Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse: Band 17

Beiträge zum 34. Kongress der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung:

• R. Horacio Etchegoyen: Identifikationsschicksale
  Abstract

  Mit einem grundlegenden historischen Ansatz versucht diese Arbeit, zu einem Verständnis von Identifikationsschicksalen sowie den Koordinaten des Narzißmus und der Objektbeziehungen zu gelangen. Als erstes wird das dialektische Paar primäre/sekundäre Identifizierung untersucht und mit der Hypothese des primären Narzißmus als zugehörige Deutungsmöglichkeit aufgestellt. Anschließend werden die komplexen Identifizierungsprozesse der Urszene betrachtet und die Bedeutung der Introjektion der ödipalen Eltern für die Bildung des Überichs betont. Zur Erklärung der Identifizierungen, die den psychischen Apparat organisieren, wird der Stellenwert, den der Ödipuskomplex einnimmt, erörtert sowie ein Vergleich des frühen Ödipuskomplexes mit der präödipalen Phase unternommen - zwei alternative Theorien, die unserer Meinung nach dieselben Phänomene zu deuten suchen. Die Bedeutung der strukturierenden Funktion von Introjektions- und Projektionsmechanismen wird in das Konzept der projektiven Identifikation aufgenommen, das dem genetischen Rahmen der Positionstheorie entstammt und das Postulat des primären Narzißmus in Frage stellt, wobei dieses Prinzip durch eines ersetzt wird, in dem die Objektbeziehung von Anfang an vorhanden ist, und das Ich und der Raum per definitionem existieren. Die Theorie der projektiven-introjektiven Identifikation ist ein äußerst wirksames Instrument zur Erklärung von Phänomenen, und sie erweist sich als höchst kontrastfähig in der klinischen Arbeit. Sie zwingt einen jedoch dazu, zu akzeptieren, daß sich die ersten Introjektionen radikal von den anderen unterscheiden. Man gelangt also zu dem Schluß, daß diese mit Trauer nichts zu tun haben, sondern eher mit primitiven Mechanismen, die die Subjekt-Objekt-Polarität in Frage stellen, und die im Grunde genommen dem Neid entspringen, wie der Autor glaubt. Es wird schließlich die Meinung vertreten, daß Neid und Libido Faktoren einer Dialektik sind, aus der die Objektbeziehung und die frühesten Identifizierungsprozesse vor dem Ödipuskomplex gleichzeitig hervorgehen.
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• Mark Kanzer: Identifikationsschicksale Buy article
• Daniel H. Widlöcher: Der Identifizierungswunsch und seine strukturellen Wirkungen im Werke Freuds Buy article
• Erich Simenauer: Über Identifizierung im Ensemble von Theorie und Praxis
  Abstract

  The concept of identification appears to have developed gradually to embrace a multitude of related psychoanalytical notions. It is therefore considered pertinent to attempt a re-valuation of their mechanism. For this purpose a historically orientated approach will be appropriate to demonstrate the ways identification has taken from a general concept to a more comprehensive reference-system within the psychic apparatus. In his initial endeavors Freud already differentiated meaning and function of identification in the framework of different pathological conditions, each according to the changing phases of psycho-sexual development. The original choice of object in the infant is coupled with his narcissism; identification is always but a partial one and from the beginning ambivalent as identification and choice of object are mutually dependent from each other. Both determine the outcome of the mechanisms involved if object loss occurs, and in this context Freud understood the establishment and the relationships to the superego. He also sets forth that identification is more than a mechanism: it is through identification that the individual is being constituted, it protects the burgeoning ego from destruction by projection and expulsion of its bad portions. This notion culminated in M. Klein’s ideas of a projective identification and various other metapsychological extensions. Ego Splitting assumes a heightened meaning in her concept of the paranoid-schizoid position. The individual projects not only fantasies and impulses into the object but also parts of its self; in this process it becomes capable of using and understanding symbols. From her derivations ramifications into the realm of thought-processes ensue, which are commented upon here, with the inclusion of some language researches. It is shown that Melanie Klein’s and her school’s concepts of thought processes are in line with Freud’s views and encompass a legitimate expansion of Freud’s paper »Negation« (Freud 1925). The author then attempts at enlarging the traditional notion of identification by extending it to an »autoplastic« one. Autoplastic identification aims at pointing to autochthon intrapersonal processes and to the part individual heredetary factors are playing in them. It concerns one’s own identity before any modification has taken place by the generally accepted mechanisms of (alloplastic) identification. Proceeding with this inquiry, an episode from an analysis is taken for illustration. The paper concludes with a discussion of the death-instinct in the writings of Klein and her followers.
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Klinische Beiträge:

• Wolfgang Loch: Anmerkungen zu Pathogenese und Psychodynamik der Hysterie
  Abstract

  la) Leaving out of consideration the well-known hysterical symptoms described by clinical psychopathology, hysterics display the following behavioural traits: b) they manipulate others - e. g. producing sympathy, being seductive, evoking guilt feelings, bring about quarries among the people of their environment; c) they claim to be victims of bad influences, cruel circumstances (evil spirits, i. e. devils, false education, disadvantageous social conditions.). As to the various »cliches« used for such purposes it is easy to demonstrate that these are offered by the »Zeitgeist« in itself expression of the dominant overall conditions and tendencies of the age. Hysterics seen under such a perspective play specific roles exerting thus considerable power because by evoking in their relationships traits which interlock with their own they stabilize the cultural structure of their age because the lived interactions lead to a reciprocal affirmation of the roles and the ruling self understanding of the participants. 2) It can easily be shown that the afore-named phenomena take place under the coverage of repression. 3) Repressed are: a) early sexual seductions; b) masturbatory actions the accompanying fantasy-systems of which are linked to the »primary other« (S. Freud). 4) In connections with (3) the specific significance of »deferred action« is discussed, and it is stressed that its investigation sheds light upon the often neglected »time of repression« (S. Freud). 5) It is underscored that repression is correlated to the dynamic unconscious which reveals itself in perverse fantasies, in autoplastic symptoms and in interpersonals struggles. 6) The common denominator of all hysterical manifestations is ultimately to be seen in sado-masochistic relationships which are of a »phallic-vaginal« character. This has its basis in the fact that hysterics have reached in the unconscious but not in their consciousness the phallic-genital level of the psychosexual Organization. In the unconscious the »natural modality« of the Organization of experience and memory proceeds according to the »second level of the registration of memory traces« (S. Freud). 7) The sado-masochistic phallic-vaginal relation has not only its basis in the organizational level of memory traces but (once established) serves the purpose to gain a connection to reality - though in a distorted way - because in itself it precludes a secure and satisfactory relationship to the primary object which all hysterics are yearning for. 8) Because of the importance of this latter phenomenon on the analysis of hysterics should strive to provide conditions that permit the hysterics to experience optimal participation in the analytic process and in the working of the analyst. The best guarantee to achieve this is - and here is no fundamental difference to psycho-analytical treatment on the whole - »correct« analysis of resistance and transference on the basis of an attitude of reliability and truthfulness which precludes any kind of manipulations and acting-in by the analyst. In the course of such a process the analyst becomes a constant libidinous object, and the analyst by participation may become aware of his »emotional truth« (W. R. Bion) and find access to his »meaning creating capacity« (M. Eigen), releasing him from a barren repetition compulsion that he may find new meanings and therefore new ways of living.
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• Helmut Thomä / Horst Kächele: Zur Theorie und Praxis der Gegenübertragung
  Abstract

  The revision of the theory of countertransference over the last few decades has played a particularly practical and important part in the profound changes in psychoanalysis. Balint’s two-person-psychology and the intersubjective interpretation of psychoanalytical therapy have rendered the seeing of a relationship system in transference and countertransference inevitable, »whereby the one factor is the function of the other one« (Loch 1965, p. 15). Although Freud too had held countertransference to be the influence of the patient on the unconscious feeling of the analyst, he believed for practical and scientific reasons that countertransference should be reduced to a minimum, and he saw the not least important task of training analysis in purifying the analytical mirror of blind spots. Thus countertransference received a generally negative estimation, far beyond the self-evident view that the analyst should free himself from the limitations of his own complexes. Countertransference came to be the epitome of subjective, therapeutically questionable and scientifically dubious influencing of the patient by the analyst. As emotional reactions of the analyst to the patient are unavoidable, then the negative estimation of countertransference led to a kind of denial, which Ferenczi (1918) described as the resistance of the analyst to his countertransference. It is obvious that this resistance limits perception both of the seif and of the other. Ferenczi described how the ability of the analyst to master his countertransference inside himself is limited. It was thirty years before P. Heimann (1950) emphasized the diagnostic and therapeutic importance of countertransference. Then there followed a sudden change to the other extreme: countertransference was declared the be-all and end-all in the process of understanding in the analyst. In Freud’s mirror analogy of the psychoanalytical insight ideally no countertransference should have any effect. Countertransference came to be the comprehensive empathy organ of perception. Training analysis was now to serve the purifying of the mirror with a different objective: the more completely the analyst was able to recognize his own feelings as the projective creation of the patient, the less important his own subjective contributions seemed to be. The resulting polarizations - on the one hand Freud’s mirror free of countertransference, on the other the fiction of countertransference as a perfect organ of insight - can be overcome. Here we are concerned with much more than a compromise in the sense of the happy medium. The intersubjectivity of the therapeutic process forms and influences both the phenomena of transference and countertransference. Following Habermas and Sandler we are presenting a dramaturgic model for therapeutic exchange. In reflecting on the re-enactment and the roleresponsiveness of the analyst those clarifications are brought about which are generally described as insights. At the same time the analyst integrates what he feels towards and thinks of the patient at a given moment, his reflections referring to many aspects of a continuous process. The extent to which the analyst allows the patient to take part in his reflections on transference and particularly on countertransference is a question which cannot be given a final answer. It is of course indisputable that even the analyst is moved and irritated by sexual and aggressive fantasies of his patient. This is why we suggest that this truth be acknowledged from the beginning in a general sense, but at the same time the professional task, i. e. the inner assimilation of the countertransference, should be stressed. It is here and not in confessions that we see the task of the analyst, which has not been changed by the concept’s extension. On the contrary, the responsibility for his personal and theoretical attitude has grown even greater over the last few decades. This is particularly valid for the decision to inform the patient of a special affective countertransference reaction. On the basis of two-person-psychology the psychoanalytical method has, in our opinion, come to be therapeutically more productive. The acknowledgement of mutual influence in our time has endowed Freud’s revolutionary scientific paradigma with new importance, which has also transformed daily practice. The universal view of countertransference marked a polarizing step in development, which lies behind us and is being replaced by a genuinely intersubjective view. Now and in the future it is a matter of a differentiated consideration of the attitude of the analyst toward the patient, which is just as much determined by affective and cognitive processes as by the theory that the therapeutic action of the analyst leaves its mark.
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• Ludwig Haesler: Zur Psychodynamik der Anniversary Reactions
  Abstract

  Anniversary reactions are regressive phenomena of various kind that clinically become manifest at the time of a specific ›anniversary‹ due to the actualization of specific anniversary-related identifications and introjections. These are resulting from 1. disorders of the separation-development, 2. conflictuous involvement with significant objects and the subsequent intensity of shame and/or guilt, 3. trauma and its sequels, 4. object loss by change, Separation and death. In most cases of anniversary reactions these conditions can be observed to be active in combination. The specific role of calendaric time and dates in actualization of conflict or trauma is related to a specific magic affinity to numbers and dates. Thus, one should not, as is often done, speak of an ›unconscious sense of time‹ active in anniversary reactions, - a concept that is contradicting basic assumptions of the unconscious - , but of an ,unconscious sense of date'. This either leads to a conscious preoccupation with ›critical dates‹ by manner of anancastic defence, and/or to an unconscious struggle with (unconscious) time-symbols that are dealt with in the same manner as time and time-related numbers are dealt with in the »arithmetics of dream« (Freud). In a considerable number of anniversary reactions, though, the actualization of trauma or conflict is not resulting from calendaric categories of time and date but from specific processes of Gestalt-perception, i. e., by identity of perception of a Gestalt-constellation of the present and a (conflictuous or traumatic) memory-/perception-Gestalt of the past. Strictly speaking, this form of anniversary reaction is an anniversary reaction without an anniversary (in a calendric sense); the relation to the category of calendaric time is, in these cases, only secondarily established by the interpretative process. As anniversary reactions very often represent points of crystalization of dynamically central conflicts anniversary reactions are of considerable importance to the diagnostic and therapeutic process. The specific dynamic relevance of the anniversary constellation is best developed by analysis of the actual »Here and Now«, of the transference-countertransference-dynamics.
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Beiträge zur Geschichte der Psychoanalyse:

• Sigmund Freuds: Briefe an seine Patientin Anna v. Vest, herausgegeben von Stefan Goldmann Buy article
• Stefan Goldmann: Eine Kur aus der Frühzeit der Psychoanalyse. Kommentar zu Freuds Briefen an Anna v. Vest
  Abstract

  Alongside the reconstruction of the biography of the patient 24 letters of Freud are presented, which he had written to her between 1903 and 1908, and 1918 and 1926. The patient, who had suffered from an abasia-syndrom for many years, consulted Freud in 1903 and underwent psychoanalytical treatment for one year. Freud’s handling of transference love and the severing of the analysand from the analyst are at the centre of the first part of the correspondence. With reference to Freud’s method of treatment, which is disclosed in »The Origins of Psycho-Analysis«, the author emphasizes Freud’s pedagogic attitude, which is committed to the Enlightenment and endowed the will with considerable influence on the illness processes of the body. The second part of the correspondence is marked by Freud’s remarkable frankness in his communications, which is rooted in mutual amicable interest. As the defence character, which lay in transference love and in the intellectualisation of the conditions of illness, had not been considered in the psychotherapeutic concept, an unsolved remnant of the analysis remained, which led to sporadic relapses and made a re-analysis necessary in 1925.
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• Sander L. Gilman: Das jüdische Witzbuch. Sigmund Freud und die verborgene Sprache der Juden
  Abstract

  Freud’s study of wit centers about his collection of »Jewish jokes.« The tradition of ethnic humor in Germany forms the background to this collection and shapes its direction. Freud’s own ambiguous relationship to his Jewish identity, and the implications of this identity in terms of its relationship to the language of narration also are mirrored in the language of the »Jewish joke.« The historical context of this idea of language is part of the history of western anti-Semitism and the Jewish response to this tradition.
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149. Bulletin der Internationalen Psychoanalytischen Vereinigung

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