Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse: Band 78: Konzeptualisierungen – Verstehen und Nicht-Verstehen

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• Ursula Ostendorf: Identifizierung und Konzeptualisierung – ein schwieriges wie notwendiges Wechselspiel von intuitivem Fühlen und zuordnendem Verstehen
  

  Abstract

  Two seemingly controversial processes, identification and conceptualisation, are portrayed in their interaction. The work of the psychoanalytic process that Meltzer likens – in a useful metaphor – to the playing of a musician who in the depth of his mind falls back on his artistic virtuosity, can face challenges under the pressure of projective identification. Detailed clinical material is used to trace the dynamics in this process.

• Victor Sedlak: Der analytische Prozess und die »Ich-Ideale« des Analytikers
  

  Abstract

  This paper explores the effects of the psychoanalyst’s »ego ideals« on the analytic process. The author describes the history of the concept of the »ego ideal« and suggests that the analyst has to manage a conflict between what is termed a psychoanalytical »ego ideal« and a reparative »ego ideal«. The analyst’s unconscious motivation in wishing to do clinical work and the identifications that are appropriated in the analyst’s development are considered. The clinical importance of these deliberations is illustrated with examples.

• Jutta Gutwinski-Jeggle: Pathologische subjektive Überzeugungen: Über Funktion und Wirksamkeit bewusster und unbewusster Phantasien
  

  Abstract

  Based on a case history that deals with a subjective misconception in the sense of a pathological conviction of the patient which severely limited his quality of life, it is hypothesized that the negative self-attribution, which is based on a real, conscious experience during schooling, can be understood as a defense against unconscious infantile emotional experiences which serves to avoid the reliving of traumatic states. Early, unbearable, incomprehensible, barely-represented states were split off, transcribed and fixed in the all-shielding construction of the pathological belief to be stupid. The analytical process develops and shows how, furthered by a meaningful dream (in the sense of Quinodoz’ »dreams that turn over a page«) it gradually succeeds in gaining emotional access to the split-off layers, enabling a working-through into which the analyst inevitably gets drawn, thus having to endure the patient’s agony in the countertransference before a growing understanding and transformation of the unconscious process can eventually occur. A theoretical foray sets out the conceptual context which has contributed to the background of understanding for the clinical work.

• Bernd Nissen: Es ist keine Schande zu hinken ... Zum psychoanalytischen Verstehen und Nichtverstehen
  

  Abstract

  Change processes in the psyche can be conceptualized as sublation processes. Such sublation requires a punctuation in the moment of presence in which a reality is about to come into being. Unrepresented states, like hallucinations, actual traumas or forms of breakdown are without link to a verbal representation and only come into their name in the moment of presence. A clinical example is presented that was not, as usual, worked upon after the fact based on secured knowledge but is being put forward for discussion based on the current (unstable) state of knowing – a conceptualization in »statu nascendi«. A set of symptoms that can count as a mild perversion but may also be approached as unrepresented material, be it hallucinated or actual. The author poses the question whether breakdowns can exist in the field of the oedipal

• Hermann Erb: Konzeptualisieren als ein fortwährend stattfindender Prozess – Über das Verflochtensein von Wahrnehmen, Deuten und Konzeptualisieren
  

  Abstract

  Conceptualising is viewed as a complex process which evolves in numerous small steps which range from immediate and only partially conscious conceptualisations of a momentary situation in the session, the consideration of sequences across sessions later on, to long-term reflexions on apparently unremarkable transference-countertransference constellations. This is shown in vignettes from an initial interview and the subsequent psychoanalysis, whereby some of the underlying psychoanalytic concepts become apparent.

• Claudia Thußbas: Veränderungen psychoanalytisch verstehen
  

  Abstract

  In this article, concepts such as »synchronization«, »self-efficacy« and »repetition compulsion« are used to describe a psychoanalytic treatment process. In addition, the idea of the moment of meeting is used to conceptualize remarkable sessions that can become turning points in the analytical process. The concepts are alternately defined and used to describe the process of a high-frequency psychoanalysis. This approach is intended to verify their fit for the psychoanalytic understanding of changes in a selected individual case. The advantage of these concepts is that they allow both conscious and unconscious processes to be described. They also include a time dimension that is required to describe psychoanalytical processes.

• Marilia Aisenstein: Konzeptualisierungen in der Psychoanalyse – Destruktivität und Masochismus, klinische Fragen und theoretische Herausforderungen
  

  Abstract

  To demonstrate that psychoanalysis requires theories and different levels of conceptualization to understand clinical facts, the author refers to two cases where inner destructiveness is very present and leads to death. She proposes a detour through Freudian theories on destructiveness, masochism and deathdrive deepened by comments by André Green and Pierre Marty and refers to recent studies in immunology.

• Eva Schmid-Gloor: Melancholie und »entliehenes Schuldgefühl«
  

  Abstract

  The author links the concept of ›borrowed guilt‹ with reflections about melancholia and the relation between melancholia and breakdown which has been discussed by U. May, B. Nissen and J. Press in previous volumes of the ›Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse‹. ›Borrowed guilt‹ can be understood as belonging to the melancholic defense organisation, which represents an illusory ›attempt at a healing process‹, described by J. Press. A case presentation shows how ›borrowed guilt feelings‹ emerge inside a traumatic interaction with the object. They prevent the subject from integrating pain and disillusion. ›Borrowed guilt‹ can be understood as a phantasmatic process of incorporation and should be distinguished from introjection. Incorporation is understood as a phantasmatic attempt to cover the wound of a traumatic loss, whereas introjection is linked to drive-integration and can be seen as a successful overcoming of a traumatic event.

• Mariana Schütt: Auf den Spuren Freuds. Zur psychischen Eigenzeit bei Adorno
  

  Abstract

  In his negative-dialectical theory of society, Adorno engages with the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. The metapsychological terms of the unconscious and the drive play a crucial role in formulating a constitutive gap between society and the subject. In my article, I will lay down one motif of Adorno’s, which I would like to capture with the term of a specific psychic temporality. The temporality of the present does not fully encompass the subject. I will examine the ontogenetic and phylogenetic dimensions of this phenomenon, as well as the question of mediation between them.

Karl-Abraham-Vorlesung:

• Riccardo Steiner: Erste Versuche britischer Psychoanalytiker, die gesellschaftlichen Probleme ihrer Zeit zu analysieren
  
  Abstract

  This is a reduced version of a paper I wrote for the Karl Abraham Lecture in Berlin, May 2018. The paper tries to stress the importance of what I call the »Berlin connection« of the British analysts during the twenties, thirties and forties of the last century. Jones’s thinking on war and other social issues and particularly Glover’s famous book on ›War, Sadism and Pacifism‹ have strong links with Berlin and particularly with the work of Abraham. Fenichel polemics with Glover and its hidden complex implications are mentioned and studied. Trough the way Klein absorbed and developed Abraham’s work I try to show that the »Berlin connection« had noticeable importance even for the work of Money-Kyrle and others on social and political issues during the post second worldwar period. Today it is still helpful to refer to the issues I studied in this paper when trying to understand war, racism, emigration and other social issues using psychoanalysis.