis—which is a modernized form with them. For the simple reason that, if au- subjective premise. Autistic people are good difficulty in commenting on the famous certain organic (cerebral) predispositions are of the old opposition “soul versus body”, tism is a form of agnosia of one’s own sub- with computers—and can be excellent with Sally-Anne test (Baren-Cohen et al, 1985). needed to develop hysteria: would this ipso with the difference that today the soul is an jectivity and that of others, the unavoidable computers—because they have something In this test, there are two girls in the facto falsify all that psychoanalysis has said and inter-soul—there is an assumption, in many conclusion is that the autistic person practi- in common with computers: neither per- same room; Sally has a basket next to her, elaborated on hysteria? Not at all. Everything cases explicit: that psychoanalytic therapy is cally has no unconscious, at least not the kind ceives subjectivity. No one thinks that one’s and Anne has a box next to her. Sally puts we speak of in terms of psychic language can, a sort of second appeal to maternity, that the the psychoanalyst grasps in neuroses, perver- computer has a mind; we all know it is only a cube into the basket, then goes away. at least in theory, be given a cerebral equiv- analyst is a second mother, this time a good sions, and psychoses. We can say that where- a machine, even though it can talk, and it Meanwhile, Anne takes the cube from the alent; the fact is that these two languages enough one, who will allow the subject to as with psychosis the unconscious makes it- might be Siri talking. In purely formal opera- basket and introduces it into her box. At a are incommensurable, but not incompatible. undergo the evolution that the first mother, self manifest, that is, the subject is submerged tions, in fact, it is best not to show anything certain point, Sally comes back, and one asks Proper psychoanalysis has never rejected a not good enough, has hindered. Since the by his or her own unconscious, in autism, on relating to our subjectivity or that of others. the person being tested, “Where does Sally priori constitutional factors or cerebral predis- therapy is, in this view, a second maternage, the contrary, the subject seems to be lacking It is striking that autistic people seem think the cube is?” It is remarkable that most positions: the point is what the subject—and it is therefore necessary that the cause (but all unconscious. The autistic person would to like centripetal movements such as, for normal children and even those with Down those around him or her—will make of these in fact the fault) of autism is of the first (real) need a much greater degree of unconscious example, spinning a rope. Many like riding syndrome give the right answer, while the predispositions. Indeed, some organic predis- mother. All of this is, however, a huge sim- to enter into a meaningful relationship of in the rotor, a spinning machine that can be majority of autistic people (and many young positions and subjective stories are so inter- plification. I do not believe that analytical re- exchange with others, to the extent that our found in amusement parks, in which people children under the age of four) say that Sally ability to understand others is rooted in our are pressed against the walls of a rotating will look for the cube in Anne’s box. This unconscious. Freud (1933/1964) described cylinder. We might call this the autistic pas- is supposedly proof of the fact that autistic the psychoanalytic work in analogy with the sion for the spinning top. How might we people lack a “theory of mind.” Zuiderzee in the Netherlands, as the act of explain this passion? In my opinion, our The difficulty encountered by the the- filling the sea ofthe ​​ unconscious with land; subjectivity is like a center which, in a cer- ory according to which autism is a lack in the case of autism, however, we have too tain sense, structures the surrounding world of empathy stems from the fact that the much dry land, and what would be needed like a whirl around it. It is what we mean wrong response by an autistic person does is a drastic irrigation of the Es. The Freudian by saying that every “I” is the center of the not seem to be related to an empathic rela- unconscious is a surplus of signifiers (and im- world. The world is ordered by subjectiv- tionship with the other, but to something pulses) that our ego (the part of subjectivity ity, which is first of all centralization, and even deeper, which I would call the prima- that controls and organizes) cannot control, allows us to rotate everything around our cy of the ontological dimension of autism, use, take in. According to Freud, the uncon- “I”, like the Ptolemaic world. It seems that with respect to the epistemological dimen- scious is not made up only of repressed drives: autistic people are deprived of this central sion. What matters is the state of things, not Sally-Anne test these impulses are continuously signified, and subjectivity, hence a certain terror of be- who considers the state of things. Knowing the ego—a human being’s rational and cogni- ing transported by things, of drifting away. or not knowing tends to be irrelevant to grasp the essence of this quid. Around which tive functions—is often threatened with being Generally, young male (normal) children autistic individuals, because knowledge psychoanalysis does not cease to revolve. submerged by this plus of signification, which love linear transportation, like trains, cars, implies a gap between subjective function makes us signifying bodies. The ego is also en- and planes; the centrifugal movement is and extra-subjective reality. If an autistic 5. Unfortunately, however, it does not riched by these impulses, which make it cre- erotized. Instead, an autistic child loves cen- individual were a philosopher, I bet he or seem to me that analysts have, for the most ative if it manages to direct them. In autistic tripetal movements. In fact, autistic people she could never be Kantian: for him or her, part, grasped the specificity of autism, its people, the opposite happens: their subjectiv- are afraid of being sucked into reality be- noumena and phenomena, the thing-in-it- being agnosia of subjectivity. Some even ity is impoverished by a minus of signification. cause they cannot give it meaning through self and the things that appear to us, must hypothesize an autistic phase in child de- This certainly does not mean that they lack subjective angularity. It is for this reason necessarily coincide. Autism is embodied velopment (Rey-Flaud, 2008), which, how- affections and emotions, which in fact may be that when they encounter, in the world, realism. Thus, the lack of empathy of the ever, appears to me to be entirely fanciful. so strong as to become overwhelming. The something their mind lacks—the centripetal autistic subject is a consequence of the fact For this reason, I cannot agree with the point is that autistic emotionality is poor in nature of the world—they are seduced by it. that he or she not only does not perceive campaign that various analysts in various subjective signification; it is made up of emo- In circular and concentric shapes they see the subjectivity of others, but also lacks per- countries are launching against the non-psy- tions without an “I.” Of course, autistic people a solution to an intrinsic difficulty of theirs, ception of his or her own subjectivity. choanalytic approach to autism. It is a whining express joy, fear, anger, etc., but they are not relating to their being-in-the-world. In other words, autism, thanks to the attitude, and ultimately one bound to fail—in- in tune with social expectations. In fact, it is Likewise, their tendency to rock seems conspicuous absence characterizing it—the deed, when one assumes a defensive attitude, with social emotions that autistic people ap- to be aimed at reproducing a pivot, that absence of a perception of subjectivity—can one is also confessing one’s weaknesses. At its pear to be incompetent, because social emo- is, the ideal “fulcrum” that each one of us conversely provide us with a precious image peak in the 1960s and 1970s, psychoanalysis tions imply the recognition of the subjectivity thinks we have or that perhaps we are, of what we have termed subjectivity, some- did not defend itself, it attacked; this is how of others, and the fact that one’s subjectivity around which our body performs but also thing which both of the philosophies pre- it was able to call into question traditional is recognized by others. Hence, the way they our thoughts. It is as if the autistic person vailing today, cognitivism and phenomenol- psychiatry, psychiatry in asylums, and purely often feel like they are “animals,” not in the continuously tries to re-shape, in the real ogy, struggle to conceptualize. Cognitivism nosological psychiatry. Psychoanalysis should sense that they are driven by bestial inclina- world, a sense of centrality or axiality as a deals only with the mind, which is essential- indeed concentrate on what other research tions, but in the sense that they do not feel subject, a centrality and axiality that for us ly a cognitive mind, and therefore cannot see has clarified, completely reformulating its hy- fully human—they are somewhere in between subjectivity, which is an occurrence located potheses on autism according to a possible animals and computers; they skip humanity. are not spatial but mental. parent and child We must also say, however, that the beyond the mind. Phenomenology instead line of research I will describe. Autistic subjects do not experience feel- neuro-phenomenological theory that views reduces subjectivity to something integrated The defense strategies of psychoana- twined and blended that one cannot trace a constructions, and even less analytical ther- ings such as modesty, shame, or guilt. They autism as lacking an empathic ability (per- with our being-in-the-world, always situated lysts aim at a clear opposition between two clear distinction between “relationship” and apies, are simple corollaries of an etiological do not understand the reasons behind social haps due to dysfunctional mirror neurons, in the relationship with other subjects, but etiopathogenetic theories: on the one hand, “state of the brain.” I do not at all rule out that theory. A psychoanalytic therapy is above all taboos and therefore cannot understand the as Gallese [2006b] claims) is not enough. It never described as such. Perhaps it is here, the “relationship with adults (especially the a certain relationship established by a moth- an ethical option, a certain way of addressing social hypocrisy that regulates our relation- is true that autism lacks empathy, but only then, that psychoanalysts should get to mother)” theory; on the other, the “organic er with her autistic son may be an essential inhibitions, symptoms, and anxieties. ships. Hence all of their blunders. Many have

30 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 31 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION certainly learned in a very formal way how or she is saying or doing literally: the analyst a recognition of something that purely cog- to behave in public; some learn to live in so- brings out the significant plethora of the sub- nitive beings such as themselves do not per- What Healing Has to Do with Termination: ciety so well that their diversity is hardly no- ject. This is commonly described as “listening ceive: our human subjectivity as meaningful. ticeable. For instance, they know that if one with a third ear.” This third ear is the ability The fact is that what counts is not only what Endings and Interruptions Glauco MARIA GENGA, Luca FLABBI, Maria Gabriella PEDICONI and Vaia TSOLAS is presented to a child one must say, “What to consider things that do not appear mean- we say, but also what, by means of what we n a nice child!” It is also true, however, that if ingful as significant things that seem to have say or do not say, shows itself. And what Introduction Healing in psychoanalysis also in- Indeed, “analysis does not set out this child is horrible and malformed, one must a flat, literal meaning. Indeed, this is not pos- shows itself is one’s own subjectivity, which Maria Gabriella Pediconi and Luca Flabbi dicates a new subjective condition, gained to make pathological reactions impossi- not be “hypocritical”; it would be a mistake to sible with autistic people because they cannot can never be reduced to what is said. z Healing is a medical word, and in through the process of reformed thinking ble, but to give the patient’s ego freedom say to the child or the parents, “What a nice listen with this third ear: they see the human Freud’s era, the world of medicine prevailed, and with the discovery of new potentiality. to decide one way or the other” (Freud, 1 child!” And this is exactly what autistic peo- world, including themselves, as significantly REFERENCES so no one should be surprised that he took Now, the healed person surprises himself 1923/1961, p.50). Ballerini, A. (2002). Patologia di un eremitaggio. Uno studio while he benefits even from his pathological It is not the enigma, the misleading ple tend to do. They do not understand that poor. Dirac did not grasp the enunciation of a sull’autismo schizofrenico. Turin, Italy: Bollati Boringhieri. that word from medicine and brought it into social hypocrisy needs limitations; otherwise question in the statement of his colleague; he Baron-Cohen, S. (1988). Social and pragmatic defi- his new science of psychoanalysis. experience, thus avoiding falling victim to it. crossroad of the Sphinx, in which Oedipus cits in autism: Cognitive or affective? Journal of Autism and 2 it exposes itself as such. only grasped the description of a fact, because Thanks to psychoanalysis, the word According to Freud, the ego can once collapses, but rather the crossroad of “free- Developmental Disorders, 18, 379-402. more become “master of the house” after dom” that is the judgment by which the Autistic individuals are not able to de- for him it was difficult to see the interrogative Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). Joint-attention deficits in “healing” gained two new meanings: ceive, nor do they try to impress others. They signification. In his view, his colleague was de- autism: towards a cognitive analysis. Development and n Whereas healing in medicine im- crossing a crucial intersection, at least to the patient gains access to the competent dis- Psychopathology, 1, 185-89. extent that you “learn first to know yourself! tinction between moving in a direction of never manipulate, they never get involved in scribing his mind; he was not showing his ques- Baron-Cohen, S. (1991a). The development of a theory plied the restoration of lost health, in psy- gossip. They have no sense of ownership, tion, that is, his desire to better understand. of mind in autism: deviance and delay? Psychiatric Clinics of choanalysis, it was not only the recovery Then you will understand why you were well-being or acting according to patholog- North America, 14(1), 33-51. they feel no envy, and they like to give. In Does this mean that only cognitive-be- of lost well-being—healing didn’t consist bound to fall ill; and perhaps, you will avoid ical behavior. Baron-Cohen, S. (1991b). The theory of mind deficit in falling ill in future” (1917/1955, p.143). The Unfortunately, after Freud, the term heal- short, they lack all the range of affections, havioral interventions with autistic people are autism: how specific is it? British Journal of Developmental merely in the reactivation of a previous perhaps even contemptible ones, that make possible? Probably not. I believe that certain Psychology, 9, 301-14. state—but in the new science of psychoan- turning point of the analytic process is to ing suffered a strong devaluation. Here, we Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mind blindness: An essay on au- bring the patient to the border of a cross- mention only the main aspects of its decline. our being-with-the-others meaningful. mothers and fathers, despite the fact that they tism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. alytic healing, inhibitions, symptoms, and This does not imply that they do not feel have been spoken badly about by psychoan- Baron-Cohen, S. (2001). The autism spectrum quotient anxiety abate, giving way to “getting bet- road, from where he can distinguish the As noted above, medicine keeps the (AQ): Evidence from Asperger syndrome/high functioning road of satisfaction and the opposite road of word healing, but reduces it to one of its compassion for the suffering of people or ani- alysts, instinctively know how to find surro- autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. ter” and the discovery of well-being, often mals. Grandin, for example, felt sorry for pigs: gates, prostheses of subjectivity, we might say, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 5-17. for the first time. “pathological reactions.” meanings: the restoration of a previous and she cried while taking them to the slaughter- that allow their autistic children to understand Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does lost condition, to a time when an illness was the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’? Cognition, 21, 37-46. absent. This restoration generally happens house. Autistic compassion is, however, lack- a little of the subjectivity of others, and their Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D. J. ing empathy, as we have said. Which is not the own. It is probable that Grandin’s mother was (Eds.). (1994). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from via the chemical actions of drugs along with autism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. the increasingly sophisticated findings of the same as feeling sympathy for others, or pity very good not at “healing” her daughter—it is Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D. J. for them: empathy is to feel that the suffering very unlikely that one can recover from au- (Eds.). (2000). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from medical profession. The recovery is the time developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2nd ed. New York, NY: of others is also mine. We feel compassion for tism, the way one cannot “heal” from being for this restoration. Oxford University Press. In the psychoanalytic field, the term another when this other suffers harm, while, I a dwarf or a giant—but at compensating for Benvenuto, S. (2018, April 7). Neglect. Riflessioni tra filo- would say, we empathize with the very exis- her deficiencies to the point that her daugh- sofia e neuroscienze. Retrieved from http://www.sergioben- healing has experienced a stable decline. venuto.it/meditare/articolo.php?ID=140. Some authors define the word to mean re- tence of the other. It is the existence of anoth- ter became a famous personality and writer. Benvenuto, S. (2016). Neglect. Lettre Internationale, 112, er person that moves us, even when nothing Whatever analysts think they might do, they Frühjahr 2016, 122-125. covery, but this meaning seems to cast a Bettelheim, B. (1967). The empty fortress: Infantile autism terrible has happened to this other. We can should start from recognizing the true speci- shadow on the analytic path: it becomes a and the birth of the self. New York, NY: Free Press. long and pathetic convalescence. During therefore say that the autistic subject is cer- ficity of autism: its lacking an unconscious. Is Bleuler, E. (1950). Dementia praecox or the group of schizo- tainly capable of compassion—it might even it possible to graft a certain amount of uncon- phrenias (Joseph Zinkin, Trans.). Oxford, England: International recovery, the subject finds himself like a Universities Press. (Original work published 1911) dismayed spectator, de-attributed for the be possible to sympathize with an object—but scious into someone else? Farmelo, G. (2009). The strangest man: The hidden life not of empathy. This is the thesis of Gallese I am not able to advise analysts who of Paul Dirac, quantum genius. London, England: Faber & eventual restoration of his own renewed Faber. functioning, of his own renewed well-being. (2006b): because of a (probable) deficiency of would like to attempt to treat autism. I do, Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford, mirror neurons, autistic people are incapable however, believe that they will be able to England: Basil Blackwell. Other authors have explicitly become of empathy. I have, however, already said that achieve something only by overturning the Freud, S. (1964). New introductory lectures on psy- detractors of the term “healing.” Umberto cho-analysis. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition Galimberti (2011), philosopher and colum- in my opinion this lack of empathy is the cor- traditional analytical listening strategy. The (Vol. 22, p.175). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original ollary of a deeper agnosia. analyst cannot listen to the unconscious of work published 1933) nist, impressively summarized this position Gallese, V. (2006a). La molteplicità condivisa. Dai neu- by writing: “The psychoanalyst, after having an autistic person because it is missing (not roni mirror all’intersoggettività. In S. Mistura (Ed.), Autismo. 7. According to psychoanalysis, the completely, we may say the unconscious is L’umanità nascosta. Turin, Italy: Einaudi. read the last page of his psychoanalytic nov- Gallese, V. (2006b). Intentional attunement: Mirror unconscious is not constituted by emo- frozen): the analyst should rather talk to him els, came back to his consulting room not neurons, inter-subjectivity, and autism. In G. B. La Sala, P. at all discouraged. He was merely convinced tions, which are always conscious. The or her, in order to strengthen the abilities of Fagandini, V. Iori, F. Monti, & I. Blickstein (Eds.), Coming into unconscious is a network of significations the autistic person to perceive the subjectivity the world: A dialogue between medical and human sciences (pp. that psychoanalysis is not useful in order to 45-64). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. heal but in order to feel more alive, more that make certain emotions possible in of others. What an analyst should do with au- Grandin, T. (1986). Emergence: Labeled autistic. Novato, certain situations. The unconscious is the tistic people is not so much listen, but speak. CA: Arena Press. able to take part in a big range of emotions, Grandin, T. (2006). Thinking in pictures. New York, NY: other side of our relationship with others Here too, the opposition with psycho- including mourning, compassion, in addition Vintage. to enthusiasm, passion, joy….” in that they are recognized as subjects— sis is decisive. With psychotics, we tend not Jackson, M. (Director). (2010). Temple Grandin [TV Lacan would say that for the subject it is to interpret at all, because—as we have said— movie]. USA: HBO Films. This not far from the change regarding Rey-Flaud, H. (2008). L’enfant qui s’est arrêté au seuil du healing traced by Sandler and Dreher (1996) the Other—a condition underlying the fact psychotics already interpret too much: they langage. Paris, France : Aubier. that in turn, other subjects may recognize super-signify the world. If one interprets delu- Rovelli, C. (2014). La realtà non è come appare. Milan, in What Do Psychoanalysts Want? They claim Italy: Raffaello Cortina. that healing was once the Freudian aim, but me as subject. The mutual recognition be- sions, the risk is to fuel them; it is like throw- Sacks, O. (1996). An anthropologist on Marx. In An an- tween subjects as “subjects”, the possibility ing oil on a fire. Many analytical interpreta- thropologist on Mars. New York, NY: Vintage. nowadays psychoanalysis simply consists of Tustin, F. (1972). Autism and childhood psychosis. of weaving subjective meaning, is the basis tions are in fact viewed as persecutory by psy- 1. The German word was Freiheit. Freud himself gives London, England: The Hogarth Press. emphasis to this word within the sentence. of all psychoanalytic work. chotics, because for them words are always Williams, D. (1992). Nobody nowhere. London, England: 2. The Sphinx’s riddle was: “What is the creature that But how then to cure an autistic per- acts. With autistic subjects, analysts—who by Doubleday. walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and Wing, L. (Ed.). (1988). Aspects of autism: Biological re- three in the evening?” The hero Oedipus gave the answer, son with psychoanalysis? The analyst, also behaving in such a way would be doing the search. London, England: Gaskell. “Man,” causing the Sphinx’s death. Apparently he won, but when not interpreting, makes everything opposite of what they always do—should be Wing, L. (1995). Autistic spectrum disorders: An aid to di- at the same time he fixes the definition of mankind with the agnosis. London, England: National Autistic Society. happenings of pure nature. By way of this fixation, he be- the patient says resound metaphorically, so active, and expose the autistic subjects to ex- Wing, L. (1996). The autistic spectrum: A guide for parents comes affected by a “logic blindness,” a secondary naivety it means something different from what he periences which may spark the beginning of and professionals. London, England: Constable. preacher that brings him to the tragic end of the definitive blindness.

32 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 33 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION helping the patient to combine comprehen- crossroad where she can recapture her own other are interchangeable and dynamic, i.e., Beyond Termination sion, realization, and acceptance of himself. freedom of thought.3 that two partners engaged in a fruitful rela- 4 Psychoanalysis suffers a sort of perfor- We also invoke the legacy of Jacques La- tionship continuously move between the two Freud and Lacan on Healing: Principles and Practice Maria Gabriella PEDICONI mance anxiety, imported from psychology and can, as later developed by Giacomo B. Contri, positions. the hard sciences, which keeps a lot of psy- in the following concepts: Starting from the common base of this Our healings are healings by love exists for the analyst. It happens when the respected contacts with his parents and rel- choanalysts in check by asking: What are the 1). We define the subject as the individual double legacy, the four authors of this publi- —Sigmund Freud5 analyst realizes that he cannot do the good atives. But the fear of women continues. It is results of treatment? What is their efficacy? endowed with the competence to judge her in- cation have worked together to elaborate on Turning Points [of the patient] even if he knows it does exist. a creeping and distressing fear, it is relentless How can you measure their efficacy? These vestments with the objective of the satisfaction. termination and healing, including clinical ex- Patient’s turning point. When a patient Freud was startled by the healing he and seems impossible to bend. questions, unfortunately, have a tendency 2). We posit the necessity of the other as an amples and links to concepts and themes from decides to start analytic treatment, she is at observed in his first patients. He witnessed Over the years, he has learned from his to consistently contaminate psychoanalytic indispensable partner in reaching satisfaction. other social sciences. z a delicate moment of her life. It is a turning not only the remission of symptoms, but also own dreams that his obsession with children literature as well as the thoughts of analysts 3). We define the other as another sub- point: not the first, but a decisive one. When an incipient change in the way in which the camouflages an escape from the women of a patient nears the end of treatment, she patients’ thinking was pursuing satisfaction. his family—his mother and his grandmother. (Leuzinger-Bohleber & Target, 2002). ject also endowed with the same competence. REFERENCES In popular culture, healing is main- 4). We affirm that the roles of subject and Freud, S. (1955). A difficulty in the path of psycho-analy- finds a new turning point. This should be an Spurred by these observations, Freud revo- Since his early childhood, these women have ly found among publications dedicated to sis. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 17, pp. end that brings new beginnings. lutionized the method of treatment by priv- continuously tagged the physical thinness of 3. We are using the terms normal and sane inter- 135-144). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work ileging words in a talking cure. After Freud, the patient. Effectively, his mother has always motivational techniques and the so-called changeably to define similar concepts developed by Freud published 1917) In this case, we recognize the healing “positive thinking.” Within them, the term when he recognized that the definition of normality, howev- Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. process as the goal of the analysis. It is the every psychoanalyst repeats the same dis- remained the woman of his life, a forbidden er challenging it might be, is one he could never renounce. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 19, pp.1-66). London, En- point of arrival of two distinct works: on covery, echoing both the continuity and the woman. Now he recognizes that some wom- healing is confused with vitalism, optimism, Freud stated, for example, in Thomas Woodrow Wilson: A gland: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923) spiritualism, auto-suggestion, and auto-con- Psychological Study, “In spite of the vagueness of these con- Freud, S. (1964). Analysis terminable and interminable. In the one hand, the working through of the originality of psychoanalysis. It consists of a en—colleagues and friends—get close to him cepts and the uncertainty of the fundamental principles J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 23, pp.209- couple of favorable limitations: and appreciate him. But an unreasonable viction—healing becomes the synonym of a upon which judgement is based, we cannot in practical life patient; on the other hand, the floating at- 254). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work pub- n measure of self-acceptance gained through a do without the distinction between normal and pathologi- lished 1937) tention of the analyst. Such healing is a pro- Psychoanalysis does not eliminate anguish prohibits him from allowing any of cal” (Freud & Bullitt, 1966, p. xvi). He also recognized that Freud, S. & Bullitt, W. C. (1966). Thomas Woodrow Wilson: the disease, but produces the conditions for these women to have a place in his life. range of techniques, including meditation and full normality may be unattainable, but yet he did not see this cess based on two asymmetric positions and A psychological study. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. empirical fact as a reason to drop the concept or give up the elaborations. Contrary to medical treatment, a new freedom of the patient. Regularly, the obsessions present them- self-help. We propose that this use of the term Galimberti, U. (2011). I miti del nostro tempo. Milan, Italy: work to try to attain it. For example, in “Analysis Terminable n The psychoanalyst cannot “give” heal- selves, fake and bizarre variables: the patient healing is confusing, appealing to the same and Interminable” (1937/1964), he wrote, “The ego, if we are Feltrinelli. p.144. healing in the psychoanalytic treatment is uncritical beliefs analyzed by anthropologists to be able to make such a … pact with it, must be a normal Leuzinger-Bohleber, M. & Target, M. (2002). Outcomes of never the effect of a direct intervention of ing to the patient, neither directly nor strategi- persists in using them as a refuge. But it is one. But a normal ego of this sort is, like normality in gener- psychoanalytic treatment. London, England: Whurr Publishers. cally; however, the patient cannot access heal- a misleading refuge. He has dreamt many in the study of ancestral religions. It is also al, an ideal fiction. The abnormal ego, which is unserviceable Sandler, J. & Dreher, A. U. (1996). What do psychoanalysts the practitioner on the patient; it is never a sustained by that part of psychology dedicat- for our purposes is unfortunately no fiction. Every normal want? The problem of aims in psychoanalytic therapy. East Sus- one-directional procedure. ing without the partnership with the analyst. times of his own wedding; he is ready, but in person, in fact, is only normal on average.” sex, England: Routledge. ed to self-help techniques, such as tools devel- Freud’s turning point. Freud describes his As psychoanalysts, our definition of the end, a detail stops him on the threshold oped to improve self-esteem. own turning point from medicine to psycho- the termination of an analysis is not to of the church or at the door of the restau- In this contribution, our purpose is to analysis at the beginning of his career: “I took be interpreted as the abrupt passage from rant: a creased shirt, a broken car, the delay regain the meaning of the word healing with- the opportunity of asking her, too, why she disease to health; it is never like an on-off of a relative. After years of treatment, the ego in psychoanalysis, to place it on the side of had gastric pains and where they came from.… mechanism, never as moving from dark to is at a delicate turning point: he can take the the subject who re-empowers himself. In this Her answer, which she gave rather grudgingly, light, or as crossing from bottom to top. It is new way, only glimpsed but not yet known, way, healing remains the same word—and was that she did not know. I requested her to a matter of transforming some given patho- or carry on the distorted illusion of his obses- the same concept—that acquired its complete remember it by tomorrow. She then said in a logical conditions into a different conve- sions. The analyst is aware that the termina- form thanks to Freud. definitely grumbling tone that I was not to keep nient output. The working-through pro- tion is close, but she cannot take the right— We propose that an analysis has three on asking her where this and that came from, cess that is favored, predisposed, magnified but not mandatory—way instead of him. possible outcomes: termination, interruptions, but to let her tell me what she had to say. I fell in by the analytical work is the act through Interruptions: The consumption of or departure. We see these outcomes as prod- with this, and she went on without any pream- which the analysand starts a renewed con- stop-and-go. At the beginning of the analysis, ucts resulting from the work jointly done by ble” (Freud, 1893/1955, pp.62-63).6 structive process. she was convinced she was bipolar; she usual- analyst and analysand. We endeavor to define Friedman (1994) and Gabbard (1995) On the Threshold of Termination ly introduced herself to everyone by means of these outcomes in the first contribution. claim that Freud was brilliant in obeying Termination is a chronological term. In this definition. Many troubled sessions were In our work, we gather and locate the his patients and in transforming this obe- the affective world of human beings, termina- dedicated to organizing her own story: the legacy of Freud in four main concepts that dience into a real norm, the fundamental tion rarely corresponds to a good outcome for mourning for her mother, who died too early Freud was the first to recognize fully: norm of psychoanalysis. a given experience, especially if the experience when she was at university; her fury against 1) The sane and normal human being is Psychoanalyst’s turning point. Contri was complicated or distressing. But termina- her father, who had kept her mother’s illness endowed with full and competent authority, (1994) asserts that the turning point also tion can be a good outcome when it intro- hidden; and the ambivalence for her brother, i.e., the ability to think. 4. Maria Gabriella Pediconi is a Research Professor duces a solution with satisfaction. It remains who was addicted to psychiatric drugs. 2) The science of psychopathology is of Dynamic Psychology at the University of Urbino and a bad outcome when it involves a suspension She has learned to find refuge in reli- Psychoanalyst of the Società Amici del Pensiero ‘Sigmund the science studying the infringement of this Freud’ of Milan. A version of this paper was delivered at with pain or anguish. Similarly, the endpoint of gious hallucinations each time she neared competence. the 36th Annual Spring Meeting of the APA Division of analysis is not synonymous with healing: we something significant in her analysis. But Psychoanalysis (39): “Hot & Bothered. Coming Together 3) Finding and correcting the error that Without Falling Apart” in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on April can find terminations without healing, termi- this analyst was different from any other led to this infringement is work done by the 7, 2016. The panel, entitled “What Healing Has To Do with nations as interruptions, and even terminations she had ever seen—she was not comforting, Termination? Endings and Interruptions,” also involved V. analysand’s intellect; by so doing, the analy- Tsolas (New York), G. M. Genga (Milan), and L. Flabbi that are false healing. By way of three clinical she did not justify her illness. On the con- sand reinstates her competence, enriched by (Washington, D.C.). sketches, I will now describe these three possi- trary, more than once she said, “Today you 5. Our translation from Freud (1973, p. 118). Italian the “act of correction.” translation by Ada Cinato, based on a German manuscript ble configurations of the treatment’s end: termi- are talking nonsense, we’ll see what hap- 4) The choice between the somewhat edited by Herman Nunberg and Ernst Federn. Freud pro- nation, interruptions, departure. pens next time.” nounced the quoted sentence during the session of January hypothetical notion of sane (normal, healthy, 30, 1907. There is also an English edition of the manuscript Termination: The ego at a turning After the hallucinations came depres- healed) and its opposite (perverse) is a cross- (Nunberg & Federn, 1962). point. He has been coming willingly to the sion, then fury, then hatred against the ana- 6. Very impressively, Neville Symington refers nowa- road: either one or the other. This crossroad days the same turning point at the beginning of treatment. psychoanalytic sessions for more than ten lyst and, finally, the breakdown of treatment. was described by Freud as follows: “Analysis “Most patients come with a particular complaint.…Yet, af- years. Tormented by a compulsion for seeing Like a model, the sequence repeated the ter a few weeks of conversation with the psychoanalyst, it does not set out to make pathological reac- becomes clear that these are just the ‘cover story.’ None of children with naked chests, he prefers duties same series several times. After the first in- tions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego these people know why they are consulting the psychoan- and avoids pleasure. The analysis has allowed terruptions, she attempted suicide and was in alyst.…There is a distress, but at the heart of it is a cloudy freedom to decide one way or the other” darkness. I do not know the wherefore of my distress” him to keep a good job as a specialized tech- a psychiatric hospital for some weeks. Then, (1923/1961, p. 50). The core process of psy- (Symington, 2006, p. 5). Regarding the close relationship nician, to arrange a good daily life as a single treatment resumed and she had a brief peri- between the ending and the beginning of therapeutic pro- choanalysis is to conduct the analysand to the reaching cess, see also Schlesinger (2014). man with a good social life and occasional od of almost normal daily life. But very soon,

34 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 35 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION the forced sequence of events repeated itself alyst must see her thoughts almost without Contri,8 we characterize the object a as ob- lyzed subject, brought about by transform- healing light.” What this sentence is doing England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923) Freud, S. (1973). Dibattiti della Società psicoanalitica di again. However, in the third interruption one words. The analyst must even recognize jection in general. It is not only the real objec- ing the original identifications with the is what any other psychoanalyst should be Vienna (1906-1908) [Debates of the Italian psychoanalytic so- detail was different: she omitted the payment what inner turmoil occupied her mind until tion motivated by the external reality, but Nom du Pere in a new creation beyond the doing: repeating, recapitulating, and updat- ciety (1906-1908)] (A. Cinato, Trans.). Turin, Italy: Bollati of the last session. The missed payment be- the coaction of self-mutilation. The analyst also the imaginary and symbolic objections. known models of the mind; a creation in ing psychoanalysis. Boringhieri. Gabbard, G. O. (1995). The early history of boundary came the subtle line of suspension, linking the must solve the anguish that blocked her at According to Lacan, the object a con- permanent waiting for a subject who is not In the end, healing, when it happens, violations in psychoanalysis. Journal of the American Psychoa- before and after of the breakdown: she has to the last exams. The analyst must… sists of the indefinable and irreparable gap to be a pure semblant.11 is never grandiose. Instead, it is a process: nalytic Association, 43, 1115-1136. Kantzà, G. (2008). Il Nome-del-Padre nella psicoanalisi [The go back and face the analyst if she wants to But the first sessions were terrible: between psychic reality and external reality. How can object a fall, then? Do we step by step, surprising, accessible, pru- name of the father in psychoanalysis]. Freud, Jung, Lacan. Milan, pay for the session. She is the only one who there was nothing magical, the silence was It is like a checkmate; it is never a fruitful have to conclude that healing is impossible dent, and industrious; both for the analyst Italy: Ares. z Lacan, J. (1970). Radiophonie [Radiophony]. Paris, France: can make this decision. She finally has her a prison, the analyst was not a fairy, the outcome. It is a gap that behaves as a per- in Lacan’s thought? and for the patient. Le Seuil. feelings about the treatment and the analyst memories were unbearable, like the pins manent threat, as a sword on the head of Lacan leaves open a last possibility Lacan, J. (2006a). The mirror stage as formative of the I REFERENCES function. In B. Fink (Trans.), Écrits: The first complete edition in under her own control. But insomnia and fury with which she injured herself when she the ego. The same threat produces the in- when he puts forward the concept of the Contri, G. B. (1994). Il pensiero di natura [Thoughts of na- English (p.81). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co. (Original 12 ture] (p. 291). Milan, Italy: Sipiel. marked the gloominess of daily life after the was a little more than a child. Everything stigating power of the super-ego, as danger- “psychoanalyst’s desire.” What is this? It is work published 1966) Contri, G. B. (2004). Lacan in Freud. http://www.operaom- Lacan, J. (2006b). On Freud’s “Trieb” and the psycho- interruptions. The treatment restarted, again was different from what she has imagined ous as the controlling super-ego itself. none other than the same desire we find in niagiacomocontri.it/wp-content/uploads/2004_ analyst’s desire. In B. Fink (Trans.), Écrits: The first complete Friedman, L. (1994, May). Ferrum, ignis and medicina: and again, seven times. and the analyst was disappointing, she will It is Lacan’s impasse, a sort of hesitation, the pleasure principle realized by the reali- edition in English (pp.722-725). New York, NY: W.W. Norton Return to the crucible. Plenary address, annual meeting of the She has now arrived to confess her ad- not forget her! She has been hoping for taking place right at the border of healing: ty principle, without ignoring the psycho- & Co. (Original work published 1966) American Psychoanalytic Association, Philadelphia, PA. Laznik, M.-C. (2016). Lacan e l’autismo [Lacan and au- diction to the hallucinations—likening them them and now she has to learn that fairies n In Radiofonie (1970), Lacan jokes pathological experience. A new partner- Freud, S. (1955). Frau Emmy von N, case histories from tism]. Rivista di Psicoanalisi, LXII, 3. studies on hysteria. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard to a homemade drug—and to recognize her do not exist. Session by session, the resent- with the verb “guérir” (to heal) by means of ship can now host a new happening. Such Nunberg, H. & Federn, E. (Eds.). (1962). Minutes of the edition (Vol. 2, pp.48-105). London, England: Hogarth Press. Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (M. Nunberg, Trans.). New York, fury as an escape mechanism. She has be- ment increased, the couch became explo- the homophone “gai-rire” (gaily laughing). healing—and the end of the treatment going (Original work published 1893) NY: International University Press. Freud, S. (1957). On narcissism: An introduction. In J. gun an affective relationship with a partner, sive, the method was dangerous; she did But healing is never a joke. with it—means both the analyst and the pa- Schlesinger, H. J. (2014). Endings and beginnings: On Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 14, pp. n terminating psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. New York, NY: who also helps her in her professional life. not want to speak, but she was not able to In “The Mirror Stage as Formative tient regain access to a way of thinking that 67-102). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work Routledge. But the conflicting model carries on, both stop the treatment. of the I Function”, he concludes: “In the is new, but recovers a competence that was published 1914) Symington, N. (2006). A healing conversation: How healing Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. with the client and with the analyst, al- She stayed there like a silent pin, in- subject to subject recourse we preserve, already present at the beginning of every- happens. London, England: Karnak. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 19, pp.1-66). London, though without a real breakdown. juring the session, injuring the analyst by psychoanalysis can accompany the patient one’s life. It is the pleasure principle present How is it possible that the analyst silence. She was disowning her treatment, to the ecstatic limit of the ‘Thou art that,’ in the newborn, deciding what she does doesn’t look for revenge? How can she her own desire, her own hope. One day where the cipher of his mortal destiny is re- and does not like. maintain her professional attitude despite she did not come, and she never came back vealed to him, but it is not in our sole power According to Freud (1973; emphasis the continued provocations? The patient again. The analyst does not know if the as practitioners to bring him to the point his), we consider the healing process not wants to be like her analyst, she would even patient’s desire will be disowned forever, where the true journey begins.”9 Unlike the only as a recovery process. “We force the like to be her analyst’s analyst. It is an il- but now she feels seduced and abandoned, analyst giving “the patient’s ego freedom patient to abandon the resistances for their lustration of the stop-and-go of idealization almost poisoned by a negative therapeutic to decide one way or the other” (Freud, love towards us. Our healings are healings and denial, of the running after each other. reaction overflowing from an unmotivated 1923/1961), here Lacan describes an im- by love.” Here, the idealization takes the place of the and inaccessible hate. The analyst cannot passible analyst, a neutral spectator of the Indeed, the analyst—as well as the turning point: the patient puts the analyst do anything with this final refusal. Both the troubles of his patient. patient—is able to realize when their part- in the place of a wishful object, the same analyst and the treatment are destroyed by If Lacan remains impassible at the end nership hosts a new happening and when loved object that continues to produce the disowning. of the patient’s treatment, it is because he it does not. Each of them can describe unbearable scandal. If termination is possi- Each of the outcomes we have just de- knows that the fall of object a also concerns the benefits of the treatment. They are ble in this case, it must involve the end of fined may take place at the end of an anal- the analyst himself: the representative em- not merely a recovery, but the invention the idealization. ysis, may “terminate” (in the sense of “end bodiment of the falling object a hangs over of something new. If termination is only a Departure: The logical hate of di- of the line”) an analysis. But in each case, his head. The analyst survived the fall of the chronological line in which the ending con- sowning. She was close to the end of her the results will be very different in terms of shadow of the object, but he remained in- cerns the setting, the healing concerns only university studies, but stuck, unable to pass well-being, love, work, and social life. jured by the discovery of the separation that the ego. The subject, who finds the actual the last exams necessary to complete her Lacan’s Impasse on the Border of Healing Lacan called between Moi and Je. It is the himself session by session during the treat- degree. Overwhelmed by anguish, but very Both Freud and Lacan describe psycho- coexistence of the ego and of the subject of ment, is finally able to personalize again the convinced about her treatment, she insist- sis as such a case of false healing: when the the unconscious.10 This is a point for which production of satisfaction: she restarts the ed on beginning before completing her aesthetic refuge in the alienated world hap- Contri found the possibility to resolve his creation of love and social ties, the main degree. She fiercely wanted this analyst pens, the reality is lost forever. Within his sense of an ambiguity in the work of Lacan. components of civilization beyond the con- and not another: finally, she has found the work “On Narcissism”, Freud (1914/1957) When the ego discovers again its consisten- formism of the super-ego. right professional, who will be able to un- describes the severe cases in which being cy, it is again the I: the genuine subject, the Neville Symington (2006) is very close derstand and correct the numerous errors healed coincides with the creation of an in- subject of a sentence as understood by stan- to the Freudian claims when he writes, of the other physicians, psychologists, and superable obstacle against the ending of dard grammar, a subject until then blocked “When a discrete piece of knowledge is psychiatrists she has seen so far. the analysis.7 The psychotic escapes into a in the images or semblant (the Moi and Je) suddenly seen fitting into a wider unified The other professionals were not able crazed healing; psychosis develops a perma- of a mere barred subject. pattern—the mind is illuminated with a to understand who she was, but this ana- nent resistance against termination. The termination produces a new ana- 11. According to Lacan, Pere (Father) is a Nom (Name) that lyst will know her, deeply. She has been an When termination is possible, in what requires being recognized and approved by faith. It is a sym- 8. Giacomo B. Contri is the founder and current bolic operation that runs through history and systematizes the ignored adolescent—that was the persistent transformation does it consist? Termination President of the Società Amici del Pensiero ‘Sigmund Freud’ life of individuals, trapping desires in the identification with the hidden feeling; she has been the girlfriend is marked by the fall of object a. But the clear (Milan, Italy). He is the most important scholar of Lacan in Pere and its Nom (Kantzà, 2008). According to Contri (2004), Italy and has translated into Italian Lacan’s Écrits (J. Lacan, the attempt to define semblant runs through Lacan’s entire oeu- competed for—she had the compulsion of definition of object a remains almost impossi- Scritti, Einaudi: Torino, 1974). vre. Lacan’s ambition is well described by the title of his 1971 holding contemporary affective relation- ble to see, because it is realized by its own fall. 9. Jacques Lacan (1966/2006a, p. 81). The “Thou art Seminar, Discours qui ne serait pas du semblant. That is a discours ships; overall, she has been the neglected Following the work of Giacomo B. that” is a concentrated sentence that can open a lot of that is not merely fiction-function but that could become logi- paths. Some of them will be good, some will be wrong. cal, real and subjective instead of functional, imitative and di- child in a family-tribe in which everyone 7. “It is otherwise with the paraphrenic. He seems really Here it is a turning point, challenging both the patient and rected. Perverse lives of fiction-function, semblant par excellance. was in conflict with each other. Even the to have withdrawn his libido from people and things in the the analyst. 12. Lacan (1966/2006b) asks, “What then can the ana- external world…the process seems to be a secondary one 10. Marie-Christine Laznik (2016) refers to the lyst’s desire be? What can the treatment to which the analyst children have to follow the adults’ hate and and to be part of an attempt at recovery, designed to lead the Lacanian conception of psychic apparatus: it consists of devotes himself be?…What is the aim [fin] of analysis beyond not the games of their peers. libido back to objects.” Within the linked footnote, Freud two focal points, which don’t contrast. They are the ego therapeutics? It is impossible not to distinguish the two, when invites: “In connection with this see my discussion of ‘the and the subject of the unconscious. The analyst draws the the point is to create an analyst. For, as I have said, without The analyst must understand her im- end of world’ in the analysis of Senatspräsident Schreber” work of classic analytic treatment like a process of break up going into the mainspring of transference, it is ultimately the mediately, emphatically, magically. The an- (Freud, 1914/1957, p. 74; our emphasis). of alienated ego in favor of the subject of the unconscious. analyst’s desire that operates in psychoanalysis.” helen's drawing

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normal and what is not?” He is stimulated Each patient coming to our consulting left him confused. The memory comes back Healing as a Problem, a Challenge, or a Solution: to go back to this fundamental question by rooms is invited, since the first interview, to now, from the couch, after many years. his criticism of the DSM-5, which he sees as work: first, to identify and report her symp- That therapist’s reproach was wrong; a suc- 13 The Concepts of Freud’s Psychoanalytic Technique: A Brief Summary Glauco Maria GENGA excessively influenced by drug and health toms, sincerely and unreservedly; then, cess in achieving a certain goal—in this case insurance companies’ priorities, leading to from the couch, to follow her free associa- graduation from college—should always be reluctance towards the word healing—in- himself to what has been thought healthy a “psychiatric diagnosis [that] has gone too tions, which means not to remain fixated on considered a positive sign. How can a suc- I would like to start by recalling the deed, it is used repeatedly and at different and objectively desirable by philosophy far, too quickly, changing too fast.”17 In the her symptoms.19 cess in the patient’s life be contrary to the title of our round table, and saying that, in times during the development of his theory. and religion. (Vol. II, p.802) quest to answer this fundamental question, therapy itself?20 proposing this topic, the four of us decided In fact, Freud (1937/1964) writes about he interrogates various fields of knowledge The psychoanalyst is working, too: to “take the bull by the horns.” What am I the Wolf Man, “I have found the history of It is a passage in a sense disarming, but around the definition of normality. He right- n by maintaining his suspended attention Freud’s Intriguing Question: “What is A calling the “bull?” The theme itself of healing this patient’s recovery scarcely less interest- it does also show merit for this great author, ly points out that the term norm anciently n by providing his interpretations Danger?” in psychoanalysis. I prefer to call it this way, ing than that of his illness.” (My emphasis.) who made history in European psychiatry. indicated a carpenter’s setsquare (Frances, n by proposing those interventions that In “Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety” instead of psychoanalytic healing: healing can Is healing a problem? If yes, is it a prob- He does not avoid the issue, while every 2013; Battaglia, 1981). But if he had empha- Freud called constructions (1926/1959), Freud asks: “What is a danger?” never be separated or divided, according to lem for the patient or for the analyst? And psychiatric study and manual today submits sized this meaning of the term, he would professional fields. It is such, or it is not at all. why? What we do every day behind the it to a sort of censorship. have found it closer to the legal definition The analyst has to know how to distin- In this work, Freud focuses on the couch, session after session, is not at all a of normality than to the usual statistical guish between symptoms, inhibitions, and psychological definition of the concept of About Healing and Normality in small task. The examination of the theme of Two remarks: one. A legal definition is a definition based anxiety. Freud (1926/1959) identified that danger, trying to identify the elements that Psychoanalysis healing goes hand in hand with asking our- on comparisons with respect to a fattispecie precisely the set of these three elements enable a subject to sense a danger. Freud I find it important what Francesco selves what the “norm” means. Here, for ob- 1. In the English edition, in the first sen- or legal precedent, exactly like the carpen- makes up each form of psychopathology. shows how we need a new theoretical point Conrotto (2000), an Italian psychoanalyst, vious reasons of space, I must limit myself to tence of the mentioned paragraph, the word ter bases his construction on comparisons In dealing with them, Freud pays spe- of reference for our orientation. He does writes about healing: The word healing is 15 a brief overview, as the subject is immense. healing was replaced with the word cure. with a setsquare. The statistical definition, cial attention to the fact that the patient has this by disputing Otto Rank’s (1924) theo- not frequently used in contemporary psy- Psychiatrists do not put any hope or instead, does not involve any judgment, but a representation of himself facing situations ries about the anguish of birth. choanalysis. [Conrotto] would even say confidence in the fact that their patients 2. Jaspers (1913/1997) argues that giv- only entails identifying the event with the that appear as dangers. But are these real that it is surrounded by an air of embarrass- could really heal. Their training—without ing a definition of healing is not easy when highest frequency. If Frances had followed dangers, or only part of the imagination? A Freud states: ment, as if the word itself revealed a naivety, any element of psychoanalysis—makes it comes to neuroses or other forms of psy- the legal definition of normality, he would danger can have a dual source: it may arise evoking a suspect of naïveté that everybody them incapable of realizing the work of chopathology: have found the inflation of false diagnoses either from the external reality or from the In the act of birth there is a real wants to keep away. The progressive over- thought done by each of their patients. I am in psychiatry even more troubling. psychic reality of the subject. A characteris- danger to life. We know what this shadowing of the concept of psychoanalytic persuaded that this is a stigma affecting the What does the patient want to Perplexingly, Frances says that in tic of neurosis is to represent a danger where means objectively; but in a psycholog- healing, until its almost complete oblivion, field of psychiatry as a whole. achieve when he goes to a psychiatrist? Freud’s work, the concept of normality is there is none. This leads to the question: ical sense it says nothing at all to us. began in the 1970s, when the therapeutic Any psychiatrist believes that the diag- What does the doctor see as his treat- absent. If Freud may have not written ex- Where does the sense of danger experienced We cannot possibly suppose that the optimism started to run out. This opti- nosis regards only the patient, never himself. ment-goal? “Health” in some undefined tensively about what normality is, it is be- by the patient in analysis come from? fetus has any sort of knowledge that mism had characterized the decades from This is independent of whatever diagnostic sense. But for one person “health” means cause the distinction between normal and The patient can represent or perceive there is a possibility of its life being the 1940s to the 1960s, which followed the classification he uses (and there have been an unthinking, optimistic, steady equilib- pathological is always present in all of his even healing as a danger. How can this hap- destroyed.…What elements in all pessimism of the last years of Freud’s life.… several over more than a century of history). rium through life, for another it means an writing, and with each contribution, it is pen, if healing goes hand in hand with the this are signs of a danger-situation? We carefully avoid using this concept and, In a certain sense, he relinquishes the problem, awareness of God’s constant presence and refined and refocused. A lot of the psycho- recovery of valid and solid defenses? (1926/1959) even more, the word healing, with everyone he is not interested in investigating whether a feeling of peace and confidence, trust in analyst’s work, from the beginning to the colluding, in fact, in making use of the most he is suffering or has suffered from some form the world and the future; while a third termination of an analytic treatment, is pre- It happens when the defenses are taken In Freud’s words, anodyne and intellectually more present- of mental illness. The mere fact of having person believes himself healthy when all cisely about this distinction, a work as me- over by the repression able term, transformation. studied mental illnesses protects him, at least the unhappiness of his life, the activities ticulous as “splitting hairs.” (Freud, 1925/1961b). The reason why the infant in I agree with him: transformation or in part, from discovering that he himself may which he dislikes, all that is wrong in his Now I will focus on the relationship arms wants to perceive the presence of change is much more generic words than be ill. This is unique only to psychopathology: situation, is covered up by deceptive ide- between the end of the analysis and heal- The answer to the question—how can his mother is only because he already healing.14 any orthopedist or eye specialist would admit als and fictitious explanations. ing, treated from the point of view of the it be that healing is treated as a danger?— knows by experience that she satisfies In this regard, I will recall here the very that a fracture or scoliosis or a bone tumor or theory of technique. determines if the goal of the analysis is ful- all his needs without delay.…It is the relevant theme of the 29th International Psy- myopia could happen to him too. This line of thinking has led many filled. Answering it requires the analyst to absence of the mother that is now the choanalytical Association Congress (London, The phenomenon has very deep roots. authors, especially those belonging to the The Road to Healing, That is, the be able to identify and recognize the signals danger. (1926/1959) 1975): “Changes in Psychoanalytic Prac- It is instructive to recall here what Karl Jas- phenomenological school, to argue that Psychic Work of healing. tice and Experience: Theoretical, Techni- pers writes in his fundamental work General every patient is entitled to a private un- Freud’s term working-through is crucial- Is the therapist willing to gather the The mother, or whoever cares for the cal and Social Implications.” Since then, the Psychopathology (1913/1997). In a chapter derstanding of what healing is. This is cur- ly important. It is worth recalling what it signals of healing coming from the patient? child, thus becomes the first object of love for the trend has been a watering down of psychoan- devoted to the aims and limits of psycho- rently the claim of many support groups means: it means working. We know that in Or does he feel the patient’s success as a baby. And about the loss of object as a determi- alytic discoveries into mainstream psycholo- therapy, a short paragraph is entitled “The of psychiatric patients. The result is that every phenomenon of psychic life the sub- threat to abandon the therapy? nant of anxiety, Freud takes another step: gy. In the last few decades, many scholars and question: what is the cure?”: many patients today are left to themselves, ject really works: One of my patients told me about his psychoanalysts have observed this decline. or they are considered dangerous, and they own experience from the couch. While he All we need to do is a slight I refer to Conrotto (2000, p.63) again: 16 With every kind of therapy there are imprisoned in totalitarian institutions. n in the dream-work was in college, he was very disturbed by his modification: it is no longer a matter In Freud’s works, you do not find an equal is a tacit understanding that everyone In the most recent scientific literature, n in the work of mourning symptoms. They were causing him much of feeling the want for or of actually 13. Glauco Maria Genga, MD, is a Psychiatrist, Consul- knows what cure means. There is usually Frances (2013) ask the question, “What is n in the symptom, which is a compro- delay in completing his studies. It was tak- losing the object itself, but of losing the tant to the Air Force, and Psychoanalyst Member of Soci- no problem so far as somatic illnesses are età Amici del Pensiero ‘Sigmund Freud’ in Milan, Italy (www. 15. The decline of the term healing within the psychoan- mise-formation ing him ten years to graduate from college object’s love….Loss of love plays the glaucomariagenga.it). The main lines of this paper were concerned but in the case of neuroses and alytic field is also dealt with by my colleague’s contribution. n in the production of a slip in math and science. He had therefore em- same part in hysteria as the threat of delivered at the 36th Annual Spring Meeting of the APA personal disorders (psychopathies), the See in this volume: M. G. Pediconi, “Beyond Termination. n Division of Psychoanalysis (39) “Hot & Bothered. Coming Freud and Lacan on Healing: Principles and Practice.” even in the inhibition, fixation, and re- barked on a treatment (a group therapy, in castration does in phobias and as the Together Without Falling Apart” in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, situation is different. Cure becomes linked 16. In this regard, I remember a scene I wit- sistance, we can find forms of psychic fact) during the course of those years. But fear of the super-ego does in obsession- on April 7, 2016. The panel was entitled “What Healing inseparably with what we call faith, nessed during my internship as a medical student 18 Has To Do with Termination? Endings and Interruptions” in a psychiatric clinic. A hospitalized patient had work after his graduation, he was told by the al neurosis. (1926/1959) and also involved V. Tsolas (New York), M. G. Pediconi general philosophical outlook or personal opened the drain of water in the hospital’s public 17. It is appropriate to mention here Freud’s severe judg- therapist that he was wrong to graduate be- 20. The analyst always supports the patient’s successes, (Urbino) and L. Flabbi (Washington, D.C.). morality although the relationship is a toilet and—he had started drinking from it with a ment (1937/1964) about Otto Rank’s attempt “to adapt the fore the end of the treatment. This reproach 14. This is something very close to what Nancy McWil- cup! He repeated this action continually. I called a tempo of analytic therapy to the haste of American life.” even when this implies major readjustments of the sessions. liams said during the opening session of the aforemen- highly ambiguous one (containing both psychiatrist who worked in that department, but he 18. G. B. Contri (1987), founder and President of the 19. We could say that more than fifty years ago, Freud An example is a patient deciding to move abroad for work tioned 36th Annual Spring Meeting of the APA Division of truth and falsehood). It is a pure fiction answered: “If he likes doing it...”! Breaking the chain Società Amici del Pensiero ‘Sigmund Freud’ (Italy), to which I wrote in a sense about the “bearable lightness of talking.” or study. This will certainly lead to new agreements on tim- Psychoanalysis (39), “Hot & Bothered. Coming Together of chronicity and starting a healing process often belong, focused on a work against the Unconscious, as well This is very different from The Unbearable Lightness of Being, ing and frequency of the sessions, but it must not be regard- Without Falling Apart.” to believe that the doctor only confines seem almost impossible. as on a work with the Unconscious. the title of the famous novel by Milan Kundera. ed as a breakdown or an interruption.

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This passage makes a statement about Through the analyst’s silence, the inter- arated many years before and her father to think that healing too is an economic several phenomena that are surprising and ruption remained a mere figment, and this lived alone. When her mother died, she problem for every individual. But this is otherwise inexplicable. Among them, the patient could go on, finish the analysis, and became owner of her apartment, severed true only within the psychopathology. In negative therapeutic reaction, which be- become an analyst himself. a romantic relationship, and resigned from fact, from the “economic point of view,” the longs to the resistance. The second example deals with hyster- her workplace. I encouraged her to look for healing is not the problem, but rather the We know that the horse runs faster ical neurosis (a diagnostic category that we a new job, but she remained indifferent. She solution. We can say that every analyst is a when the stable is near. Although the ani- analysts should never give up). In this case, left the house less and less, spending many real partisan of healing and offers herself to mal is tired, its pace is guided by the instinct the same difficulty presents itself in a com- hours in front of the mirror, scratching her the patients, giving them a lift from neurosis to reach the food and to secure the rest it pletely different way. face and then claiming to be unpresentable, to healing. z will find at the stable. When it senses the while her face was complete- stable near, its speed ​​increases. But it is not ly normal and she also had REFERENCES the same for a human being, for whom the a graceful appearance. She Battaglia, S. (1981). Grande dizionario della lingua ital- iana [Great dictionary of the Italian language]. Turin, Italy: approaching of the goal requires a bigger was avoiding leaving the UTET. exercise of individual skills, which is an in- house as much as possible, Conrotto, F. (2000). Trasformazione del criterio di “guarigione psicoanalitica” nel pensiero di Freud [Trans- creased amount of psychic work leading to on the pretext of wanting to formation of the criterion of “psychoanalytic healing” in satisfaction. In the absence of an instinct, the avoid the danger of meeting Freud’s thought]. In Analisi curabile e incurabile. Sulla guari- chance to experience satisfaction is only a her father, who had never gione psicoanalitica [Curale and incurable analysis. On psycho- analytic healing] (M. Balsamo, Ed.), pp. 61-63. Milan, Italy: 21 matter of drive (the Freudian term is Trieb ). hurt her. FrancoAngeli. In the analytic situation, the fundamen- Over the years, her ab- Contri, G. B. (1987). Lexikon psicoanalitico e enciclopedia [Psychoanalytic lexicon and encyclopedia]. Milan, Italy: Sic tal norm we propose to the patient allows sences from the sessions in- Edizioni. her to retrace the paths already used for her creased; sometimes she tele- Contri, G. B. (1994). Il bene dell’analista [The good of motions, i.e. the defenses already tested in phoned me after a few days the analyst]. In Da inconscio a inconscio [From unconscious to unconscious] (S. Gindro, Ed.). Naples, Italy: Alfredo Guida. the past to cope with her needs. to ask me for a new appoint- Frances, A. (2013). Saving normal: An insider’s revolt These defenses, however, resulted in ment, but then she did not against out-of-control psychiatric diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Phar- 22 ma, and the medicalization of ordinary life. New York, NY: a certain dose of repression of dangers in show up. Stop and go. William Morrow. early childhood: the loss of the mother’s, or Finally, I told her that Freud, S. (1955). Group psychology and the analysis of parents’, or caregivers’ love. Now, the same in acting this way it was the ego. In . In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edi- tion (Vol. 18, pp.65-144). London, England: Hogarth Press. risk presents itself as the danger of the loss better for her not to con- (Original work published 1921) of the analyst’s love. tinue the treatment as she Freud, S. (1957). Instincts and their vicissitudes. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 14, pp.109- The free associations create a delicate would not yield any result. 140). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work situation, especially for the analyst him- She then began to show up published 1915) 23 Freud, S. (1958a). Observations on transference-love. self , who, as Saraval (1988) describes, at my office without an ap- In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 12, hides himself as a person to reappear as a pointment, demanding my pp.157-171). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original character, who is everyone and no one, “an- attention with pretexts. work published 1915) Freud, S. (1958b). Remembering, repeating and work- swering” through a mirror, thus allowing Eventually, I wrote her ing-through. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard the emergence of a relationship where past a letter, in which I recalled edition (Vol. 12, pp.145-156). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1914) and present blend together with an emotion- that her analysis was already Freud, S. (1959). Inhibitions, symptoms and anxiety. al intensity that has no equal in life. over and she was now facing In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 20, According to Freud (1914/1958b, a crossroads: either contin- pp.75-176). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original angry girl work published 1926) p.139-140), the patient “will by himself ue in her isolation and her Freud, S. (1961a). The economic problem of form such an attachment and link the doc- idealization of the latter leads him to want strong confrontation with the analyst. This obstinacy; or turn the page, masochism. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 19, pp.155-170). London, England: Hogarth Press. tor up with one of the imagos of the people to be totally equal to him. This is “being in idea provoked a strong anguish, like, he taking care of herself, of her (Original work published 1924) by whom he was accustomed to be treated love” (the Freudian Verliebtheit).24 The ana- said, as if he were driving a car and sud- house, and of her relation- Freud, S. (1961b). Negation. In J. Strachey (Ed. and with affection.” lyst, once he has noticed this, must not sup- ships, also looking for a new Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 19, pp.233-240). London, denly he was in front of a moving obsta- England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1925) It may happen that the patient finds port this misunderstanding. cle, initially confused, but then increasingly job. I would not have accept- Freud, S. (1964). Analysis terminable and interminable. himself entangled in a representation of the clear: another car, identical to his, was com- ed further threats. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 23, pp.209-254). London, England: Hogarth Press. (Original relationship with the analyst, in which the Two Short Examples from My Clinical ing towards him, so that braking became I have not heard from work published 1937) animal hero Freud, S. (1977). Opere di Sigmund Freud [Works of 21. About the translation of Trieb, see Laplanche and Practice: An Obsessive Patient and a almost impossible. He explained that the her since then, and I think Sigmund Freud] Vol. 7 (C. Musatti, Ed. & R. Colorni, Trans.). Pontalis (2006, p.214). Freud uses the word Instinkt to in- Hysterical Patient danger (the crash) later proved inconsistent We know that hysteria is character- that this treatment, with such an unusual Turin, Italy: Bollati Boringhieri. dicate a law of behavior present in the nature of animal species: it is a law established by biological inheritance and The first case is one of a young pa- and just a figment of his imagination. He ized by the presence of physical symp- outcome, was successful in its own way. Jaspers, K. (1997). General psychopathology (J. Hoenig identical in all individuals of the same species. In contrast, tient who had started the analysis because envisioned that the confrontation could be toms, sometimes changing over time, and & M. W. Hamilton, Trans.). Baltimore, MD and London, Freud (1915/1957, pp.121-122) defines the word drive as “a England: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (Original need for work imposed on the psychic apparatus” by the of a strong inhibition in his love life, and only a thin reflective film, entirely mislead- all without organic source. Another trait Conclusions work published 1913) organism, and as a “measure of the demand made upon because of the desire to become an analyst ing, which he needed to puncture and pass of hysteria is the ability to disappoint the I would like to end by quoting the Lacan, J. (1972-1973). Le seminaire, livre XX, encore, the mind for work in consequence of its connection with 1972-1973. Paris, France: Editions du Seuil. the body”. Thus, the concept of drive implies psychic work. himself. through in order for the danger to become other, including the analyst, or not to come Italian psychoanalyst G. B. Contri (1994), Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J. B. (2006). The language of Famously, James Strachey in the Standard Edition (1966, Later, he reported from the couch an obsolete and the road ahead to become to an appointment after having scheduled who brilliantly observed that in the mental psycho-analysis. London, England: Karnac Books. pp.xxiv-xxv) preferred to translate Trieb with Instinkt, essen- image that had tormented him at the be- once again free and viable; a trap, in fact, it. “Wait for me, but I’m not coming”25: this illness, healing, as long as it has not already Rank, O. (1924). Das Trauma der Geburt [The tially obliterating this important distinction articulated by trauma of birth]. Leipzig, Germany: Internationaler Freud in the original German. ginning of the analysis. He was afraid to characteristic of the obsessive personality. can be considered a typical sentence, or the occurred, is not perceived as an asset, but Psychoanalytischer Verlag. 22. Repression, or removal: about the translation of proceed with free associations, because Here is a striking example of danger; same slogan of every hysterical subject: his as an evil. In illness, there is no desire to Saraval, A. (1988). La tecnica classica e la sua evoluzione Verdrängung, see Laplanche and Pontalis (2006, p.390). [The classical technique and its evolution]. In A. A. Semi 23. The term neutrality does not appear in the Freudian he imagined that this would have led to a it seems as if it were coming from external or her manifesto. heal. This suggests the desire of healing is a (Ed.), Trattato di psicoanalisi [Treaty of psychoanalysis]. Milan, vocabulary. It was introduced by James Strachey in the 24. Freud, “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the reality, while it was nothing like that at all. It was usual for a young woman I was novelty brought into being by the psycho- Italy: Raffaello Cortina. Standard Edition. He used it in 1924 to translate the German Strachey, J. (1966). Notes on some technical terms word Indifferenz, used by Freud in “Observations on Ego” (1921/1955), Chapter VIII, Being in Love and Hypnosis, analyzing to not to come to her sessions analytic technique. The analyst, for his part, never encouraged whose translation calls for comment. In J. Strachey (Ed. Transference-Love” (1915/1958a, p.157). Joan Riviere had p.111 and following. The SE uses “being in love” to trans- every now and then. Her parents had sep- We can say that every healing process and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 1, pp.xxiv-xxv). London, earlier proposed the term indifference to translate the same late the German word “Verliebtheit” (GW, v. 13, p.122 and the collision or the duel. He limited his word. The translation that appears in the Italian edition has following). Furthermore, the Freudian concept of “being in interventions so as not to be found as the has problematic aspects. The brilliant title England: Hogarth Press. impassivity (Freud, 1977, p.367). Anna Freud did not use the love” is also present in Lacan, particularly in his word pun 25. I am translating in this way the sentence “Aspettami, of Freud’s essay, “The Economic Problem term neutrality, but she nevertheless helped to build the con- “en-amoration is haine-amoration” (1972-73): it makes hate patient’s enemy. Otherwise, he would have io non vengo,” used several times by G.B. Contri during ***The notation “GW, v. 13, p. 122 and following” is cept, referring to the “opaque mirror” metaphor. and being in love coincide. been blocked by the patient’s resistance. his lectures. of Masochism” (1924/1961a), can lead us used in the footnotes but never explained.***

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be here a year from now and to have this tion in the idealization of her phallic hus- “You apologized,” I murmured. The Shadowing of the Object: be the same, nothing having been changed. band. Persephone came to receive through My friend K. was in analysis and she is still this mirror the maternal projection and “I did? I didn’t remember...I am angry A Case of Abrupt Departure in the Analytic Process Vaia TSOLAS fighting with her own demons. She is de- identification of self-hatred and abjection. for a lot of reasons. He is not the boyfriend structive, neurotic. I love being a painter. I Persephone was desperate to find in I want. I don’t feel he is helping me in my When Persephone came to see me, I “Every day, I am thinking of how to get son. I am sorry, I am lost in my head. I was know I am with my boyfriend because he me the unifying image that would allow her life. Any suggestions to clear my mind be- knew I was dealing with a goddess. Her last away from this relationship. It is not about thinking of my schedule and the possibility of deeply loves me. And allows me to feel to love herself for the first time. However, fore I go to my work today?” she asked. She name betrayed her background and family if…it is about when. What else? It was nice a new painting. And thinking of where to go loved. The problem with us is that I don’t when I left for summer vacation after our continued talking about how ineffective she history. I was curious, though, to meet the going to Boston. We were doing a show a next. I was thinking of the light being beauti- love him. I don’t feel he can take care of me first three months of work, Persephone, to feels. I said that it is much the same here, person behind the name and public image. day. It was fun to see us making people hap- ful and it is not cold out. All the new possibil- the way I want to be taken care of. There is her surprise, fell into depression, insomnia, that she gives too much, but takes little To my surprise, she entered my office py. It is a great component of my life and I ities. I would like to share my studio. It will be a roughness to him. It makes me feel unsafe. and difficulty working and functioning. She back, and that makes her angry and guilty. not as a goddess, but rather as a scared felt grateful. One of the other painters told nice to have someone else to share space with I use all these big words. I wonder how you decided to enter couples therapy in the animal, who had to survey and conquer me that when she makes a mistake, she goes, me. What I think about this...is worrying. hear this. And I am not asking you. But you hope of fixing her boyfriend instead. She disagreed that she didn’t get new territory, as if being threatened to be ‘Oh! My god I have learned something.’ It is have experience in hearing this. Because The only resistance is the resistance of enough from me, but spoke instead of being devoured by a lioness. not about fearing that she exposed herself. “Can you give me a trigger word?” you are so good in hearing. I want away the analyst, Lacan states. I was duped by aggressive and bossy. It is precisely because She told me about her ambivalent sep- But I go, ‘Oh my god! I just exposed myself.’ from him. That is my gut instinct. I don’t being invested with the qualities of an ideal she is ineffective that she gets more bossy. aration from a long-term boyfriend whom “I had a dream last night that there were “You would like a grasshopper in your like him. It is awful.” other, so it took me by surprise when Perse- she could not completely leave behind, grasshoppers in my tea. I woke up, and I tea,” I repeated. Persephone wanted to get away from phone resumed analysis after the break and “Am I giving you mixed messages?” she opting instead to come and go between her thought I should make a tea, and there were Hades as fast as she could, and return to appeared indifferent to my return. I felt dis- asked. “I am angry that I am going to be mother’s house and his. She spoke of need- grasshoppers in there. I am happy it is May. “You have the keys, and I can work the heavenly feelings of reunion with an placed by the couples therapist and abrupt- alone with no family.” ing my help to find her own inner place, her The beginning of a new month. A new sea- with whatever you give me. I don’t want to ideal version of herself/mother, a mother/ ly dropped. own “home,” where she could finally begin self who felt too lofty to get a grasp of, or I was quick to interpret how difficult Lacan, in associating aggression and the life she imagined for herself. Panic and to hold on to for long enough. During the the break must have felt, and referred to a narcissism, states that depression were her long-term companions first three months, she invested me with childhood memory—she refused to come in life. She had something to say about the qualities of this idealized mother. “You are out of her room when her mother would It is the ego as an imaginary func- origin of these feelings. She sobbed when my backbone,” she said. “I know you will ask her to join them when the father came tion of the self, as a unity of the subject she spoke about not getting enough from be there when I am about to fall.” Howev- back from his trips. In retrospect, my reach- alienated from itself, of the ego as that in her mother and about her self-hatred in er, her memories of her own mother were ing for an explanation, as well as my later which the subject can recognize itself at comparing herself to sisters favored by her the opposite. “She was too depressed or too increase in the frequency of my analytic first only in abolishing the alter ego of the parents. preoccupied with her own life and my fa- interpretations, might have protected me ego, which as such develops the very dis- Her gaze was intense, and I felt re- ther to take care of me.” from the narcissistic displacement of being tinct dimension of aggression that is called lieved when Persephone began to use the She described her mother as lacking in the one. from now on: aggressivity. (1948/2006) couch after our initial consultations. “I like herself this backbone that she envisioned Persephone started skipping sessions, the couch because I can look inward in- me to have. Her mother was painted as tal- coming late or coming an hour early. She Lacan builds further on Freud’s theory stead of responding to you,” she said. ented and successful, but nonetheless weak, seemed impatient that analysis could take of aggression and self-destructiveness by as- She was eager to start analysis, to dig submissive, and deferential when it came this long before she felt better. Her boy- serting that aggressivity is an inner conflict into herself to find what made her run away to her father, a dominant and moody man friend was not changing quickly enough ei- between the subject and his own ego. from the sense of her own being, her cre- who needed her mother’s slavery to his ther. She decided that this time, she needed Persephone felt suicidal in the follow- ativity, and her “vocation” in life. As a paint- whims in order to feel whole himself. But to find her own place for real. She looked in ing sessions. She also felt like she would be er, she felt embarrassed about her paintings this was not the whole story. Her sisters got three different areas, one close to her yoga a coward for killing herself in a violent way. when she compared her art to that of her the best of her parents, she said, and by the teacher, one close to her couples therapist, She wanted to do it peacefully and politely. father, a celebrated film director. She told time Persephone was born, there was not and one close to me. In the countertrans- She told her mother over lunch about her me her family members were all successful much goodness left for her; it was like her ference, my feeling that I was just one of plans of euthanasia. She asked for one last artists; she was the one who failed, remain- parents were too old, too worn out, leaving the three, competing to be the special one, time to meet with everyone in her family to ing small, pathetic, and lost. Despite family her a broken mirror in which to reflect on was so loud that I had to wonder about her get what she lacked her entire life. In this wealth and fame that gained her access to herself. competition with her sisters for her father’s conversation, she realized with pain what the best schools, her sense of herself re- affection. One day, enraged by her boy- she always knew but denied; that the an- mained incurable. Lacan (1948/2006) writes, friend, she asked me if it was OK with me swer to her question to the other, “Can you Persephone described her boyfriend as that she does yoga to release some of that afford losing me?”, was quite ambivalent. her mirror image from whom she wanted What I have called the mirror stage aggression. Before I could even think to re- She wept, but still her feelings of failure and to run away, but to whom she returned, un- is interesting in that it manifests the affec- spond, Persephone was on the floor prac- inadequacy could not be washed away. She able to escape. tive dynamism by which the subject orig- ticing her yoga poses. started missing sessions, and the question In Greek mythology, Persephone is inally identifies himself with the visual “Sorry to get it out in your office,” she she had posed to her mother had come into kidnapped by the lord of the underworld, Gestalt of his own body: in relation to the announced, as she sobbed when she final- the transference. It was difficult for her to Hades. Her mother, Demeter, wants her still very profound lack of co-ordination of ly managed to get herself to the couch. She get to my office, she said, and also she had back and retaliates by keeping the crops his own motility, it represents an ideal of then talked about meeting her boyfriend many more important things to do, thus from growing, thus forcing Zeus to inter- unity. (1948/2006) the previous night and about his being both communicating to me the pain of being vene. Persephone also fights Hades by drunk and intolerable. But this was not all ignored and not prioritized. “I want to see refusing to eat, but she can’t resist pome- This ideal of unity comes from the she felt enraged about. “Nothing is working!” outside my own brain. I want to feel less granate. Eating food from the underworld mother’s gaze. Persephone’s mirroring in “This is the theme of my life,” she said. lost,” she emphasized in these ambivalent binds you to living there. The six seeds her mother’s gaze seemed to be far from I felt sad for her but disconnected. I couldn’t comings and goings to my office. she eats translate into six months of living being a source of idealization and cohesion. hear her associations, as I was working too I responded aggressively, becoming with Hades and away from her mother, It was as if it was shadowed by the mother’s hard to understand what she was trying to say. more interpretive to her and to this am- months that are made colder by Deme- own fragmented mirror, through which the “I liked it,” she said referring to her bivalent engagement to her analysis; I in- ter’s mourning. spaceman mother aspired to seek repair and self-rejec- yoga earlier. “It helped me.” terpreted her maternal transference to me

42 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 43 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION as the devalued object as well as the trans- uted to the early termination, or do I under- represented her unconscious loyalty to the ference of the parental couple, where I was estimate transference by taking blame for death-bearing identification with the pri- What Healing Has to Do with Termination: either the inadequate dependent wife or the early termination? mary object. the unsatisfied critical phallic father or the In cathecting and decathecting the Why does Persephone eat those seeds Endings and Interruptions Luca FLABBI lost, abandoned part of herself. The more object in the narcissistic transference, and when she knows full well the tragic conse- I continued and increased my interpreta- in her alterations between manic activity quences? The eating of the seeds is the rep- Introduction The opposite also holds; any experi- lytical process is not fundamentally differ- tions, the more empty-headed Persephone and melancholic states, Persephone’s at- etition of termination, in which she gives In this panel discussion, we are pro- ence of satisfaction, any fulfillment of plea- ent from the failure of a financial or capital felt. In this chain of reactivity, I had tasted tempts to expel the shadow of the object birth to herself by destroying the object posing that any analysis can lead to three sure becomes a step forward in the healing (physical or human) investment. The only the pomegranate seeds of Hades and was possible outcomes: process. difference is that the successful (or not) bound to join the familial ghosts. Starting and engaging in an analysis outcome of the analytical process is fully It took me by surprise when Perse- 1) Termination: The on-going process means investing resources, resources which dependent on our individual competence, phone told me that she was going on a trip constituted by steps forward in the healing mainly (and at least) include: while the success of a financial or capital in- abroad because her sister had offered Perse- process continuing after regular sessions vestment may occasionally be determined phone her own apartment for a month. with the analyst have stopped. 1) Time Investment: How many by external circumstances. “I can taste her life for a month. Why activities involve a substantial week- Failure of a financial investment, or of not? I am not doing anything important 2)Interruptions: The erratic departures ly time investment? Not too many: an entrepreneurial activity, does not mean here anyway,” she told me. and returns expressing an ambivalent stop- professional engagements, a few life you are finished. It does not mean all the re- It sounded as if Persephone had two and-go. passions, our most important relation- sources have been wasted. It simply means choices at that moment; stay in her anal- ships. that the output is significantly lower than ysis, “looking at the pile of shit inside her,” 3) Departure: The abrupt abandonment the input. This ratio, or proportionality, or as she said, or leaving that pile with me and of the analysis, stating a disowning of the 2) Financial Investment: How accounting exercise applies to a financial in- inhabiting someone’s life, especially that of work done. many activities involve a monetary vestment just as it applies to the investment one of her sisters, whom she had greatly investment with the potential of re- in time, money, and thoughts required by envied for her entire life. It was just a break Furthermore, by outcomes, we mean quiring major life changes? Again, engaging in an analysis. The simple ac- from herself, she said, turning a deaf ear to that they take place at the end of the anal- very few are extremely important and counting exercise of comparing inputs my annoyance that leaving herself behind ysis: they are the products of an analysis, significant for our life. The possible (time, money, thoughts) with outputs was only illusory. She promised to come resulting from the work done jointly by an- life changes implied by the monetary (steps forward, stop and go, disowning) is back, because I always had been and would alyst and analysand. investment in the analytical process the main exercise required in judging the continue to be her backbone. are an important part of the work termination of analysis. It is also extremely Upon her return, Persephone called to The Fundamental Question conducted during an analysis. We useful to restart the healing process in case announce that she was taking a break to try These three definitions raise a fun- know that when they are not present of failure. The ability and willingness to do some alternatives to analysis. A few years damental question: why choose (2) or (3) because the analysand is solidly well- it is an unmistakable sign of effective work- later, she called me again to ask for a psy- when the convenience of (1) is clear? off, we miss an opportunity.26 ing-through and of openness to healing. chopharm referral. Is she still searching for But what do I mean by convenience? In a new idealized maternal shell to carry her- what respect do the criteria conclude that 3) Thought Investment: Think- The Benefit of Termination self? Knowing her, she probably is. What termination is more convenient than inter- ing—or, better, recuperating the act The other panelists’ contributions on was the danger she was running away ruptions or departure? of thinking we were born with—is technique and on clinical cases have already from? The Hades of her internal deadness I propose a criterion based on economic the main act that the analytical set- provided useful material to answer the fun- she came to encounter in the mirroring of efficiency: (1) is convenient with respect to ting is attempting to favor. All of the damental question of why (1) is preferable her analysis; the toxicity of the maternal (2) and (3) because it makes a much bet- elements of the analytical setting are to (2) and (3). hatred being reactivated in the transfer- ter (i.e., a much more efficient) use of the organized in order to favor thoughts, In the rest of my contribution, I want ence-countertransference paradigm; her resources invested by the individual (or to predispose to the act of thinking. to elaborate further on why the termination sense of having annihilated me with her subject, or, in this particular application, the Since thoughts are our most precious of an analysis is convenient. Defining the envy and aggression? Any of the above, all analyst and the analysand). (as in unique and inestimable) re- termination’s convenience also provides a of the above? I could not say. Equivalently, we can state that (2) and source, deciding to invest them in the definition of the termination itself. But if there is one thing I can say with (3) are a massive waste of resources, where- analytical process is the ultimate com- If one clear sign of healing is the abil- certainty, it is what Persephone told me: “I as the resources invested in an analysis are mitment in the healing process. ity and willingness to compare inputs and would like to step out of my script. It is re- significant, and they include the financial outputs (to compare investments and returns, birth that I am looking to find.” As Julia Kri- commitments necessary to finance it, the Given this massive investment, it if you want to use the language of a finan- steva suggests in her book Powers of Horror time allocated to the sessions, and all of the would be illogical to engage in it if not for cial or capital investment), then the same (1980/1982), “I spit myself out, I abject my- acts and thoughts necessary to its develop- an important and valuable result. If the re- proportionality can be used to describe the self within the same motion through which ment and elaboration. sult is not reached, we end up with a variety termination of an analysis in relation to the ‘I’ claim to establish myself.” All of these resources could have been of outcomes, outcomes that can all be char- healing process. Persephone’s premature termination puddle used more productively elsewhere if the acterized by a common element: failure. This definition of termination empha- of one year of analytic work was a matter into me spoke so she could free herself without whose love she cannot live. In her outcomes at the end of the analysis are I use failure as a dynamic concept. A sizes, among other things, that the end of an of life and death, and that, Persephone was and love herself for the first time. Her abrupt termination, the taste of those seeds continuous and ambivalent stop-and-go or given act may be judged a failure in the analysis is not to be interpreted as the reali- clear about. comings and goings, her missing sessions, frightened me and prompted me to join her the disowning of the work done. moment the outcome is realized. However, zation of a duality, a duality based on the at- In retrospect, I followed Persephone’s all these repetitive mini-terminations in in the countertransference. z Attaining steps forward in the healing nothing prevents the same act from being tempt of switching from one sphere or state life-death struggle in the countertransfer- the analytic process revealed how relent- process is the objective of any analysis (of used as input in a renewed process leading (pathology) to another (sanity). Termination ence and was kidnapped by the shadow of lessly the repetition compulsion’s over- REFERENCES any life, really), and they are an unlimited later on to a new outcome that may turn does not consist of switching a mechanism Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of horror (L. S. Roudiez, the meek mother, who cannot protect her riding of the pleasure principle led to pre- Trans.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. source of satisfaction and pleasure. Only out to be a success. on and off, of moving from a dark side to a daughter from the overpowering Hades. I mature termination. (Original work published 1980) a termination, as opposed to interruptions Failure of the investment in the ana- light one, of crossing from a bottom to a top. Lacan, J. (2006). Aggressiveness in psychoanalysis. In defended against this shadow by increasing In sum, the danger that she was run- and departure, is leveraging on the analyti- Termination denotes the commitment to B. Fink (Trans.), Écrits: The first complete edition in English 26. Ideally, it would be useful to have a variation in pric- analytic interpretations after the summer ning from in the transference was the dual (pp.82-101). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co. (Original cal process in order to make a step forward es able to favor this opportunity. A price such that the indi- continue transforming a given input to a dif- break. Were these enactments that contrib- annihilation of self and object, a danger that work published 1948) in the healing process. vidual has the opportunity to consider significant, but still ferent output. The working-through process, feasible, life changes.

44 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 45 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

repetitions, and vicious cycles 1). Excitement (or libido) to be a partner after the termination of the idence of her contribution as a valuable characterizing the ambivalent analysis. If at the end of the analysis, the and indispensable input. Showing evidence stop-and-go. 2). The other as an indispensable part- analysand and the analyst do not continue does not mean looking for the causation or There is only one more ner in reaching satisfaction, where the their lives as partners (i.e., as common con- the deterministic and probabilistic necessi- damaging (more inefficient, less other simply denotes another subject tributors to a production function generat- ty studied in the natural sciences or experi- logically consistent, closer to also endowed with the competence ing satisfaction for both of them), then we enced in technological processes. It means failure) outcome than this am- of judging and assessing a production have reached outcomes (2) and (3) and not recapitulating the act of judgment imple- bivalent stop-and-go: it is the process outcome (1).28 mented by the individual competence. disowning of the entire process A partner is not an image, a fiction, a The act of judgment is not an algorithm realized in outcome (3). Recapitulating these two items is ex- ghost, a semblant. A partner works in the used to evaluate the output of a chemical Disowning means negating actly what the analytical process is designed production process, and we can show ev- reaction or the return of a financial invest- that a production process ever to do: reinstating the faith in the possibili- ment; it is an appeal to our primordial com- 28. In this sense, I would claim that the psychoanalyst is took place. Admitting that a pro- ty and reality of excitement and proposing not a professional as the MD (or the lawyer, the economist, petence of deciding what contributes to our duction process is taking place the analyst as a partner among (potentially) the car mechanic) is a professional. There is no professional own satisfaction and pleasure. of the individual competence. The analytical process is a re- is equivalent to admitting that many partners. A partner that will continue lationship between two individual competences; a relation- valuable resources are invested. ship that, when it is productive, never ends. Psychoanalysis and Social Sciences Admitting that valuable resourc- This different judgment is what sets es are invested requires the anal- psychoanalysis apart from other social sci- ysand (or, really, any individual ences. All social sciences pose the same engaging in disowning the pos- question, and it is the question posed by the sibility of personal satisfaction) psychoanalysis itself: no science focusing to answer where those resources on human behavior can avoid it or dispose went and why they were devoted with it. It is the question of what it means to to such an activity. But providing be an individual human being. such an answer is equivalent to In psychoanalysis, the competence to admitting, judging, recognizing answer this question is traced back to the that those specific meetings con- individual herself, to her individual com- forming to the analytical setting petence. In most other social sciences, it is are producing something, and linked to some external authority, which is this is exactly what must be ne- supposed to have a higher degree of com- gated to reach the abrupt depar- petence than the individual herself does. ture described in outcome (3). Following the formalization proposed Judging a production pro- so far, it is this external authority that is cess by comparing input and supposedly able to compute (pending the output is all that is required to availability of the right amount of informa- open the possibility of heal- tion) the differential between input and out- ing. This act of judgment is a put, and it can therefore assess the success straightforward act, accessible of the production process. In this sense, we to anyone. It is a judgment that can say that the individual of other social requires nothing more than the sciences is fully calculable. This property individual competence provid- has the convenient implication of provid- ed to any individual from birth. ing systematic and comparable empirical The same subject that provides evidence. In many social sciences, this ev- and combines the input and idence can then be organized in a statistical that experiences the outputs is structure, which formalizes observed regu- also the subject better qualified larities. This operation is, by definition, not to judge them. The competence implementable in psychoanalysis. required to invest inputs in order Economics is an example among the so- tread to produce outputs is the same cial sciences where the calculable individual competence required to judge the produc- is in evident display. The interesting feature which is favored, predisposed, magnified by vesting in any daily activity generates an tion process itself. There is no authority of human behavior in economics is that each the analytical work, is the act through which output that made the investment worth it. “external” to the subject that can (or should) individual acting and choosing in the econo- the analysand starts a renewed process, a Of course, this does not mean that every do that. When that happens, and the subject my (the economic agent) behaves not only as process we should be correct to identify as a daily investment will be successful, but it believes it, both processes (production and a calculable individual, but also as someone production process. does mean that she is now able to assess, to judgment) are interrupted and frustrated. able to implement the calculation herself.29 The healing process of the step for- judge, when they are. Can we identify the foundational and How and to what degree economic ward and the ineffective and inefficient pro- The erratic departures and returns of common elements of a successful produc- agents are able to implement the calcula- cess of the stop-and-go and of the disown- the stop and go, instead, make it very diffi- tion process? Yes, and they have been at the tion depends on certain factors such as the ing are all production processes. They are cult to identify the quantity and quality of center of the psychoanalytical quest from amount of information available, the struc- just different production processes, i.e., they the output, because they do not allow the its inception. They can be summarized in ture of the market, and the presence of con- generate different outputs when given the investment to complete its production pro- two items:27 straints. This is the focus of much recent same amount and combination of inputs. cess. As a result, the judgment is blurred 27. Both Freud and Lacan are obvious references. Here, research in the field. The termination of an analysis registers and it is proportionally difficult to assess. I am referring in particular to the elaboration proposed by Blurring and confusion will, in turn, pro- Contri (2006), where the “indispensable” of the second 29. This approach dates back to the Marginal Revolu- the moment in which the individual is able statement is logically derived from a fundamental law com- tion of the late 19th century, which has become the main- to recognize whether the input she is in- vide fertile new material for the doubts, mon to all human beings since birth. wolf and friend stream approach in economics since the mid-20th century.

46 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 47 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 For example, the application of game the calculation mechanism has some “error.” Freud (1923/1961, p.50) was very clear theory to economics enriches the calcu- An error that is not generated by a conflict, on this point: “Analysis does not set out to lating mechanism by including strategic a contradiction, or a different judgment, but make pathological reactions impossible, but behavior. The recent development of be- by a mistake of the algorithm, like a bug in to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide havioral economics challenges some of a line of computer code. one way or another.” the main predictions of the behavior just Conversely, psychoanalysis has at its Reinstating the freedom to judge in described but without, in my view, aban- core the understanding that the freedom of light of our own personal satisfaction, no doning the calculable-agent approach. The individual judgment is of the utmost impor- other social science has this ambition. central tenet that the calculable individual is tance. Psychopathology is neither an error That is why the termination (outcome (1)) a description and a theory of human behav- nor a bug, but a road taken by a subject poten- of an analysis is a conclusion, but not the ior able to generate aggregate and specific tially free to choose and judge. Reestablishing end. It is the conclusion of one production outcomes is not in doubt. and supporting this freedom to choose any process, but not the end of the process If this calculable and calculating agent road is the only objective of psychoanalysis. through which the subject produces. The is the model of human behavior, then the If the social science of psychoanalysis (or a termination of the analysis does not pro- three definitions of possible outcomes of given psychoanalyst working with a specific duce a static output, but a new dynamic an analysis that we have presented do not subject) may provide some evidence that one input to be used in future successful pro- have much value. road leads to psychopathology while anoth- duction processes. z In economics, every agent is trying er does not, still it cannot convince anyone to reach outcome (1) (Termination), and if about the road to be taken; nor can it take for REFERENCES Contri, G. B. (2006). Il pensiero di natura [Thoughts of sometimes we register outcomes that are granted (as economics does) that a free and nature] (p. 291). Milan, Italy: Sic. observationally equivalent to (2) (Interrup- fully informed agent will choose the more Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), Standard edition (Vol. 19, pp.1-66). London, tions) and (3) (Departure), it is just because convenient option. England: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923)

Green Thing roadwork

48 DIVISION|REVIEW SUMMER 2019 49 DIVISION| REVIEW SUMMER 2019 Now Available from . . . (For international shipping rates, please write to: [email protected]) IPBOOKS.net IPBooks.net International Psychoanalytic Books Edited by Anita Weinreb Katz & Arlene Kramer Richards Psychoanalysis in Fashion “In Psychoanalysis in Fashion, the editors have assembled a series of rive�ng essays that span a broad range of connec�ons between the unconscious mind and its expression in the dressing and adornment of the self. Fashion trends, hairdos, jewelry, and even cross-dressing are all fair game for the book's bold exposi�ons and intriguing ideas. Conscious and unconscious fantasies play large roles in dressing up, which itself shapes, expresses, and even conceals por�ons of identity. Ultimately, we are shown how we banish the animal body while cloaking ourselves in cultural glory.” —Danielle Knafo, PhD, author ofDancing with the Unconscious and The Age of Perversion

Jeffrey Berman & Paul Mosher OFF THE TRACKS Cautionary Tales About the Derailing of Mental Health Care Off the Tracks: Cautionary Tales About the Derailing of Mental Health Care Vol.1: Sexual and Nonsexual Boundary Violations Vol. 2: Scientology, Alien Abduction, False Memories, Psychoanalysis on Trial, Black Psychiatry, Bizarre Surgery, Lobotomy, and the Siren Call of Psychopharmacology VOLUME 1 SEXUAL AND NONSEXUAL BOUNDARY VIOLATIONS

Jeffrey Berman and Paul W. Mosher "Psychoanalysis has been plagued by errant and abusive prac��oners since its incep�on. . . . Berman and Mosher have traced the history of sexual boundary viola�ons in great detail. Their me�culous research into appalling cases of analyst misconduct in the consul�ng room (and elsewhere) makes for a fascina�ng and chilling read. . . . We are all vulnerable to self-decep�on . . . psychoanalysts and psychotherapists should read this book, which is the most thorough history of analysis going awry that has ever been published. I highly recommend it." —Glen O. Gabbard, MD

Sarah Boxer Mother May I? A Post-Floydian Folly Mother May I? is the sequel Boxer’s comic In the Floyd Archives. In this hilarious and terrifying riff on the works and lives of the child psychoanalysts Melanie Klein and D.W. Winnico�, Dr. Floyd’s abandoned pa�ents take a turn with mother Melanin Klein, a small black sheep who adores talking about ta-tas and widdlers. Klein is joined by her three li�le may i ? A Post-Floydian Folly kids—Meli�le Klein, a bi�er ki�en, Li�le Hans, a rambunc�ous bunny, and Squiggle Piggle, a pig whose tail creates sarah boxer expressive pictures when pulled. Mother May I?, a comic with footnotes, is for those who wonder whatever happened to psychoanalysis a�er Freud was gone, for those s�ll working out things with their mothers, and for those who appreciate a comic romp with a dark edge.

THE PSYCHOANALYST’S Austin Ratner AVERSION TO PROOF The Psychoanalyst’s Aversion to Proof “An important, serious and timely treatment of the major problem confronting psychoanalysis today, The Psychoanalyst’s Aversion to Proof could help determine the future direction of American psychiatry and mental science. The book is compellingly readable and direct but simultaneously scholarly and edifying— impeccably well researched in relation to the historical facts it reviews and the philosophical arguments it marshals—and it culminates in impressively realistic conclusions and practical recommendations.” AUSTIN RATNER —Mark Solms, PhD, Science Director of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Edited by Arlene Kramer Richards & Lucille Spira with Merle Molofsky Pedro Almodóvar: A Cinema of Desire, Passion and Compulsion “It has o�en been said that watching movies is the poor man's psychoanalysis. The films of Pedro Almodóvar can be viewed as a direct descent into the unconscious. In this outstanding collec�on of psychoanaly�c essays, the contributors take the reader on a journey through gender ambiguity, raw sexuality, death, desire, passion, violence and the mystery of what it means to be human. The link between dreams and the cinema is nowhere more compelling than in the work of Almodóvar, and readers of this superb new volume may feel they have emerged from a kaleidoscopic dream, richer and wiser as a result of the experience.” —Glen Gabbard, MD, author of The Psychology of the Sopranos DIVISION | REVIEW NON-PROFIT ORG. American Psychological Assoc. U.S. POSTAGE 750 First Street, NE PAID Washington D.C. 20002-4242 Washington, D.C. Permit No. 6348 Forwarding Services Requested

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Michael Alcée, Ph.D. is a clinical psychol- Luca Flabbi, PhD is an Associate Professor Mariano Ben Plotkin has a PhD in History ogist in private practice in Tarrytown, NY at the University of North Carolina-Chapel from the University of California, Berkeley. and also serves as Mental Health Coordina- Hill and a regular member of the board of He is currently a senior researcher at the tor at Manhattan School of Music. A two- the psychoanalytic society Società Amici National Council of Scientific Research time TEDx speaker, podcast host (‘Live del Pensiero - Sigmund Freud (SAP), based (Argentina) and Professor of History at the Life Creatively’), and Psychology Today in Milan, Italy Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. blogger, he loves to write and speak about Before that, he taught at Harvard Univer- the link between the creativity and psycho- Glauco Maria Genga, MD, is a psychiatrist, sity, Colby College and Boston University. therapy. Find him at drmichaelalcee.com. consultant to the Italian Air Force and senior He published extensively on the history of psychoanalyst, member of Società Amici del psychoanalysis, particularly in Argentina Sergio Benvenuto is a researcher in psy- Pensiero ‘Sigmund Freud’, Milan, Italy. and Brazil. His books include: Freud in the chology and philosophy at the National Pampas (Stanford University Press, 2001 Research Council (CNR) in Rome, Italy, Patricia Gherovici, is a psychoanalyst and and a psychoanalyst, president of ISAP (In- analytic supervisor. She is co-founder and Louis Rothschild is a clinical psychologist stitute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanal- director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group in Providence, R.I. He maintains a private ysis). He is a contributor to cultural journals and Associate Faculty, Psychoanalytic practice specializing in psychoanalytic psy- such as Telos, Lettre Internationale (French, Studies Minor, University of Pennsylvania chotherapy in addition to providing super- Spanish, Hungarian, Rumanian, German (PSYS), Honorary Member at IPTAR the vision, writing articles and book reviews, and Italian editions), Texte, RISS, Journal for Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and and occasionally reviewing manuscripts. Lacanian Studies, L’évolution psychiatrique. Research in New York City, and Founding Presently, his scholarly focus is centered on Member of Das Unbehagen. rapprochement between fathers and sons Jeanne Wolff Bernstein is a past president where he has penned separate book chap- and faculty member at The Psychoanalytic Bettina Mathes, Dr. phil. is a psychoanalyst ters in three edited volumes. Institute of Northern California (PINC) and in private practice, writer, and translator. currently a guest professor at The Sigmund She has published extensively on psycho- Vaia Tsolas, PhD is a clinical psychologist Freud University in Vienna. She was the analysis, film and gender. Latest publica- and a psychoanalyst on the faculty at Co- 2008 Fulbright Visiting scholar at the Freud tions “All My Toys Are Dead. Chantal Ak- lumbia University, Psychoanalytic Center Museum and Private Foundation in Vienna, erman’s No Home Movie” (International and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Austria. She has published widely on psy- Forum of Psychoanalysis, 2019); and a new teaching Freud and Lacan. She is also the choanalysis and the arts, and just wrote the translation of Sabina Spielrein’s “Destruc- director of Rose Hill Psychological Services. entry on Lacan for the newly issued Text- tion as the Cause of Becoming”, in: Pamela Her latest book, co-edited with Christine book of Psychoanalysis. jeanne.wolffbern- Cooper-White, Felicity Brock Kelcourse: Anzieu-Premmereur, “A psychoanalytic ex- [email protected] Sabina Spielrein and the Beginnings of Psy- ploration of the Body in Today world” was choanalysis, Routledge 2019. She lives and published in 2017. Chris Christian is a psychologist and psy- works in Granada, Spain. contact: mathes- choanalyst in practice in New York. He is [email protected] on the Faculty of the Institute for Psycho- analytic Education, affiliated with NYU Maria Gabriella Pediconi is a researcher School of Medicine; and a Training and Su- and professor of dynamic psychology at the pervising Analyst, and Dean at IPTAR. Dr. University of Urbino, and a psychoanalyst Christian is the Editor-in-Chief of Psycho- of Società Amici del Pensiero “Sigmund analytic Psychology, the official Journal of Freud” of Milan, Italy. Division 39 of the American Psychological Association. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Loren Dent is the Web Site Editor for DI- VISION/Review. He is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in practice in New York.

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