Who benefits the most from psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy?

Who benefits the most from psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy?

There are currently many schools of psychotherapy –– such as psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioural therapy, systemic therapy, humanistic therapies, etc.–– that are based on divergent theoretical foundations, and offer different treatment modalities.
 
Although historically each one of these schools has claimed, or sometimes still claims in certain cases, that it is valid for all those who seek psychological help, empirical evidence and the combined years of experience of many practitioners show us that this is not a verified fact.
 
In addition to the specific expectations of the people looking for assistance, their individual personalities will lead them to be more receptive to one kind of help than to another. The most noteworthy differences between people when it comes to choosing a psychotherapeutic treatment will manifest through their tolerance to frustration, where they locate their problems, and their degree of autonomy.
 
When it comes to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, there are certain personality dispositions ––that do not necessarily express themselves in all situations, but are nevertheless central to the person’s psychological makeup–– without which it is difficult for someone to be able to benefit greatly from this type of treatment.
 
What are they?
 
Let’s begin with the fact that psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy rest on some fundamental principals, mainly that:

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(1) 07/03/2016 17:12h Psychoanalysis in Madrid, Psychoanalyst in Madrid, Psychologist in Madrid

International psychoanalytical congress

International psychoanalytical congress

Every two years the International Psychoanalytical Association has a congress in one of its three regions: Europe, North America and South America.
 
The theme of the last Congress, celebrated in July, 2015, in Boston, was Psychoanalysis in a Changing World.
 
Psychoanalysts from all over the globe attend these Congresses as the IPA represents over 12,000 members from more than 50 component societies.
 
One of these members wrote a compelling article about her experience at the Congress and the what she found there: a focus on empirical research and science, openness to technology, a gender-balanced attendance, a vibrant and friendly atmosphere, and a recognition for the need to evolve with the world we live in.
 
Many psychoanalysts in Madrid would agree with her thoughts.
 
Read the article.

(0) 30/09/2015 14:45h International Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

Reviewing contemporary neuropsychoanalysis

Reviewing contemporary neuropsychoanalysis

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Joshua Kendall reviews Casey Shwartz’s book: In the Mind Fields: Exploring the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis.
 
In The Mind Fields deals head-on with contemporary debates between neuroscience and psychoanalysis that sometimes tend to polarize to extreme positions.
 
Sometimes psychoanalysis seems to ignore the functioning of the brain to such an extent that it risks becoming brainless, and neuroscience tends to forget so entirely the subjective experience of the individual so as to become mindless.
 
Shwartz profiles Mark Solms, the founder of neuropychoanalysis, and describes how he resolves this false polarization, namely by stressing the fact that anything that goes on in the mind goes on in the brain too, and vice-versa.
 
She also touches on the lively debate between Hobson and Solms over the role dreams play, and to what extent an excess of emphasis on data gathered by highly sophisticated technology might forget the actual experience of the individual.
 
Read the article.

(0) 21/09/2015 12:21h International Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

A new international psychoanalytical journal

A new international psychoanalytical journal

At the recent International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) Congress in Boston, psychoanalysts from all over the world celebrated the launching of a new, truly international on-line psychoanalytic journal, Psychoanalysis.today.
 
Psychoanalysis.today is the result of a collaborative effort between the four regional federations and associations of the IPA: Fédération Européenne de Psychanalyse (FEP), Federación de Psicoanálisis en América Latina (FEPAL), American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA), and the North American Psychoanalytical Confederation (NAPsaC).
 
There are many distinguished psychoanalytical journals ––The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, La Revue Française de Psychanalyse, La Revista de la Associación Psicoanalítica de Madrid, to name only a few–– but they tend to reflect local psychoanalytical culture and are often too technical for non-specialists.
 
The goal of Psychoanalysis.today is to improve communication between the IPA regions and to provide a platform where people who are interested in psychoanalysis can be informed in non-technical terms about what is being currently debated in the field.
 
The journal is available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
 
Go to Issue Zero of Psychoanalysis.today: “The First Time”

(0) 28/07/2015 13:49h International Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

Phobias: diagnosis, etiology and treatment

Phobias: diagnosis

The diagnosis of a phobia is usually fairly clear. A phobia is any irrational fear of objects, animals, situations or spaces that are not objectively dangerous.
 
One is afraid of something objectively dangerous ––a lion, for instance–– but one has a phobia of something objectively harmless, a mouse. The phobia does not come from the phobic object in itself but from what that object stirs up in the mind of the individual that suffers from the phobia.
 
Phobias are a very effective way for the psychic apparatus to get rid of the inner anxiety from which the subject suffers. Instead of feeling that the anxiety and the danger are within, the phobia allows the subject to locate the source of anxiety outside, where it can be avoided.
 
For instance: an individual who is very afraid of her own aggressiveness may develop a phobia of dogs (onto which she can attribute the idea of aggressiveness). Then she can avoid dogs and, by doing so, be free of anxiety. The fear of herself has become the fear of something else that can be avoided. Needless to say, all of this happens unconsciously, there is no conscious intentionality in the creation of a phobic symptom.
 
Precisely because of the fact that phobias allow the individual to locate the source of danger on the outside, many people can live with their phobias without great difficulties since they simply avoid their phobic object, and thus avoid anxiety.
 
However, the situation becomes more complicated when avoiding the phobic object starts to severely restrict the individual’s freedom. It is not uncommon in certain cases for phobic objects to multiply, progressively invading and limiting the subject’s life more and more.

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(0) 15/07/2015 15:18h Psychoanalysis in Madrid, Psychoanalyst in Madrid, Psychologist in Madrid

The collections of the unconscious

The collections of the unconscious

In 1915, one hundred years ago, Sigmund Freud wrote his seminal paper, The Unconscious, in which he described the workings of the unknown recesses of the mind. To this day, psychoanalysts seek to understand further what the contents of the unconscious are, and how they affect us.
 
We are all familiar with the relatively benign manifestations of the unconscious: dreams, slips of the tongue, unintended actions, forgetting, or flashes of odd fantasies are common occurences. But the unconscious can also have other, less benign manifestations, that lead people to seek help: symptoms that they cannot understand, nor control. Freud's genius was to describe, and find a way to access, a part of the mind so removed from conscious awareness.
 
To celebrate the centenary of publication of The Unconscious, the Freud Museum in London is running “The Festival of the Unconscious” in which, among many other installations, Freud’s extensive collection of antiquities will be exposed. Collecting and the symbolism of antiquities are nodal points in Freud’s conception of the mind and are often revealing about the collector’s unconscious…
 
In the following article, a Freudian scholar delves into the matter.
 
Read the article.

(0) 18/06/2015 11:21h International Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

Introduction to psychoanalysis

 
This film outlines the main discoveries and findings of psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud, about the structure and functioning of the psyche, and about the nature of mental illness and of psychological disturbances in general.
 
It’s presented by Otto Kernberg, possibly the most well-know psychoanalyst alive, who has often come to teach psychoanalysis in Madrid. He is a professor of psychiatry at Cornell University Medical School, Training Analyst at Columbia University Centre for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and also the director of the Institute for the Study of Personality Disorders at Cornell University.
 
This film is divided into the following five main points, which are briefly summarized here below.
 
Three clinical cases to understand basic concepts of psychoanalysis:

  1. Depressive –– young woman who had problems in her relationships with men, deeply worried about people being critical of her, suffered from chronic sense of insecurity.
  2. Obsessive-compulsive –– young man, excessively friendly, perfectionistic, tense with people in authority, tended to submit to them and then exploded when he felt dominated,
  3. Oedipal constellation –– young man who loved his girlfriend very much, but he was unable to function sexually with her, he had serious sexual inhibitions that he did not have with women with whom he had casual sex.

 
The dynamic nature of the mind:

  1. In the first case, the main defence mechanism is projection –– attributing to others her own feelings.
  2. In the second case, the main defence mechanism is reaction formation –– development of behaviour opposite to what one feels.
  3. In the third case, the main defence mechanism is repression of sexual feelings towards who he loves and splitting –– separating sexual feelings from love.

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(0) 04/06/2015 15:14h Uncategorized

Questions about psychoanalysis: the Oedipus Complex and Masochism

Questions about psychoanalysis

A reader of the Revista Psicoanalítica de Madrid asked a number of interesting questions about the article “The Strata of Being”. Since they could be useful for people interested in psychoanalysis, here are the questions and the answers. For reasons of simplicity we will use the generic masculine pronoun.
 
Questions:
 
I’d like to know more about the Oedipus Complex and masochism, subjects that you talk about in your article. I’ll transcribe the paragraphs where you refer to these subjects and then I’ll formulate specific questions.
 
Page 86:  “…(S. Freud) opens the field with his conception of a drive-based unconscious where the forces of sexuality, aggressiveness, narcissism and its ideals, mourning and the great relational organizer, Oedipus, inhabit an unknown world, ruled by principles that escape the bounds of logic and that will be severely frustrated by reality.”
 

  • What are you referring to when you say “the great relational organizer, Oedipus”? Could you develop that idea?
  • I also have another question… when you say:“that will be severely frustrated by reality”… firstly, I was struck by the word severely… and secondly, does this frustration have to do with human development or with life in general?

 
Page 92:“I believe that, in part, this is achieved as the patient introjects the experience that psychic suffering is not gratuitous pain ––nor is it the erotic pleasure of masochists–– but rather that tolerating it and working through it allows him to be who he is.”
 
I’d like to know more about the erotic pleasure of masochists. On page 90 you discuss Freud’s hypothesis on primary masochism…
 

  • What is the good object?
  • How can one identify a masochist? Is it someone who eroticizes pain because their mental apparatus cannot tolerance suffering?
  • If this is the case, could you give me a concrete example?

 
Answers:

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(0) 26/05/2015 12:20h International Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

Psychoanalysis and fanaticism: a conference in Madrid

Fanaticism-Psychoanalysis

Introduction to Fanatical Mental Functioning
 
Conference given at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 8th of April, 2015
 
 
Definition:
 
Fanaticism is a belief or a behaviour that implies an a-critical and zealous attitude towards political, religious or ideological causes, and that insists on very strict standards with no tolerance for different ideas or opinions. The fanatic knows that The Truth is on his side and he hates any other point of view. This said, we must not forget that we all need certain irrational beliefs and convictions in order to function in our lives and we can all become a little fanatic when our beliefs are questioned.
 
Etymology of the term:
 
The word fanatic etymologically comes from the Latin word “fanum”, the Roman temple where the oracles went. It was in these temples that the cult of the goddess “Ma Bellone” was celebrated. She was a figure of Roman mythology, the goddess of war, who represented the horrors of war more than the heroic aspects. The sooth-sayers that interpreted the omens, and the goddess’s priests, inspired by the divine, would whip themselves up into an ecstatic religious frenzy where they would contort themselves furiously, cutting themselves with swords and axes, letting their blood flow. These sooth-sayers were called the “fanatici”. “Fanum” also has the same root as “vates”, the prophet, and the “fanum” is the place of prophecy. The cult of “Ma Bellone”, was later incorporated into the cult of Cybele, the cult of war and patriotism. Devoted to a goddess, the “fanaticus” speaks in her name and with her authority.
 
We should note that, at first, the word “fanaticus” was not pejorative, the “fanatici”, with their feverish contortions and religious fervour, were the means through which divine wishes and destiny could be known. It was only later that their agitated states and incoherence were deemed suspicious by Christianity and little by little they were lumped together with paganism, Muslims and certain branches of Christianity.
 
Two kinds of fanatics:
 
Our colleague Manuel Martínez talked about this last month so I’ll be brief. We can distinguish between the original fanatic, the fanaticizing one, and the induced fanatic, who is fanaticized by the original one. The former has the authority that allows him to give his troops (the induced fanatics) the right to overcome the inhibitions created by their moral consciousness. A clear example of this, among many others, is hitlerism, where people who in other circumstances would never have committed those acts were led to commit them. The mental structure of the original fanatic is more complex, more twisted, than that of his followers. The induced fanatics are usually conformists who by associating themselves to the original fanatic can express their sadism without feeling guilt. They seek security by associating themselves with someone perceived to be omnipotent but that security will fall apart sooner or later because the circle of enemies never stops growing and the paranoid system ends up defeating them. The original fanatic is someone who has an enormous, invasive personality with a tendency to make it all about him, obsessed with power and close to being delusional. The induced fanatic is someone who seeks to fuse with a group, lose his individuality and just be part of a greater mechanism.

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(0) 05/05/2015 11:50h Psychoanalysis in Madrid, Psychoanalyst in Madrid

Fiction and wishes: the representations of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis

Representations-of-psychoanalysis

Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis appear quite often in films, series and books, sometimes to add depth to a character, sometimes as the main subject of the story, and other times as a comedic aside.
 
This is all a part of the writers’ creative material and it can turn out to be very effective narratively. We are moved, for instance, when we discover the unsuspected fragility of a character, or we marvel at the psychoanalyst’s phenomenal insight, and we often delight in the fact that we’re entering into forbidden territory, the analyst’s office, protected by the strictest professional secret. On top of all this, we’ll frequently see the portrayal of intriguing and scandalous transgressions of deontology.
 
All of these representations are perfectly legitimate as narrative resources and thankfully psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are not treated as sacred objects that could only be approached with the greatest reverence.
 
However, this phenomenon could also spark our curiosity since we’ll often find that the same themes repeat themselves in these representations –– themes, we will notice, that have very little to do with reality. Indeed, the representations of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, especially in audio-visual media, are full of entirely fictitious situations. What are they, and where do they come from? Why are they so often repeated?
 
We will also observe what seems to be the extreme difficulty of representing therapeutic work in a way that is more or less true to reality. It is highly unusual for it to be realistically portrayed, apart from a few rare exceptions that are generally no more than pale approximations. Must we conclude, then, that it is indeed impossible to represent, in audio-visual media, the complexity, the honesty and the human depth of psychoanalysis in a way that could interest a viewer?
 
Let us attempt to answer these questions; we’ll begin with the themes that repeat themselves and see why they do.
 
Fiction: the omniscience of the psychoanalyst
 
When a psychoanalyst is represented in a film or in a series it is not unusual for us to be astounded by her unbelievable insight when she is faced with what, in principle, seems to be a patient who presents very complex and challenging difficulties with a long history. Without us being able to follow her deductive processes, the psychoanalyst reaches a miraculous understanding of the problem; the patient, thunderstruck, is profoundly moved, and his entire life changes from that moment onwards. 

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(0) 11/11/2014 10:12h Psychoanalyst in Madrid