Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association current issue

Doublethinking Our Way to "Scientific" Legitimacy: the Desiccation of Human Experience

Hoffman, I. Z. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:06 PDT

A multifaceted contemporary movement aims to correct alleged weaknesses in the scientific foundation of psychoanalysis. For both pragmatic-political and scientific reasons we are encouraged to do and/or study systematic empirical research on psychoanalytic process and outcome, as well as apparently relevant neuroscience. The thesis advanced here is that the privileged status this movement accords such research as against in-depth case studies is unwarranted epistemologically and is potentially damaging both to the development of our understanding of the analytic process itself and to the quality of our clinical work. In a nonobjectivist hermeneutic paradigm best suited to psychoanalysis, the analyst embraces the existential uncertainty that accompanies the realization that there are multiple good ways to be, in the moment and more generally in life, and that the choices he or she makes are always influenced by culture, by sociopolitical mind-set, by personal values, by countertransference, and by other factors in ways that are never fully known. Nevertheless, a critical, nonconformist psychoanalysis always strives to expose and challenge such foundations for the participants’ choices. The "consequential uniqueness" of each interaction and the indeterminacy associated with the free will of the participants make the individual case study especially suited for the advancement of "knowledge"—that is, the progressive enrichment of sensibility—in our field.

Meditation on Lovesickness, Loss, and Temporality

Furlong, A. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

The film 2046 is used as a screen and a springboard from which to reflect on the compulsive plight of some lovesick individuals. A particular oedipal constellation that generates lovesickness is hypothesized, wherein an unmourned third object preoccupies yet frustrates the primary object. This thwarted longing for another on the part of the original parent figure inflicts a defect in the self-esteem of the subject, who is then compelled to seek out an object that will re-create, while promising to repair, the wound. A trait common to the new object of adoration and the old, retriggering the peculiar paradoxical draw of the parent, sets this process in motion. The chaotic temporality so often associated with both the raptures of new love and with the chronic condition of lovesickness may be related to a traumatic hobbling of the ego’s stimulus barrier in the presence of such a paradoxically exciting object.

Writing About Patients: What Clinical and Literary Writers Share

Miller, E. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Anyone who seeks publication wants readers, but self-expression, self-assertion, and self-promotion have consequences, especially for those who draw on clinical material and who must honor publication standards of integrity and reliability, as well as ethical codes governing confidentiality, consent, disguise, and collaboration. This paper employs tools of literary analysis, principles of moral philosophy, and psychoanalytic theories about writing to show that writers of fiction and autobiography also struggle with these dilemmas. They worry about their responsibilities to the sources of their stories, and wonder if changing names and dates will prevent friends and family, whose lives get used as material, from feeling embarrassed, betrayed, or exploited. Because they understand that the composing process blurs boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and memory, self and other, they recognize that an author’s relationship with his or her subject (matter) can disable the capacity to recognize when self-interest has taken over a concern for the welfare of others. More important, literary authors are free to write about writing, and what they render transparent about primitive, unconscious processes suggests that what clinical writing has in common with fiction and autobiography should be included in efforts to update ethical standards and procedures regarding psychoanalytic publication.

Introduction

Litowitz, B. E. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Volition and Will in Psychoanalysis

Meissner, W.W. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

To clarify the role and function of the will in psychoanalytic theory and praxis, the use and meaning of the concept of will are traced in the philosophical tradition influencing Freud, in Freud’s own view of will, and in the subsequent history of psychoanalysis. Functions of the will relevant to psychoanalysis are described in terms of intellective preference and executive functioning. Operations of will as an executive function of the ego-self are analyzed, emphasizing will as efficient cause of motivated actions. The will functions to decide, choose, and initiate action directed to motivationally determined goals. The conclusion is drawn that will action is determined and directed by motivational influences, and that will decision and choice, while predominantly secondary process in organization, can operate consciously or unconsciously. Expressions of will action in psychopathology and in the analytic process are briefly discussed.

The Role of Unconscious Volition in Psychoanalysis: Commentary On Meissner

Rangell, L. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Response To Rangell

Meissner, W.W. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Selected Posters From the 2008 Poster Session of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Kaplan, M., Vrouva, I., Fertuck, E. A. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Termination

Feller, A. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Sex and Shame: Clinical Dilemmas

Jaffe, S. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Bending the Frame and Judgment Calls in Everyday Practice

Levine, A. R. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

The Role of Dream Work in Contemporary Psychoanalytic Practice

Spiwak, A. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Finding Your Way Through Chaos, Fractals, and Other Exotic Mathematical Objects: a Guide for the Perplexed

Galatzer-Levy, R. M. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: RANGES OF PSYCHOANALYTIC INTEREST CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGY: SELECTED ARTICLES BY HARRY LEVINSON. Edited by Arthur M. Freedman and Kenneth H. Bradt. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2008, 334 pp., $59.95

Eisold, K. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: PSYCHOTHERAPY WITHOUT THE SELF: A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE. By Mark Epstein. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, 261 pp., $14.00

Kovel, C. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: THE ART INSTINCT: BEAUTY, PLEASURE AND HUMAN EVOLUTION. By Denis Dutton. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009, 278 pp., $25.00

Esman, A. H. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: PROJECTEDSHADOWS: PSYCHOANALYTICREFLECTIONSONTHEREPRESENTATION OF LOSS IN EUROPEAN CINEMA. Edited by Andrea Sabbadini. New York: Routledge, 2007, 190 pp., hardcover $99.00, paperback $36.95

Sklarew, B. H. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Reviews: RADICAL EVIL: A PHILOSOPHICAL INTERROGATION. By Richard J. Bernstein. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2002, xi + 289 pp., $29.95

Stolorow, R. D. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: BEFORE FREUD: HYSTERIA AND HYPNOSIS IN LATER NINETEENTH-CENTURY PSYCHIATRIC CASES. By Lilian R. Furst. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2008, 207 pp., $43.50

Drinka, G. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Review: PSYCHOTHERAPY AND MEDICATION: THE CHALLENGE OF INTEGRATION. By Fredric N. Busch and Larry S. Sandberg. New York: The Analytic Press, 2007, 177 pp., $39.95

Tobin, B. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT

Book Reviewers

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:37:07 PDT