International Psychoanalysis

Click here to Read: Alessandra Ginzburg’s Paper, “The Bi-logical Stratified Structure: When Cats are Panthers.”   

Douglas Kirsner discusses his new research published in his recent article, ‘Do as I say, not as I do: Ralph Greenson, Anna Freud and Superrich Patients’ (Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol. 24, 3, 2007, pp. 475-486).
Op ed by Douglas Kirsner
     Today it can be difficult to imagine a time when psychoanalysis ruled the roost in mental health. During the 1950s and into the 1960s the major psychiatry programs were psychoanalytically oriented and more than half the chairs of psychiatry were analysts. Psychoanalysis was the default option for understanding and for cure. Psychoanalysts effectively controlled psychiatry, where psychoanalysis commanded immense respect as they did in the culture at large where it was an important part the zeitgeist, not only in New York. (more…)

Click Here to Read: Roberto Doria-Medina and Cristina Melgar’s Contribution to the Panel,  ”Creativity, Psychoanalysis, and Art: Remembering, repeating and elaborating in the creative process” on July 26, 2007. 

In Field of Dreams, a man is reunited with his long dead father and with the vague images and fantasies that remained of his mother, who had died when he was a small child. Contact, a film released nearly ten years later, makes explicit this theme of reuniting with a father who is long gone and, through him, a mother who is only imagined.
(more…)

Click Here to Read: Patrick Mahony’s Article on “Freud’s Misanthropy and Misogny: Historiographical Reflections” published with the permission of the author and the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Click here to Read: Hans Jurgen Wirth’s Contribution to the Panel, “Remembering, Repeating and Not Working Through: On the Intractibility of the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict” on July 27th, 2007.

Click here to Read: Hans Jurgen Wirth’s Contribution to the Panel: “Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Treatment” on July 26th, 2007.

“The International Psychoanalytical Association joins with other mental health and medical professional organizations in strongly condemning the use of torture.  As an organization of psychoanalysts who have devoted their lives to helping people undo the effects of trauma in their lives, we strongly protest against any use of torture, particularly that directly or indirectly administered or sanctioned by governments or any public bodies. Torture degrades those tortured and those torturing.  The effects of that physical and moral degradation are, we know, transmitted to the families and offspring of both victims and perpetrators.

We also strongly condemn the participation or oversight by any mental health or medical personnel in any and all aspects of torture.  Such actions are contrary to the basic ethical principles fundamental to the caring professions.”

Click Here to Read: Peter Loewenberg’s Article on: “Cultural History and Psychoanalysis” from the journal Psychoanalysis and History (Edinburgh ), Vol. 9, No. 1 (2007), pp. 17-37.

To the Editor:
I would like to add to the article Patching Up the Frayed Couch recognition of the contribution to psychoanalytic scholarship made by members on the New York Psychoanalytic Society The editors of two of the most important journals in psychoanalysis the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Psychoanalytic Quarterly were for decades members of NYPSI.

Just as the venerable New York Times has been reinventing it self the article points out for me the need for NYPSI and psychoanalysis to reinvent ourself for a new time.

Arnold Richards

Member NYPSA
Former Editor JAPA

Click here for Link to the New York Times Article: Patching-up the Frayed Couch

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/nyregion/thecity/09anal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=thecity

Click here to Read:  Updated program and order form for the COWAP Conference: Who is My Mother? Who is My Father? Who am I? on October 26, 27, 28 at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute on 247 East 82nd Street.

Click Here to Read: Nathan Szajnberg’s Contribution on Leonard Bernstein’s music.

Click here to Read: Film/Music review of movie Hustle and Flow by Julie Nagel presented at Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute/Association for Psychoanalytic Thought on Feb. 18, 2007 Film Series.

Click here to Read: Understanding Dissidence and Controversy in the History of Psychoanalysis, edited Martin Bergmann. Other Press (2004). Reviewed by Aleksandra Wagner.
This review is posted with permission of The Psychoanalytic Review, 94(3), June 2007, pp. 513 – 516. [ISSN 0033-2836]

The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge, M.D.
Reviewed by Jane S. Hall

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, writer, and researcher Norman Doidge delivers a revolutionary message in “The Brain That Changes Itself,” a very important and informative book that should be read by all. Dr. Doidge takes the reader by the hand and carefully explains that the brain can and does change throughout life. Contrary to the original belief that after childhood the brain begins a long process of decline, he shows us that our brains have the remarkable power to grow, change, overcome disabilities, learn, recover, and alter the very culture that has the potential to deeply affect human nature.

Clear, fascinating, and gripping is how I would describe this invitation to understand how the brain can work. I say “can work” because Dr. Doidge gives new hope to everyone from the youngest to the oldest among us; from the stroke victim to the person born with brain abnormality; from those who can not seem to learn to those whose neurotic suffering has stunted growth through denial and other defenses; and from those who cannot feel to those who feel too much. (more…)

Click here to Read: Andrea’s Sabbadini’s Introduction to the Panel, “Holocaust Films: Remembering and Working Through” at the IPA Berlin Congress on July 26th, 2007. 

This is an audio file taken from a video interview of Jacob Arlow conducted by Frank Parcells of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Society in the 1980′s as part of his oral history project. It ranges widely about Dr Arlow’s life, work and interests. (1 hour)

Click button below to play:

Click Here To Read: Alf Gerlach’s Contribution to the Panel,  ”Breaking New Ground: Introducing Psychoanalysis to Countries for the First Time” at the IPA Berlin Congress on July 27, 2007.  This Contribution is a Powerpoint Presentation. 

Edwin Fancher has responded to No one owns psychoanalysis (the first editorial posted on August 7th). He addresses the issue of times per week by giving us his history of Freudian psychoanalytic training starting with the Eitington model in Berlin. Mr. Fancher’s contribution is presented as an opinion piece rather than a comment because of its substance, as was Jennifer Harper’s piece, NAAP and Licensing: Fact and Fiction, (August 28th) because of its depth and breadth.

There are many schools of psychoanalysis. This Editorials section of the blog is open to all who are interested in writing Op-Ed articles and comments on them.

The Op-Ed format gives us a forum for exchanging ideas with each other and expressing opinions. The blog form is not impeded by space requirements so all opinion pieces and comments can be posted. Analysts have a tendency to talk past each other instead of listening with open minds. Vehemently defending our beliefs affects our ability to see beyond them. Civil dialogue leads to growth.

Write soon.
Jane S. Hall, Op-Ed Editor

——————–

An editorial by Edwin Fancher
a founding director, Washington Square Institute for Psychotherapy and Mental Health founding president, New York School for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

I would like to support Rick Perlman on the issue of the inadequacy of the standards of training for the New York State Licensed Psychologist status, which are based on standards promoted by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). I have many disagreements with the NAAP standards, but believe that the most important issue is the lack of a frequency in the requirements for psychoanalytic training, which I will address.

Frequency has a long and complicated history in psychoanalysis, but I believe it is worthwhile to review some of that history, and I will touch on a few points in regard to how the issue of frequency influences: 1, the definition of psychoanalysis itself, 2. the distinction between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, 3. the controversy over lay analysis, 4. scientific research into clinical technique, and 5. political controversy between organized professional groups on a state and national level. (more…)