Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of RICERCA PSICOANALITICA (2/2013)

Editoriale

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

The implicit domain in couples and couple therapy

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Susan M. Shimmerlik
Developments in psychoanalysis and family systems, as well as findings from cognitive neuroscience and research in infant development are pointing to convergences in our understanding of the human experience. One central point of convergence has been the understanding of implicit modes of experience, particularly as this relates to affective communication. Through the lens of couples and couple therapy, this paper examines the ways in which the patterning of couple and family relationships takes place in the enactive domain through nonconscious, implicit communication processes. With the understanding that it is in the nature of implicit experience that it must be enacted to be accessed, this paper argues that some of that which is stored in the implicit domain remains embedded and enacted in one’s most intimate relationships and therefore can only be accessed within the context of those relationships. This paper then explores some of the implications of implicit processes as this relates to the triad of the therapist and the couple in couple therapy.

Comment to shimmerlik.

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Guido Banzatti
The article reviews Susan Shimmerlik’s article on the implicit in couples and in couple therapy, commenting from a relational analytic perspective also in the light of the theory of complex systems. Attention is paid mainly to the case history as an opportunity for seeing it under different clinical methods, thinking of helping the therapist to better express the theoretical approach implicitly used. Despite being appreciated by most recent literature, a more explicitly relational approach must come to terms with the long tradition of individual psychoanalysis. And the couple can help the therapist to cast a unifying look on the two partners.

Substance-induced dissociation clinic: psychoanalytic practice in a case of drug-addiction

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Fabio Beni
In this paper the author tries to illustrate the concept of substance-induced dissociation through the use of clinical case reports. In reviewing Elisa’s case, one can observe the outcomes this dissociative process generates at every level. Under the influence of this psychopathological process, psychological functioning, personality and physical appearance change, and this kind of change splits the psychic life and the course of life events in different sealed compartments ‒ in this case one can lose the sense of life as a whole. In these circumstances, the final therapeutic objective is to contact and put together these parts. In particular the author wants to emphasize the strength of pre-transference dynamics that lead therapists to enactment, reducing their capacity for, and possibility of, thinking.

Addiction, dissociation and the unrepressed unconscious. a theoretical contribution from a developmental-relational perspective

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Giuseppe Craparo
Starting from the theoretical-clinical analysis of the pathological dissociation implied in addictions, the author suggests a new view of addictive symptoms (compulsion to assume any substance-object) with the help of the distinction between repressed and non repressed unconscious. The assumption is that in persons affected by an addiction (from sex to the Internet, to psychotropic substances to food, etc.), the dissociative nature of compulsive behaviours is associated to an alteration of the unrepressed unconscious caused by traumatic relational experiences suffered early on in life.

When the analyst is a "new bad object": analytic treatment between repetition compulsion and opening to change

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Steven H. Cooper
The seminar intends to stimulate a reflection on the self-reflective aspects of the analyst’s participation in the process. In particular, with the help some clinical examples, the discussion focuses on the inevitable re-proposition by the analyst of the familiar relational models on which the patient structured his internal world. Because of elements of his own personality, the analyst might re-propose himself as a “new bad object”, i.e. a disapproving and disconfirming object (Fairbairn), and might have to engage a fight with himself in order not to be trapped in the role of the ancient object. Steven Cooper, who discussed these themes in his 2010 book, A disturbance in the field, states that the patient emotionally perceives the flows of the analyst’s internal fight and, for this reason, the analytic couple can understand repetition if the analyst is able to maintain a constant self-reflective position. This is an important part of therapeutic action. Follows a wide-ranging historical review of the concept of therapeutic action in relation to the analyst’s inevitable limits in performing his role.

The importance of the work of w. r. d. fairbairn for today’s metapsychology and psycotherapy

Tue, 15 Apr 2013 8:00:00 GMT

Fulvio Frati
The Scottish psychoanalyst W.R.D. Fairbairn (1889-1964) appears to anyone reading his works today as a relevant forerunner of some of the major theoretical and clinical trends of the most recent psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. In this article, the author tries first of all to outline the overall metapsychological model of the mind’s functioning presented by Fairbairn in order to illustrate in detail the major theoretical contributions characterizing his original theory of object relations. He then presents some reflections on the change of scientific paradigm that took place in the first thirty years of the 20th century with the passage from atom to quantum physics to which Fairbairn made explicit reference in his theory and is felt quite relevant today in the areas of general psychology, psychopathology and psychotherapy.