Despite the extensive literature on suicide, writings on the psychological strain of bereavement ... more Despite the extensive literature on suicide, writings on the psychological strain of bereavement after suicide and the related loss or distortion of self-concept following the suicide of a beloved are less extensive. To outlive the suicide of a loved one entails further complications to the grieving process, which is already widely recognized as a challenging event. Such an event is ineffably traumatic, as “suicide retroactively invalidates the relationship” between patient and beloved, confronting one with the unbearable revelation that one “was not worth living for” (Atwood, 2011, p. 9). This paper attempts to illustrate the importance of understanding the body and the self as malleable, invested objects. The treatment of traumatized patients involves the redrawing of body frontiers, and the subsequent reassurance that the body, once delineated and inhabited, will not betray its host. Here Lacan’s notion of little object a (Sauvagnat, 2005) and Winnicott's concept of the transitional object (Tustin, 1994) are quite useful to distinguish anxieties related to loss of an externalized object, and the incorporated or reabsorbed object whose cruel proximity threatens the internal integrity of body experience. We find the movement towards mourning can be complicated by the melancholic incorporation of the deceased, especially in cases of suicide, as the volitional nature of such acts retroactively disrupts life narratives, forcing one not only to create new answers to questions of who and what one was for the other who chose death, but also giving new connotations to one's prior encounters with death. Clinical experience has given me a new understanding of the possibility of bodiless patients. To have a body is painful, and when the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune exceed one’s tolerance, one can always resort to the early abdication of the body. Fainting from pain is not an uncommon occurrence. Just as a body can be mindless, so a mind can renounce its body, though not without causing chaos of thinking. The cases I will describe illustrate the reinvestment in a body towards the beginning of analysis.
This paper explores the evolving definition of the term ‘unconscious’ in late twentieth century F... more This paper explores the evolving definition of the term ‘unconscious’ in late twentieth century French psychoanalysis: structuralist, real, and enunciative. Each hypothetic definition of the unconscious employs a rather different reading of Freud’s discovery of the divided nature of subjective reality, adopting different approaches to the question of trace permanence and strangeness. The paper argues that an assessment of the sequence of Lacanian theories of the unconscious should be understood against the backdrop of discontinuous progress as conceptualised by French historical epistemology.
Historically the therapeutic method of psychoanalysis has been excluded from the domain of scienc... more Historically the therapeutic method of psychoanalysis has been excluded from the domain of science. In his recent book, 'Pourquoi la psychanalyse est une science', Guenaël Visentini addresses the epistemic status of psychoanalysis, arguing the status of truth and knowledge in science must be reevaluated if psychoanalysis is ever to approach the sciences. The scientific model of the Docta Ignorantia does orient the psychoanalytic clinic to the scientific method, and thus Visentini’s thesis “considers psychoanalysis as a minimal science”. He “poses the radical question to the analytic field: must the analytic field rid itself of a large portion of the erudition it has acquired and reorganize its knowledge more minimally?”
Lacan posits a separation, a minimal distance as the necessary condition for the other to provide... more Lacan posits a separation, a minimal distance as the necessary condition for the other to provide, through his radical difference, a norm of jouissance. Through his very exclusion, he acts as a foil in defining the semblance of man and woman and the sexual relation. Lacan warns that his proximity, however, is not without destabilizing effects. Especially in light of the actual decentralization of symbolic authority, which before offered a triangulating effect in the subject’s relation with the out-group party. With the faltering of this triangulation, a rise in racism would be one manner to maintain the semblance of norms despite the others proximity.
This article parallels Lacan’s critique of Copernicus’ heliocentric model as a structurally centr... more This article parallels Lacan’s critique of Copernicus’ heliocentric model as a structurally centric model and the critique of the model by the historians of science and philosophers from Alexandre Koyre to Otto Neugebauer. Lacan, as we know from his different texts and seminars, opposed the Copernicus’ spheric model to Kepler’s elliptical model of planetary motion: “Copernicus’ model involved an idealized static symbolic order. By continuing to refer to the orbs as avenues for the planets, he remained in the ancient perspective. There was no destabilizing intrusion of the gravitational real." We argue that there is an intimate relation between a given subject’s fantasy and the discoveries, scientific or otherwise, that he is ready to witness. Subjectivity thus seems to tint the entirety of his outlook on the world, scientific objectivity included.
In his écrit L’étourdit, Lacan develops a tripartite definition of the equivocal, distinguishing ... more In his écrit L’étourdit, Lacan develops a tripartite definition of the equivocal, distinguishing between the homophonic, grammatical, and logical. Psychoanalysis, being the praxis of alleviating unconscious symptoms via the semblance that is language, depends upon the equivocity of language. This paper elucidates these three forms of ambiguity in their relevance to the clinic and the end of analysis.
Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. & George E. Atwood, Ph.D.
The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphy... more Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. & George E. Atwood, Ph.D. The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphysicalizing of the Real
Fernanda Carrá-Salsberg, Ph.D. A Psychoanalytic Look into The Effects of Childhood and Adolescent Migration in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation
David Hafner, Ph.D. An Introduction to the Transference Unconscious
Rina Stah. Freedman, Ph.D. Cross-Cultural Treatment Issues in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Iurato, Ph.D. Book Review. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis
Anonymous Author, M.A. Book Review. Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents
Despite the extensive literature on suicide, writings on the psychological strain of bereavement ... more Despite the extensive literature on suicide, writings on the psychological strain of bereavement after suicide and the related loss or distortion of self-concept following the suicide of a beloved are less extensive. To outlive the suicide of a loved one entails further complications to the grieving process, which is already widely recognized as a challenging event. Such an event is ineffably traumatic, as “suicide retroactively invalidates the relationship” between patient and beloved, confronting one with the unbearable revelation that one “was not worth living for” (Atwood, 2011, p. 9). This paper attempts to illustrate the importance of understanding the body and the self as malleable, invested objects. The treatment of traumatized patients involves the redrawing of body frontiers, and the subsequent reassurance that the body, once delineated and inhabited, will not betray its host. Here Lacan’s notion of little object a (Sauvagnat, 2005) and Winnicott's concept of the transitional object (Tustin, 1994) are quite useful to distinguish anxieties related to loss of an externalized object, and the incorporated or reabsorbed object whose cruel proximity threatens the internal integrity of body experience. We find the movement towards mourning can be complicated by the melancholic incorporation of the deceased, especially in cases of suicide, as the volitional nature of such acts retroactively disrupts life narratives, forcing one not only to create new answers to questions of who and what one was for the other who chose death, but also giving new connotations to one's prior encounters with death. Clinical experience has given me a new understanding of the possibility of bodiless patients. To have a body is painful, and when the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune exceed one’s tolerance, one can always resort to the early abdication of the body. Fainting from pain is not an uncommon occurrence. Just as a body can be mindless, so a mind can renounce its body, though not without causing chaos of thinking. The cases I will describe illustrate the reinvestment in a body towards the beginning of analysis.
This paper explores the evolving definition of the term ‘unconscious’ in late twentieth century F... more This paper explores the evolving definition of the term ‘unconscious’ in late twentieth century French psychoanalysis: structuralist, real, and enunciative. Each hypothetic definition of the unconscious employs a rather different reading of Freud’s discovery of the divided nature of subjective reality, adopting different approaches to the question of trace permanence and strangeness. The paper argues that an assessment of the sequence of Lacanian theories of the unconscious should be understood against the backdrop of discontinuous progress as conceptualised by French historical epistemology.
Historically the therapeutic method of psychoanalysis has been excluded from the domain of scienc... more Historically the therapeutic method of psychoanalysis has been excluded from the domain of science. In his recent book, 'Pourquoi la psychanalyse est une science', Guenaël Visentini addresses the epistemic status of psychoanalysis, arguing the status of truth and knowledge in science must be reevaluated if psychoanalysis is ever to approach the sciences. The scientific model of the Docta Ignorantia does orient the psychoanalytic clinic to the scientific method, and thus Visentini’s thesis “considers psychoanalysis as a minimal science”. He “poses the radical question to the analytic field: must the analytic field rid itself of a large portion of the erudition it has acquired and reorganize its knowledge more minimally?”
Lacan posits a separation, a minimal distance as the necessary condition for the other to provide... more Lacan posits a separation, a minimal distance as the necessary condition for the other to provide, through his radical difference, a norm of jouissance. Through his very exclusion, he acts as a foil in defining the semblance of man and woman and the sexual relation. Lacan warns that his proximity, however, is not without destabilizing effects. Especially in light of the actual decentralization of symbolic authority, which before offered a triangulating effect in the subject’s relation with the out-group party. With the faltering of this triangulation, a rise in racism would be one manner to maintain the semblance of norms despite the others proximity.
This article parallels Lacan’s critique of Copernicus’ heliocentric model as a structurally centr... more This article parallels Lacan’s critique of Copernicus’ heliocentric model as a structurally centric model and the critique of the model by the historians of science and philosophers from Alexandre Koyre to Otto Neugebauer. Lacan, as we know from his different texts and seminars, opposed the Copernicus’ spheric model to Kepler’s elliptical model of planetary motion: “Copernicus’ model involved an idealized static symbolic order. By continuing to refer to the orbs as avenues for the planets, he remained in the ancient perspective. There was no destabilizing intrusion of the gravitational real." We argue that there is an intimate relation between a given subject’s fantasy and the discoveries, scientific or otherwise, that he is ready to witness. Subjectivity thus seems to tint the entirety of his outlook on the world, scientific objectivity included.
In his écrit L’étourdit, Lacan develops a tripartite definition of the equivocal, distinguishing ... more In his écrit L’étourdit, Lacan develops a tripartite definition of the equivocal, distinguishing between the homophonic, grammatical, and logical. Psychoanalysis, being the praxis of alleviating unconscious symptoms via the semblance that is language, depends upon the equivocity of language. This paper elucidates these three forms of ambiguity in their relevance to the clinic and the end of analysis.
Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. & George E. Atwood, Ph.D.
The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphy... more Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D. & George E. Atwood, Ph.D. The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphysicalizing of the Real
Fernanda Carrá-Salsberg, Ph.D. A Psychoanalytic Look into The Effects of Childhood and Adolescent Migration in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation
David Hafner, Ph.D. An Introduction to the Transference Unconscious
Rina Stah. Freedman, Ph.D. Cross-Cultural Treatment Issues in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Iurato, Ph.D. Book Review. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis
Anonymous Author, M.A. Book Review. Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents
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The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphysicalizing of the Real
Fernanda Carrá-Salsberg, Ph.D.
A Psychoanalytic Look into The Effects of Childhood and Adolescent
Migration in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation
David Hafner, Ph.D.
An Introduction to the Transference Unconscious
Rina Stah. Freedman, Ph.D.
Cross-Cultural Treatment Issues in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Iurato, Ph.D.
Book Review. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis
Anonymous Author, M.A.
Book Review. Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents
The Phenomenology of Language and the Metaphysicalizing of the Real
Fernanda Carrá-Salsberg, Ph.D.
A Psychoanalytic Look into The Effects of Childhood and Adolescent
Migration in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation
David Hafner, Ph.D.
An Introduction to the Transference Unconscious
Rina Stah. Freedman, Ph.D.
Cross-Cultural Treatment Issues in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Iurato, Ph.D.
Book Review. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis
Anonymous Author, M.A.
Book Review. Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents