Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse: Band 54: Psychoanalyse von Zwangskranken

• Claudia Frank: »Going «sideways». The Breaking-off of an Analysis by a Patient with an obsessional Disorder after having reached Freedom of Symptoms (article in German)
  Abstract

  The efficacy of psychoanalytic treatment of obsessional neurosis is discussed controversially in the contemporary literature. The author reflects on the often negative countertransference manifestations in connection with thinking disorders which are often met during those psychoanalyses. She reports about a treatment of a 27-year-old patient whose obsessional symptoms had increasingly reduced her scope. After 10 months the patient left analysis without having any more symptoms. On the one hand the patient – as a late adolescent – was able to make an important developmental step; on the other hand, it becomes clear what had to be avoided by breaking off.
• Cyril Couve: Obsessional Dread of the Dead: The Relations between obsessional and schizoid Organisations (article in German)
  Abstract

  In this paper the author holds the view that it is possible and advantageous to formulate a theoretical framework which relies both on the central tenets of the classical viewpoint on obsessive-compulsive disorders and also on the not-so-well-known early views of Melanie Klein on obsessional mechanisms and her later notion of the obsessional defence as an alternative to the manic defence. With this enlarged conception he proceeds to explore the way in which a patient suffering from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder made use of an obsessional organisation to organise and to deal with an underlying fragmented psychic universe owing to the operation of pathological schizoid mechanisms. He develops the hypothesis that the severity of the obsessional disorder bears a direct relation to the severity of the underlying schizoid mechanisms. He also shows how the anal-sadistic symbolic register gives a more advanced symbolic shape and plausibility to an underlying psychic landscape dominated by fragmentation and bizarre objects and in which symbolisation has been drastically affected by the operation of pathological projective identification and forms of fragmentary splitting. In this way the author addresses the issue of the inherent difficulty of getting hold of the pathological core in severe obsessive-compulsive disorders.
• Hermann Erb: When Nothing is allowed to change – theoretical and technical Aspects in the Analysis of an obsessional Patient (article in German)
  Abstract

  I have tried to investigate into a typical transference-countertransference situation in the analysis of an obsessional patient. The roots can be found, I believe, in the consequences of an overwhelming and fragmenting (psychotic) inner attack caused by the awareness of the primal scene, and the failing anal control of the resulting bizarre objects. Powerful projective processes are at work which submit the analyst to a similar state of mind and contain the risk of a continuous sado-masochistic collusion. In my opinion, the technique of interpretation has to take into consideration that the addressed primitive part of the personality is incapable of a wider orientation in time and, therefore, one must address the immediate experience of the patient in the session.
• Hans Asseyer: The Exclusion of the Other. A clinical Contribution to an Object-Relations Theory of obsessional Defence (article in German)
  Abstract

  The author attempts to describe the specific relational disorder, which characterises obsessional defence, discussing several theoretical considerations and a detailed case history. He takes up the notion of countercathexis to explain one central characteristic: the gulf between internal and external reality to maintain the taboo on touching which was stressed by Freud. It is the result of premature pathological achievement of autonomy with the attempt to banish the mother from the internal psychic space. Due to this banishment there exists a splitting between a narcissistic omnipotent internal world, which is shielded from the external world, and external relationships, which are shaped by the effort to adapt and to control. There is a polarisation between internal and external objects which are not allowed to touch each other in order to stall regressive wishes as well as destructive tendencies. The therapeutic relationship is characterised by the patient’s fear that the analyst could intrude into his internal psychic space. Therefore, he tries to prevent empathy and understanding. The case history shows the different stages of the treatment with the help of sessions, which reveal the structural development – starting from a concretistic level of delusional projections, over the attempt of splitting reality and phantasy to the gradual arising capacity to use symbolisation for the internal discussion.
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Klinik der Psychoanalyse:

• Vic Sedlak: «And what is it you do?» – Depression and the Super-Ego (article in German)
  Abstract

  The author uses detailed clinical material to present two cases that were marked by significant degrees of self destructiveness. It is argued that this destructiveness is contemporaneously destructive of psychoanalytical endeavour and that the degree to which this fact can be faced is an indicator of therapeutic outcome. The author concludes by discussing how further psychoanalytical understanding may enable a more beneficial therapeutic outcome in intransigent cases.
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Angewandte Psychoanalyse:

• Léon Wurmser: Psychoanalytic Considerations on September 11, Terrorism, and genocidal Prejudice – Origins and Consequences (article in German)
  Abstract

  The terror acts of 9/11 (and similar ones all over the globe) reveal depths of hatred and hint at buried, but virulent anxiety in the perpetrators that originate in personal, societal, cultural, and historical humiliation and shame, loss of selfrespect and of dignity. The aggression unleashed is ascribed to varied external motives, but at the same time the resentment is an inner force of enormous destructivity. Profound questions arise about the response – both with regard to the traumatized individuals, families and communities, and to military and political reactions, and what their psychodynamic meanings are. How does one fight against terror and prevent new attacks without engendering new shame and injustice and thus contributing to the vicious cycle of humiliation  resentment  violence  new injustice? To remedy the causes is one thing, often incredibly difficult, how to respond to imminent danger is another. After a few brief introductory remarks defining terrorism, these considerations begin from the side of the victims and their therapists, then proceed to the psychoanalytically informed studies of perpetrators, and end with some broader cultural and philosophical analyses of 9/11 and its background and finish with some psychoanalytic conclusions by the author.
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Freud als Briefschreiber:

• Gerhard Fichtner: «... eine schmerzhafte Schilderung der brutalen Umwälzung in Deutschland". Ein Brief Freuds an seinen Sohn Ernst aus dem Jahre 1934 Buy article

In memoriam:

Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel 1928–2006.

Inhaltsverzeichnis und Summaries (PDF-Download, 97 kB)