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Abstract: Ferenczi produced elaborations on the regression, the traumatism, the transference and counter transference which question deeply the practice of the cure. His first texts (1908–1912) ask still current clinical questions (on the status of the interpretation and on the place of the body and of the acting in the cures, on the status of the language) and open the way to the elaborations of other psychoanalysts. They will be used as a point of departure of our reflection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Résumé Objectifs Le cerveau et l’esprit sont très souvent objet de controverses dans les psychiatries du monde. L’histoire de la psychiatrie américaine est instructive à ce sujet, les États-Unis ayant accueilli très tôt la psychanalyse, inventé le béhaviorisme, promu la psychiatrie biologique, utilisé la biométrie et fabriqué la classification des maladies mentales qui a eu le plus grand succès. L’objectif de cet article est d’étudier cette histoire. Méthodes L’article propose une étude détaillée des théories, des pratiques et des débats d’idées dans le champ de cette psychiatrie américaine depuis le XVIII e siècle et des politiques fédérales de santé mentale. Résultats La psychiatrie des États-Unis a des particularités liées au concept de destinée manifeste, au protestantisme et au pragmatisme, à la manière dont la nation s’est construite (esclavagisme, conquête de l’Ouest, libéralisme économique) et aux guerres qui n’ont pas cessé de sa naissance à ce jour, de la guerre d’indépendance aux guerres du Moyen-Orient, en passant par la guerre civile et les deux guerres mondiales. Comme elle a su assimiler ses immigrés, elle a assimilé et véhiculé leurs cultures et leurs découvertes en matière de psychiatrie. Elle a elle-même donné naissance à de nombreuses théories et pratiques portées par la mondialisation, entre autres les DSM qui s’inscrivent dans l’évolution culturelle, scientifique, économique et politique de la nation. Les profanes ont été très tôt acteurs des changements, des conflits et de l’antipsychiatrie. Discussion Cet article s’interroge sur le succès croissant de la psychanalyse dans les années 1950 et sur les causes de sa perte d’influence dans les années 1970 qu’il n’impute pas au DSM-III, mais aux psychanalystes américains eux-mêmes. Il tente de démontrer que le DSM-III et les DSM suivants n’ont pas entraîné de changement de paradigme, au sens que lui donne Thomas Kuhn. Conclusion L’histoire de la psychiatrie américaine montre qu’il y a peu de chance pour que s’éteignent les conflits entre les tenants d’un cerveau, encore très mal connu, et ceux d’un esprit, souvent bien mal défini, tant que nos connaissances dans le domaine des troubles mentaux seront aussi minces qu’elles le sont aujourd’hui. Objective Very often, the brain and the mind are objects of controversy in the world of psychiatry. The history of American psychiatry is instructive in this respect. From an early date, the United States embraced psychoanalysis, invented behaviorism, promoted biological psychiatry, used biometry and produced a highly successful classification of mental disorders. The objective of this paper is the study of this history. Method The paper proposes a detailed study of the theories, practices and ideological debates in the field of American psychiatry since the 18th century, and of federal mental health policies. Results Psychiatry in the United States has distinctive features linked to the concept of manifest destiny, Protestantism and pragmatism, to the manner in which the nation was constructed (slavery, conquest of the West, economic liberalism) and to the ceaseless wars, from the War of Independence to the Middle Eastern wars, not forgetting the Civil War and two World Wars. As the nation succeeded in integrating its immigrants, it also assimilated their different cultures and their discoveries in the field psychiatry. Many theories and practices that later diffused by globalization were instigated by the nation, among others the DSMs, part of the cultural, scientific, economic and political development of the nation. Lay people were early protagonists in the constructive shifts, conflicts and anti-psychiatry tendencies. Discussion This paper examines the growing success of psychoanalysis in the 1950s and the causes behind its loss of influence in the 1970s. It does not attribute this loss to the DSM-III, but to the psychoanalysts themselves. It sets out to demonstrate that the DSM-III and later DSMs did not result in a paradigm shift in the meaning of Thomas Kuhn. Conclusion The history of American psychiatry proves that there is little chance of seeing an end to the conflicts between advocates of the brain, still poorly understood, and upholders of the mind, often poorly defined, as long as our knowledge in the field of mental disorders remains as slim as it is today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectifs Nous tenterons de situer, dans le contexte psychiatrique et psychanalytique de son temps, l’article sur la genèse de « l’appareil à influencer » de Viktor Tausk. Méthode Nous verrons comment, comme sorte de synthèse de travaux sur l’évolution des délires, ont émergé des travaux structuralistes en psychiatrie qui ont permis une meilleure analyse des phénomènes automatiques dans les psychoses, qui ont été aussi au carrefour de la rencontre entre les travaux psychiatriques de Clérambault et le mouvement structuraliste en psychanalyse. Résultats À ce même carrefour, se situe le travail de Tausk sur l’automatisme dans les psychoses. Discussion Il est, de ce fait, structuraliste avant son ère, car il va au-delà de la théorie freudienne sur les psychoses de cette même période, jusqu’à une conception du « symptôme » psychotique en tant que « condensateur de jouissance ». Conclusions Ce n’est pas un hasard si à l’époque de l’automatisation de la production ont émergé des théories psychanalytiques sur l’automatisme créateur de l’inconscient, et, de plus, sur les phénomènes automatiques dans la psychose. Objectives This paper will attempt to place Viktor Tausk's famous article on the genesis of the “influencing machine” in schizophrenia within the psychiatric and psychoanalytic context of its time, particularly in relation to the concepts of structure and automatism. Methodology/approach Following the summary of Tausk's paper, we will analyse the predominant ideas concerning the evolution of delusion in time, in psychiatry of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. We will then look into how, as a result of this evolution, some more or less structuralist works arose, which permitted, among other things, a better analysis of automatic phenomena in psychoses. These phenomena have also been at the confluence of the psychiatric work of Clérambault and the psychoanalytic structuralist movement initiated by Jacques Lacan. Results It is at the crossroad between the works of the two that we may place, though in an independent register, Tausk's pioneering work on automatism in psychoses, which is not only a commentary on the evolution of delusion, but also on the underlying element that presides over delusion, from the point of its initial hypochondriac state to the generation of persecutory delusion ideas, amongst which the existence of an “influencing machine”. Discussion Tausk's work, akin to Clérambault's and Lacan's on automatism, may thus be considered structuralist before its time. More specifically, his swan song – the “influencing machine” paper – goes beyond the Freudian theory on psychoses of the time, which focused on the psychotic's denied homosexuality, and up to the concept of the psychotic “symptom” as a capacitor of enjoyment ( jouissance ). Conclusions It is most singular that at the time of production's automation during the industrial revolution, not only were delusions modified in relation to this evolution, but there was also the development of psychoanalytic theories on the creative automatism of the unconscious, and on the automatic phenomena of the psychosis, which are related to the former. Concerning these phenomena, the influencing ideas have been the subject of several studies, by Freud and Tausk firstly, and by Clérambault and Lacan later on, each time both accusing the other of plagiarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectifs L’objectif de cet article est d’analyser les limites de la représentation et les caractéristiques des fictions dans leurs relations à la métapsychologie freudienne. Cette approche comporte ainsi une dimension épistémologique qui interroge les sources et les modèles de la fiction, notamment dans l’élaboration du concept de pulsion. Méthode Cet article correspond à une recherche théorique sur les fictions et les fondements des concepts psychanalytiques, à travers l’analyse épistémologique et historique de la métapsychologie freudienne. La théorie des pulsions est située dans le processus historique de sa construction. Résultats Cette étude démontre que les fictions correspondent à une approche heuristique pour penser « quelque chose d’inconnu ». Cet article suggère aussi que les fictions métapsychologiques ont différents modes d’existence : « fictions théoriques », « concepts fondamentaux », mythes… Ainsi, d’importants arguments en faveur des fictions mythologiques sont exposés : dans le cas de la pulsion de mort, les mythes peuvent fournir une représentation des pulsions et ainsi donner une place à ce qui échappe au savoir scientifique. Discussion L’article propose une approche synthétique du positionnement fictionaliste à l’œuvre dans L’interprétation du rêve . La caractérisation des « fictions théoriques » est reliée à un champ philosophique et aux principaux précurseurs du fictionalisme freudien : Kant et Hans Vaihinger. Un aspect important consiste à montrer comment la métapsychologie intègre un questionnement philosophique concernant la possibilité de la représentation. La question des « concepts fondamentaux » est abordée : la réflexion se concentre alors sur la notion de « convention » et la signification du « concept-limite ». Si le modèle freudien de 1915 est clairement scientifique et conceptuel, l’approche métapsychologique de 1920 devient fondamentalement mythologique et narrative. Ce tournant épistémologique est examiné et sa signification est discutée. Conclusion Cet article propose une conclusion générale : l’épistémologie freudienne de la fiction repose sur une aporie qui est au cœur de la possibilité même de la représentation métapsychologique. D’un point de vue épistémologique, la métapsychologie formule et maintient une position critique sur la question des « concepts fondamentaux » et des constructions théoriques : cette conclusion propose de faire des liens entre le problème des fictions et la question de la croyance. Aims The purpose of this study is to analyse the limits of representation and the characteristics of fictions in Freudian metapsychology. As such, this paper has an epistemological angle, which looks at the sources and models of fiction in the elaboration of the drive concept. Method This article is a theoretical research on fictions and foundations of psychoanalytical concepts, through an epistemological and historical analysis of Freudian metapsychology. The drive theory is located in the process of its construction. Results This study shows that fictions correspond to an heuristic approach to thinking “something unknown”. This article suggests that metapsychological fictions have different modes of existence: “theoretical fictions”, “fundamental concepts”, myths… In this paper, important arguments for mythological fictions are exposed: in the case of death drive, myths may provide a representation of drives and a place for that which escapes the realms of scientific knowledge. Discussion The article contains a brief overview of the fictional position in The Interpretation of Dreams . The characterization of “theoretical fictions” is connected with a philosophical field and the principal precursors of Freudian fictionalism: Kant and Hans Vaihinger. An important aspect is to show how metapsychology integrates a philosophical investigation of the possibility for representation. The question of “fundamental concepts” is examined: the focus concerns the notion of “convention” and the significance of “limit-concept”. If the 1915 drive model is clearly scientific and conceptual, Freud's 1920 approach is fundamentally mythological and narrative. This epistemological shift is examined and its significance is discussed. Conclusion This paper proposes a general conclusion: the Freudian epistemology of fiction is based on an aporia which is present at the core of the possibility of metapsychological representation. From an epistemological point of view, metapsychology formulates and maintains a critical position on the question of “fundamental concepts” and theoretical constructions: this conclusion connects the problem of fictions with the question of belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper argues that Freud''s insights into human aggression can at the very least be viewed as one-sided and problematic, and that the heuristic potential of the Œdipus myth, correspondingly, is limited. It considers how the Hungarian psychiatrist Lipót Szondi, tries to bridge this gap using the myth of Cain and Abel. The aim of this paper is to explore how Szondi''s interpretation of this myth offers a much more subtle approach to human aggression. Szondi''s alternative and distinctive look at aggressive phenomena offers an exciting and fruitful addition to Freud''s interpretation as exclusively referring to sadism and/or the death instinct. This contribution wants to highlight Szondi''s amendment to Freud''s Œdipus and aims to show that psychoanalysis can benefit from taking into account the mythical figures of Cain and Abel as its “prodigal sons”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper tries to answer to the following question: is there a psychoanalytic explanation to drugless addictions? Freud mentions the possibility of a strong attachment to a virtual object (game, sex, ideology) through several papers scattered in his works from 1920 to 1937. The main concept is what we consider nowadays as the concept of “tie”. The “tie” is to be considered as a link between the subject and the object of addiction. The so-called “pathology of the tie” was first described in group analysis by René Kaès then later on extended to the field of addictions. It implies subordination, lack of freedom, narcissism deviation, compulsion of repeat. Actually, addiction may be considered as a fight between Eros and Thanatos, in which Thanatos is always the winner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper proposes that psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be a helpful form of treatment for certain autistic children. Some of the misconceptions surrounding this kind of treatment are discussed. The literature identifying a particular sub-group of autistic children is then reviewed and the characteristics of this group, and the relationship of their difficulties to early trauma, are described. Using clinical material from work with a child who probably fell within this sub-group, and who had very marked autistic features, the paper illustrates the importance of the therapist taking an active role in the therapy and how this helped the child to emerge from his withdrawn state. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of introducing themes of aggression, and of this being done in a playful way. The impact of trauma on children’s development, with particular reference to the acquisition of language, is considered. The role of sibling rivalry as a factor is emphasised. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Résumé Objectifs Cet article interroge l’automédication, la toxicomanie et leurs effets ambivalents, ce qui justifie de réhabiliter le concept de pharmakon . Plus spécifiquement, il s’intéresse aux façons dont le sujet schizophrène et le sujet mélancolique traitent avec lui leurs problématiques psychiques respectives. Méthode Une fois l’usage des psychotropes replacé dans son contexte culturel, cette recherche procède, dans une perspective psychanalytique, à l’analyse théorico-clinique de situations de patients schizophrènes et mélancoliques à différents stades de la prise en charge psychothérapique. Résultats L’usage de psychotropes permet au sujet schizophrène de substituer au déploiement d’un délire paranoïde la scénarisation d’un fantasme, et au sujet mélancolique de réactualiser un processus de deuil en suspens. À chaque fois, la prise à partie de l’Autre dans le transfert permet à la pulsionnalité de trouver un autre destin. Discussion L’aspect transgressif de l’usage de psychotropes n’a pas la même fonction dans la schizophrénie où le sujet manque surtout d’altérité que dans la mélancolie où le sujet souffre au premier chef d’une culpabilité existentielle. Mais il permet à chaque fois au sujet de se déloger de la place où il semblait figé, ce qui modifie réciproquement sa relation à l’Autre. Conclusions La toxicomanie et l’automédication ont des effets ambivalents, ce dont le sujet témoigne à l’occasion d’une demande de prise en charge. C’est en lui permettant de subjectiver l’impasse psychique sous-jacente qu’il préférera à l’agir, l’inscription dans le langage et dans le collectif. Aims This paper focuses on self-medication, drug addiction, and their ambivalent effects, justifying a return to the concept of the pharmacon. More specifically, it addresses the way in which schizophrenic or melancholic subjects use the pharmacon concept to cope with their respective issues. Methods After placing psychotropic use in its cultural context, this research, in a psychoanalytic perspective, sets out to analyse the situations of schizophrenic or melancholic subjects at different stages in their psychotherapy, from the theoretical and clinical viewpoints. Results The use of psychotropic medication enables schizophrenic subjects to replace paranoid delusion by the staging of fantasy, and enables melancholic subject to reactivate a latent bereavement process. In each instance, the involvement of the Other in the transfer process provides alternative solutions for their drives. Discussion The transgressional aspect of psychotropic drug use does not have the same function in schizophrenia, where the subject mostly lacks otherness, as in melancholia, where the subject mostly suffers from existential guilt. But in each instance it enables the subject to move on from a place where he seemed to be rooted, which modifies his relationship with the Other. Conclusion Drug addiction and self-medication produce ambivalent effects, as evidenced by the patient when he seeks therapy. Once the patient has been made aware of the underlying psychological impasse in which he finds himself, he will come to prefer recourse to language and the collective, rather than to action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectif Cet article se propose d’examiner les enjeux psychiques des fantasmes de maltraitance qui s’expriment parfois avec insistance dans le discours de certaines personnes âgées confrontées à une situation de dépendance. Méthode À partir d’une compréhension psychodynamique du fonctionnement psychique adossée à deux évocations cliniques, l’étude des représentations mettant en scène un « vieillard battu » permet de repérer les modalités singulières de traitement des problématiques de castration et de passivité réactualisées dans les relations d’aide et de soin. Résultats La prégnance du fantasme de fustigation « on bat un vieillard » apparaît ainsi comme une tentative de liaison de l’excitation suscitée par la difficile confrontation à la position passive, et montre que l’acuité de la question narcissique dans le grand vieillissement n’obère pas la conflictualité œdipienne et les problématiques d’identifications sexuelles, qui trouvent là un lieu de réactualisation majeure en même temps qu’une occasion de reprise élaborative. Discussion Ces considérations conduisent à envisager les spécificités psychopathologiques de la rencontre avec la dépendance dans le grand âge à la lumière des tensions entre la réalité interne et la réalité externe, au risque sinon de dissoudre l’écart entre le contenu manifeste de la dépendance, imputable notamment à l’actualité événementielle biologique et sociale, et le contexte psychique par lequel il est ressaisi. Conclusion Cette étude souhaite attirer l’attention, derrière l’évidence des rapports sociaux de domination, sur les aménagements masochistes et mélancoliques de la passivité susceptibles de s’exprimer à travers cette configuration fantasmatique. Aim In this paper, we analyze the psychic issues entailed in mistreatment fantasies that are expressed, sometimes insistently, in the discourse of some elderly people finding themselves in a situation of dependency. Method This study is based on a psychodynamic understanding of psychic functioning, and it also uses clinical vignettes. We explore the fantasy of “the elderly person being beaten” which casts light on a particular mode of processing of the issues of castration and passivity, re-contextualised in the care setting and care relationships. Results The pervasiveness of this fantasy appears as an attempt to bind the excitation caused by the difficulty in accepting a passive position. It also shows that the acute narcissistic issues of old extreme old age do not compromise Oedipal conflict and sexual identification issues. The re-emergence of these issues enables psychic work which can lead to new modes of elaboration. Discussion These considerations lead us to envisage the psychopathological characteristics of the encounter with dependency in old age in the light of the tensions between external reality and the internal world. Otherwise the risk is that the distinction between the manifest content of dependency – linked in particular to current biological and social parameters – and the psychic context in which this content is reshaped will be abolished. Conclusion Above and beyond the evident social relationships of domination, this study aims to draw attention to the masochistic and melancholic modes of passivity that can be mobilized in this fantasized configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectif Cette analyse épistémologique des textes du psychanalyste français Jacques Lacan a pour but de montrer le rôle de la pensée du mathématicien anglais Alan Turing dans l’évolution de la psychanalyse. Méthode Pour cela, nous avons confronté les textes de ces deux auteurs. Après avoir expliqué de manière synthétique l’approche de la cybernétique de Lacan, nous analysons les textes de Turing de manière à mettre en avant ce que Lacan puisera dans ces textes. Résultats À partir de l’analyse de la conceptualisation de la notion de « machine cybernétique » dans les Écrits et le Séminaire de Jacques Lacan, il s’agit de montrer qu’il ne va pas simplement reprendre les concepts de la cybernétique. Lacan va penser une histoire de la cybernétique et de ses objets techniques, ce qu’il appelle « la machine cybernétique » et inscrire dans cette histoire Alan Turing. La « machine cybernétique » est une « machine universelle » de Turing, notion conceptualisée dans son article de 1936 « On computer numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem », qui est à la naissance de l’informatique. Discussion Cette étude montre donc que Lacan va reprendre la conception de « machine universelle » pour penser le psychisme en termes de machine et donc que l’informatique est pour la psychanalyse un objet de recherche depuis les années 1950. Pourtant, la question demeure de déterminer dans quelle proportion Lacan s’est directement confronté aux textes de Turing ou est passé par la lecture de T. Guilbaud et de Jacques Riguet. Conclusion Cette reprise l’ouvrira vers la conceptualisation de la notion de feedback de la cybernétique développée par le mathématicien américain Norbert Wiener, considéré comme le fondateur de la cybernétique. Aims This paper is an epistemological analysis of the texts by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It aims to show the role of the research of English mathematician Alan Turing in the history of psychoanalysis. Method For this purpose, we compared the texts of these two authors. After a brief presentation of Lacan's approach to cybernetics, we analysed Turing's writings so as to highlight what Lacan drew from them. Results From the analysis of the conceptualization of his notion of the “cybernetic machine” in his Writings and the Seminar, it can be seen that Lacan did not merely take over the concepts of cybernetics. He developed a history of cybernetics and its technical objects, which he named “cybernetic machines”, and gave Turing place in this history. The “cybernetic machine” is a Turing “universal machine”, an idea conceptualized in his article of 1936, “ On computer numbers, with an application to the decision problem ”, which signalled the birth of computing. Discussion This study shows that Lacan returned to the concept of the “universal machine” to apprehend the psyche as a machine. This has given rise to a body of research since the fifties in the area of psychoanalysis. However the question remains to what extent Lacan directly confronted Turing's texts, or how far he read Turing through the writings of T. Guilbaud and Jacques Riguet. Conclusion The use he made of Turing's ideas was to lead on to the conceptualization of the notion of cybernetic feedback developed by the American mathematician Norbert Wiener, considered to be the founder of cybernetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectifs Cet article présente une étude approfondie du fonctionnement psychique de sujets ayant reçu un diagnostic d’hébéphrénie (ou schizophrénie désorganisée) à partir d’une compréhension psychanalytique du fonctionnement psychique des schizophrènes. Méthode Neuf protocoles de Rorschach et de TAT ( Thematic Aperception Test ) ont été étudiés selon la méthode de l’École de Paris. Les participants avaient de 19 à 26 ans. Cinq protocoles étaient issus d’une recherche de thèse, les quatre autres étaient ceux de patients rencontrés lors d’une hospitalisation en service de psychiatrie. Il s’agit de sept hommes et deux femmes, âgés de 18 à 25 ans, avec un diagnostic d’hébéphrénie ou de schizophrénie désorganisée. Résultats Chez tous les participants, nous observons un rétrécissement dramatique de la vie psychique dans toutes ses dimensions. Ce dénuement de la psyché apparaît comme un système défensif qui tend à éjecter la pensée, à dénier la réalité externe et désavouer la réalité interne. Cette défense extrême vient prendre le relais des autres défenses psychotiques classiques (déni, clivage, projection…) inefficaces. Le conformisme et l’hyperréalisme des protocoles ne permettent cependant pas de dissimuler la désorganisation profonde de la pensée. Les limites entre le dedans et le dehors, soi/non-soi, nécessaires au maintien d’une identité solide et différenciée, semblent inconsistantes. Les processus d’identification sexuelle et les affects sont absents des protocoles. La représentation de soi, en tant qu’individu séparé, est impensable. Discussion Nous avons été frappés par la ressemblance entre le fonctionnement psychique des participants de ce groupe et le fonctionnement opératoire décrit par l’École de psychosomatique de Paris. La pauvreté psychique apparaît comme le produit d’une lutte défensive intense contre la pensée dont les défaillances cognitives pourraient être la conséquence. Conclusion Cette étude souhaite contribuer, par les résultats psychopathologiques qu’elle présente, à une meilleure compréhension de l’hébéphrénie ainsi qu’au débat sur l’unité ou la diversité des formes de schizophrénies. Objectives This paper presents a comprehensive study of the psychological functioning of subjects with a diagnosis of hebephrenia (or disorganised schizophrenia) based on a psychoanalytic understanding of the psychic functioning of schizophrenics. Method Nine Rorschach and TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) protocols were studied according to the Paris School method. Participants ranged from 19 to 26 years of age. Five protocols were from a research thesis, the other four were those of patients encountered through hospitalisation in a psychiatric department. These seven young men and two women aged 18 to 25 years had a diagnosis of hebephrenia or disorganised schizophrenia. Results For all these participants, we observed a dramatic narrowing of psychic life in all its dimensions. The stripping of the psyche appears to be a defensive system that tends to eject thought, deny external reality and renounce internal reality. This extreme defence system takes over from other, ineffective, classic psychotic defences (denial, splitting, projection, etc.). The conformism and hyperrealism of the protocols do not however conceal the profound disorganisation in thought. The boundaries between internal and external, self and non-self, which are necessary to maintain a strong and differentiated identity, seem to lack consistency. The processes of sexual identification and emotions are absent from the protocols. Self-representation as a separate individual is unthinkable. Discussion We were struck by the resemblance between the psychic functioning of the participants in this group and the operational functioning described by the Paris Psychosomatic School. Psychic impoverishment appears as the product of an intense defensive struggle against thought, leading to cognitive collapse. Conclusion This study aims to use its psychopathological results to make a contribution to the debate on the unicity or the diversity of the different forms of schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectifs Il s’agit dans ce texte d’interroger les significations et fonctions inconscientes de l’étiologie « enfant-sorcier » invoquée par certaines familles originaires d’Afrique sub-saharienne (et plus précisément ici bamiléké) et ses possibles liens avec une dynamique familiale incestuelle. Nous avons donc souhaité montrer les points de passage possibles entre ces concepts relevant de registres différents, à partir d’une situation clinique singulière qui, toutefois, ne constitue qu’une des déclinaisons possibles de ce lien entre enfant-sorcier et incestuel. À partir de cette problématique spécifique, il s’agit aussi de montrer l’articulation permanente qui se fait entre psyché et culture et l’éclairage que chacune apporte à l’autre ; cette dimension nous paraissant d’une importance majeure pour la réflexion du clinicien, sa compréhension plus fine de la clinique et donc pour le travail psychothérapique qu’il peut mener avec ces familles. Méthode Afin d’explorer la potentialité de la représentation « enfant-sorcier » à mettre en mots et en images certaines histoires marquées par un climat incestuel, sans mots pour le dire, nous avons cherché à faire apparaître la présence de fantasmes inconscients communs à ces deux entités, clinique et anthropologique. D’autre part, à partir d’une situation clinique principale, nous avons voulu montrer comment ces deux registres différents peuvent se nouer, voire se recouvrir. L’histoire de Léo et de sa mère nous est en effet apparue comme la plus à même de montrer le processus de métaphorisation tenté par le sujet. Étudier ces deux plans nous a ainsi permis de dégager quelques hypothèses sur le recours à cette étiologie singulière. Résultats On constate que dans certaines situations la référence à l’enfant-sorcier s’impose comme tentative de mettre en mots un vécu incestuel fait de confusions multiples. On remarque toutefois que l’enfant ainsi désigné de sorcier n’est pas forcément le sujet incestualisé. Au contraire, on note que tous deux appartiennent souvent à deux générations différentes. L’appel à cette référence culturelle vient alors permettre une mise en mots d’un vécu irreprésenté et relève d’une tentative de traitement psychique. Il faut toutefois souligner que ce processus de traduction-figuration échoue souvent, à moins que ne soient accueillies par un autre les diverses langues par lesquelles il s’exprime. Sans cela, la confusion dont le sujet cherche à se défaire ne fait que redoubler. L’étude attentive de ces familles montre ainsi que leur rapport à leur groupe d’origine, les bamiléké, reflète également leur fonctionnement pathologique puisqu’à une structure habituellement patrilinéaire, s’était substituée une organisation familiale centrée sur le refus de l’altérité, et mettant au cœur de la filiation la seule relation mère/fille, prenant ainsi le masque de la matrilinéarité. Discussion Au travers de ces différents éléments, nous sommes amenés à penser les articulations qui se font entre psyché et culture. On voit ainsi l’importance d’entendre le sujet dans la multiplicité et la complexité de ses composantes et combien la compréhension de situations psychopathologiques peut s’enrichir d’une attention portée à l’anthropologie. Il s’agit donc de ne pas réduire l’homme ni à son fonctionnement inconscient, ni à sa culture. C’est aussi ce qui permet de saisir que parfois la position d’un sujet vis-à-vis de son groupe est un indice d’un fonctionnement familial pathologique. Conclusion En premier lieu, ce travail montre l’impossibilité à nommer un fonctionnement familial incestuel et la confusion qu’il entraîne. Le recours à l’étiologie d’enfant-sorcier apparaît ici comme une métaphore de ce fonctionnement, de par les fantasmes inconscients équivalents qui sous-tendent ces deux dynamiques. Toutefois, seule l’articulation de ces deux registres, culture et psyché, dans un travail de mise en sens permet à ces sujets de s’engager dans un travail d’élaboration. C’est alors que s’opère par ce travail de métaphorisation un processus de traduction, de figuration et d’individuation . Aims This paper sets out to explore the unconscious meanings and functions of the “witch-child” aetiology appearing in the discourse of families from sub-Saharan Africa (in the present instance Bamileke), and its possible links with an “incestuel” (as opposed to incestuous) family dynamic. We have sought to show the possible points of transition between concepts that belong to different resisters, using a singular clinical situation which is nevertheless just one of the possible manifestations of the link between the witch-child and an “incestuel” family climate. From this particular issue, we also seek to show the permanent articulation between psyche and culture, and the way each casts light on the other. This dimension appeared to us to be particularly important for the reflection of the clinician, for a finer understanding of the clinical setting, and thus for the psychotherapeutic process enacted with these families. Method In order to explore the potential of the “witch-child” representation to put certain “unspeakable” histories occurring in an “incestuel” climate into words and images, we looked for the presence of unconscious fantasies common to these two entities, clinical and anthropological. Alongside, using one main clinical situation, we sought to show how these two different registers can connect, or even overlay one another. The history of Leo and his mother seemed to us to be the best suited to demonstrate the subject's attempts at a metaphorisation process. The study of these two dimensions enabled us to form a few hypotheses on the recourse to this singular aetiology. Results It can be seen that in certain situations reference to the witch-child can be seen as an attempt to put an “incestuel” experience fraught with numerous confusions into words. It can however be noted that the child thus pointed to as being a witch-child may not be the subject caught up in the “incestuel” atmosphere. Indeed, the two individuals concerned often belong to different generations. Reference to this cultural entity then serves as a means to put words on an unrepresented experience, and is in fact an attempt to find a psychic remedy. It should however be emphasised that this process of translation-figuration often fails, unless another person is there to receive the different languages in which it is expressed. Otherwise, the confusion that the subject is trying to escape merely increases. The careful study of these families thus shows that their relationship with the group from which they originate, the Bamileke, also reflects their pathological functioning, since a traditionally patrilinear structure is replaced by a family organisation centred on the rejection of otherness, placing the sole mother–daughter relationship at the centre of filiation, and thus taking on the mask of a matrilinear structure. Discussion These various elements suggest the need to take account of the articulations between psyche and culture. It is clear that it is important to hear the subject on the multiplicity and the complexity of his/her different components, and that the understanding of psychopathological situations can be enhanced by the contributions of anthropology. Humans should be reduced neither to their unconscious functioning, nor to their particular culture. This also shows that in some instances the position of a subject in relation to the group can be an indicator of a pathological family functioning. Conclusion First of all, this work shows the impossibility of putting a name on an “incestuel” family functioning and the ensuing confusion. Resorting to the aetiology of the witch-child appears here as a metaphor of this type of functioning, on account of the equivalent unconscious fantasies that underpin the two dynamics. However, only the articulation of the two registers, culture and psyche, in the setting of work on meaning, will enable the subjects concerned to embark on an elaboration. It is here that, by way of metaphorisation, this work cane enable a process of translation, figuration and individuation to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Objectifs Repenser la filiation psychiatrique de nombre de théorisations analytiques de la « transsexualité », en désigner les points de butée, pour voir si et comment il est possible de penser une psychanalyse de la post-transsexualité. Chercher à voir si la théorisation psychanalytique peut se départir de certains dogmatismes théoriques et recouvrer sa visée hétérotopique. Méthode Mise en exergue de l’hétérotopie comme motif commun aux transidentités et à la psychanalyse. Qu’elles présentent un mimétisme de la binarité de genre ou une conception transgenre bouleversant cette binarité, les transidentités produisent des hétérotopies des modèles du féminin et du masculin. L’approche psychanalytique vise, elle aussi, dans son fonctionnement, une dimension hétérotopique : elle articule un paradoxal « savoir de l’inconscient », où le savoir et ses catégories positives sont déconstruits, dans un questionnement de l’origine et de l’adresse de toute posture discursive, et suit, elle aussi, les six principes foucaldiens de l’hétérotopie. Mise en exergue de l’historicité de catégories de la métapsychologie, perpétrant une préoccupante maltraitance théorique, clinique et idéologique, et procédant de visions essentialisées des sexes et des genres. La fluidité de la théorisation analytique se rigidifie dans certaines théorisations des « transsexualités », les rapprochant de la psychose ou de la perversion et les inscrivant dans un refus de la différence des sexes. Résultats Déconstruction de certains outils analytiques ou psychiatriques pour repenser les transidentités. Les réaménagements sont théoriques : il s’agit de penser une psychanalyse hétérotopique, foucaldienne et ouverte aux apports féconds des Gender , Queer et Transgender Studies . Il s’agit également d’aborder par la multiplicité les apories de la binarité ou de l’identité. Les réaménagements sont également cliniques et articulent une tentative de repenser les protocoles, de pointer la maltraitance des visées « thérapeutiques » et de restituer l’expertise aux sujets trans. Discussion Comment concilier la pertinence d’instruments théoriques et leur véridiction (leur archéologie et leur généalogie), pour les resignifier ? Le propos est de concevoir des instruments métapsychologiques et cliniques susceptibles de rendre compte de la spécificité des identifications et des vécus transidentitaires, et construits par-delà la normativité sociale, culturelle et politique de la binarité des sexes. Conclusions Nécessité pour une approche psychanalytique d’écouter les savoirs locaux et minoritaires. Nécessité pour cette approche de se détacher des visées psychiatriques d’évaluation de la « transsexualité » et du « vrai sexe ». Nécessité de réaffirmer l’hypersingularité de chaque sujet trans par-delà la généralité de la nosographie ou des catégories étiologiques. Nécessité de repenser les contre-transferts théoriques et cliniques induits par ces questions et d’historiciser la catégorie de « différence des sexes ». Objectives The aim of this article is to explore the psychiatric origin of many psychoanalytical theories of “trans-sexuality” and pinpoint their limits, so as to envisage the possibility of post-trans-sexuality psychoanalysis. The article asks whether psychoanalytical theory can move away from theoretical dogmatism and recover its heterotopic viewpoint. Method The article starts by proposing heterotopia as a motive common to trans-identities and psychoanalysis. Trans-identities, whether they mimic the binarity of gender or overturn it, invariably generate heterotopias of femininity and masculinity. The psychoanalytical approach too, by way of its functioning, is also aiming for a heterotopic dimension: it sets out a paradoxical “knowledge of the unconscious” that deconstructs positive knowledge categories, and questions the origin and the recipient of any discursive position. In this respect, it follows the six Foucauldian types of heterotopia. Our paper goes on to consider the historical dimension of certain metapsychology categories that prove to be theoretically and clinically harmful, and proceed from essentialized conceptions of sex and gender. The generally flexible perspective of psychoanalysis can rigidify in the setting of certain theories of “trans-sexuality” assimilating it to psychosis or perversion, or to a denial of sexual differences. Results Certain psychoanalytical and psychiatric tools need to be deconstructed in order to reappraise trans-identity. The reorganisation is theoretical: the aim is conceive to a form of heterotopic psychoanalysis that is Foucauldian and open to the fertile perspective of what are known as “gender, queer and transgender studies”. This multiplicity of approach is intended to enable an apprehension of the aporiae of binarity and identity. The reorganisation also concerns the clinical sphere, endeavouring to question official protocols, pinpoint deleterious “therapeutic” perspectives, and restore the expertise to the “trans” subjects. Discussion How can we reconcile the relevance of theoretical tools and their veridiction (their archaeology and genealogy), in order to resignify them? The task is to try to design metapsychological and clinical tools liable to reflect the specific identifications and experiences of trans-identity, escaping from the social, cultural and political normativity of sexual binarity. Conclusions There is a need in psychoanalytical approaches to lend an ear to local and minority knowledge. There is likewise a need for these approaches to look beyond psychiatric assessments of “trans-sexuality” and determination of the “real sex” of an individual. The hyper-singularity of every “trans” subject should be reasserted, freed from the general nosographies and etiological categories. And there is a need to re-think the theoretical and clinical counter-transferences generated by these questions, and to historicize the category of “sexual difference”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper uses the notion of consciousness as a starting point and a guideline for a theoretical discussion aiming to demonstrate the contradictions and impossibilities of the successive representations of the psychic apparatus that are the two Freudian topics, and justifying a change in the theory: splitting the notions of perception and consciousness and, consequently abandoning the Perception-Conscious system (Pcpt-Cs), which was the central element of Freud''s thinking when evolving from his first to his second topic. Freud was unknowingly referring to and rephrasing one of Descartes’ postulates, which is incompatible as such with the concept of unconsciousness. From an epistemological standpoint, it is ironical that the philosophical school of thought, which proposed, after Leibniz and before Freud, the hypothesis of an unconscious life, sustainably defended, as the very basis of this hypothesis, the principle of a separation between perception and consciousness. This is something, which Freud never realized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objectives: The objective of this paper is to analyze the perverse psychological functioning. The author starts by a reminder of the difference between perversion and perverse psychological functioning. Then, he proposes to approach the subject from an ethological and ecological framework: By distinguishing the meaning between a behavior and its function, it appears that control of territory and social rank are observable perverse skills. The psychoanalytic propositions are also discussed. The propositions of this study have some similarities with Freudian metapsychology (particularly the concept of cleavage) but also a major difference: According to the author, the pleasure principle that is automatically assigned to the pervert need to be revisited. Patients and methods: This theoretical contribution is based on clinical practice in prison (one of the few places where a pervert is encountered in a clinical setting). We propose a three-arguments based method for understanding the adaptive dimension of perverse psychological functioning. First argument: The first view is the model of depression and social rank according to evolutionary psychology. According to the author, the pervert has high skills to assess his Social Attention Holding Potential (SAHP). Furthermore, he is an expert in mastering human territory. Second argument: The pervert seems opposed to the schizophrenic patient for the perception of salient stimuli that are a source of social information. The theory of salience syndrome (following the social neurocognition) makes it possible to conceptualize the excellent perception''s skills of the perverse subject. Third argument: Phenomenological philosophy studies the concept of intuition (as opposed to intelligence). Again, this psychological dimension should be regarded as very well controlled by the perverse subject. Results: When we analyze these results, we note a social “hyperadaptation” of these patients. But we have to note that there are moments (short but important) of mismatch and maladjustment. These “perverse moments” are very important to be observed and regarded as a pathognomonic symptomatology of the perverse functioning. This fact probably distinguishes the “leader” from the “pervert”. The specificity of the perverse functioning should be viewed as a continuum of adaptation along which an individual may pass from “hyperadaptation” on the one hand, to moments of failures and mis-adapting on the other hand. Conclusions: The pervert is well adapted to his social environment and is a specialist in relationship and “territorialization”. He has excellent perception''s skills and relational intuition. But in the other hand there are specific moments for which ones the “mis-adapting” is totally complete. This entity requests a specific diagnostic category. This acknowledgment would facilitate research and studies on this type of psychological functioning. But it is probably difficult to have a nomothetic knowledge about the perverse personality. Indeed, some elements such as the limited number of subjects who accept to be evaluated, their elusive logic, their tendency to refuse to cooperate in a study if there are no benefits represent some obstacles. These arguments force us to have a non-conventional research method even though there is not a lack of a nosographic entity. Finally, we note that a perverse psychological functioning is complex to identify, partly because it requires time as well as an observation framework. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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Abstract: Participants in the study were Jewish Holocaust survivors (n =89). A total of 70 respondents constituted the trauma group. The remaining 19 participants were regarded as the controls. The control group consisted of persons of Jewish nationality who had experienced the trauma of anti-Semitic persecution, but their life had not been directly threatened. The aim of the study was to find out whether feelings of guilt and shame are still present in narratives of the Holocaust survivors, years after their traumatic experiences. A quantitative analysis of responses concerning guilt and shame feelings revealed no significant differences between the study group and the controls. The paper presents a historical outline of thought regarding survivors’ guilt and shame. Combining data reported in the literature and contemporary narratives of the survivors, it can be hypothesized that we are confronted with a dynamic process of the survivor''s working through grief and bereavement. An open question remains whether the bereavement process can be completed in survivors – it is difficult to complete because of the extent of trauma. Completion of the process is perhaps possible, but requires more time, besides, some conditions must be fulfilled first – particularly, a place for the Jewish Holocaust should be acknowledged and affirmed not only in personal narratives, but also in social discourse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Connections between body and psyche are regularly studied in the field of psychosis. One of the reasons of that recurrence is the fact that schizophrenic psychosis deconstructs the discursive system and exposes its bodily roots. In the first part of this paper, we remind several authors (Dolto, Pankow, Aulagnier, Golse, Delion, Piaget, Stern i.e.), whose works are showing how the mind develops on the basis of sense – and bodily experiences. In the second part, we examine the specificity of the schizophrenia as regression to the autoerotism and we mention Freud''s idea of the “organ''s language”. The organ''s language represents the use of bodily symbols into the discourse; those symbols have to be interpreted like dreams. Finally, two clinical examples illustrate those elements. We examine the idea that, even if the nosographic category “schizophrenia” has not necessarily to be defended, there is perhaps a common clinical feature defined by the place of the body in the discourse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper approaches the issue of the difficulty concerning the use of the first person pronoun in autistic children, aiming to establish a link between such impairment and the impaired development of the concept of self and other, and of the building up of psychic space and tridimensionality. As a theoretical background, we consider the existence of an early interaction structure, which contains presymbolic representations of self, other and the relationship between them. We raised the hypothesis that such structure, constituted along infant-caregiver face-to-face exchanges, is internalized as a whole, allowing a tridimensional mental representation of the dyad. Thus the infant is able to adequately experience both internal and external spaces, a prerequisite for the ability to use the first person pronoun. The infant facing his mother becomes aware that not only there is a space but also a relationship between them, which allows the understanding of two different positions: now the “I” belongs to one person, now the “I” belongs to other person. Fragments of psychoanalytic material of an autistic boy are given to illustrate the difficulties concerning both the use of first person pronoun and the spatial arrangements for adjusting oneself to the position of the other. The author''s conclusion is that, if the early infant-caregiver face-to-face exchanges are impaired, the interaction structure may be deviant, hindering the building up of internal space, of the notion of tridimensionality and of the necessary altercentric inversion that enables the child to use the first person pronoun correctly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, the author attempts to define the symptomatology presented by latency children, as well as the clinical approach and psychotherapeutic technique that can be used with them. The overall clinical picture that such children present when they are seen in consultation nowadays has changed considerably from that of some 10 to 15 years ago. Many children have been unable to set up defence mechanisms that would allow them to process giving up their omnipotence and their Œdipal wishes. They continue to manifest an excessive degree of excitability linked both to an apparently limitless stimulation coming from their immediate circle and from the wider environment, and to a significant increase in internal and external narcissistic demands relating to the modern world. The author argues that in any therapeutic technique with latency children, their excitability will have to be contained and these issues tackled; this will enable the children to develop their own fantasy world and restore the boundary between their internal world and external reality, between the real and virtual dimensions, between their parents’ generation and their own, etc. These boundaries, the author argues, are vital for the child''s future development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to outline the concept of symbolical debt in psychoanalysis, stressing its historical and epistemological constitution, from Freud to Lacan. For that, the importance of the anthropological tradition is stressed, by Mauss to Lévi-Strauss, for the production of this concept in Lacan. Moreover, it sketches the existing impossibilities in the contemporaneity regarding the symbolical debt; consequently, printing out the increase of violence and criminality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Lacan has left a teaching, mainly in his “seminars”, which is often synthesized, simplified and reduced to a simple explanatory theory, principally regarding psychotic process. Such a simplifying view can become a discriminatory, iatrogenic conception of the psychotic person and of the psychotherapeutic (or psychoanalytical) treatment. In the first part of this paper, the author tries to show that Lacan’s teaching was principally a transmission of the psychoanalysis itself, in different ways, as half-sayings, ambiguity, poetry and style, topology, mathems… Lacan passed himself on as a possibility of analytical opening, like in a cure. He does not generate a rational discourse, but he proposed several different theories as simple “vectors”. In the second part, the author puts some concepts as “Name of Father foreclosure”, “borromean knot” and “object a” into a political (within the psychoanalytical community) and historical context. If those items of Lacan’s teaching are diverted from their primal function of “vectors” and are considered as explanatory theories, then they lose their pertinence and can lead to a stigmatizing conception and to possibly iatrogenic attitudes in the treatment. That will be examined further. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present text is a commentary of the paper about Lacanian conception of psychoses. The text examines three groups of criticism. On the reproach that the Lacanian conception implies a binary logic sustaining the idea of incurability of psychoses, the author considers that the Lacanian model proposes a structural point of view, which needs to be completed by the other Freudian points of view (topics, dynamic, genetic and economic). On the reproach that this conception leads to the exclusion of madness from society, he remarks that the study of counter-transference when working with psychotic patients is more able to explain the difficulties they face for community insertion and rehabilitation. On the reproach that this theory induces a practice that recommends to act in upon the reality of psychotic patients as the mere possibility of therapeutic action, he highlights that working with psychotics always needs a therapeutic acting in, and this statement means that psychiatry and psychoanalysis have to seek for a theory of acting in. In conclusion, the author considers that the Lacanian conception proposes an anthropological point of view that specifies the human psychic word; this point of view is maybe a radical one, but it does not lack arguments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, the different psychoanalytic lectures of “Hamlet” are confronted to new findings claiming Hamlet to be guilty of his father''s murder (Bayard, Enquête sur Hamlet, 2002). Then, Shakespeare''s masterpiece is discussed as a paradigm of paradoxality and ambiguity from which stems its unbroken fascination. Instead of determining arbitrarily if Hamlet or Claudius are the villains, a new interpretation uncloses a third possibility of who might be responsable for the king''s death: what if Hamlet''s mother Gertrude has conceived the King''s murder? Finally, the author points out the heuristic value that “Hamlet” contains both as a paradigm and an enigm, for the theory and the practice of nowadays psychoanalysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with Jacques Lacan''s understanding and application of cybernetics, focusing on the role played by mathematicians Guilbaud and Riguet. I state that there is a mix-up in Lacan''s discourse: where the cybernetic theme is mentioned, the true idea does not occur; and where it does, it is not explicit. Recent psychoanalytic literature is then consulted regarding the ignorance of the contribution of cybernetics and cognitivism to the epistemological renewal of psychoanalysis performed by the “retour à Freud”, and the potential consequences of this ignorance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The possibility of a psychoanalytic treatment or cure in the case of a psychotic patient is the controversial subject of many discussions. We are reminding in this paper Freud''s different positions about this subject, in order to show his ambivalence. We examine further the hypotheses and techniques that are proposed by several schools of psychoanalysis and we show how the technical rules of the treatment are resulting mainly of theses hypotheses concerning the etiology and the pathology. The technical rules are inducing a particular position of the analyst, which is different for each school. We assume that these postures are not excluding each other, but they are reflecting particular “moments” of the treatment, or specific “techniques” which are more or less appropriated for each category, we explicit different postures and we match they with these proposed by Freudian, Lacanian or Kleinian authors. The imaginary transference is the one described by Freud in “An Outline of Psychoanalysis”. It represents the transfer on the analyst''s person of an early significant figure (imago). We argue the idea that the initial transference of a psychotic person is a transfer of “functions”, as in the R-scheme described by Lacan. The symbolic transference involves the language, i.e. the working out of a delusion. The real transference is the contrary of the neurotic process of “uncovering” the object: it is the one, which grasp the object into the discourse. We argue the idea that there is a possibility of structural mutations between psychosis and neurosis. The structure is conceived as a preferential pattern of relationship (transference) at a “m” moment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The psychoanalytical therapy of schizophrenic patients is traditionally based on the development of a positive transference and on an interpreting, holding analytic work. In this paper, we present the case-study of a patient for whom all “making-sense” work became persecuting. We will name this very ambivalent person an “alterno-valent” patient. Within this conflicting transference, only a humoristic approach allowed us to develop a trustful relationship with the patient. We describe the subversive nature of this relationship-humour, which is to take a completely opposite position to the analytical position, but to remain nevertheless attentive and empathic. We show further how this humoristic play serves us to interpret the transference. The humour-concept is assimilated to the Freud''s “Witz”. We refer further to the literature in order to describe the psychotic transference as an oscillating movement between “transference-erotomania” and the “let-down-position”, both also deleterious. We propose the idea that the therapist''s effort to make sense could induce in psychotic patient a psychic disorder who acts first as a defence (against the confusing pointing of the Big Other), second as a guarantee for the permanency of the relationship (the subject''s disorder engage the Big Other in an organizing work). We also use “the concept of “projective identification””-concept, which is considered not only as the projection against bad objects, and also as a mechanism that allows the projection of the working-out abilities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with the object of psychoanalysis, trying to define the elementary conditions of this object in both practice and theory. The author emphasizes the notion of the object as a lack, and the concepts of repression and transference. He showns how the psychoanalytic conception of the object could enlighten some aspects of the contemporary clinical field. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Three stages (with quite different characteristics) can be distinguished in Spanish psychopathology throughout the 20th Century: 1) From the beginning of the Century to the Civil War (1900-1939). 2) Franco’s period (1939-1975). 3) The democratic stage (the last quarter of the Century). Spanish psychiatrists before the XXth Century were basically under the influence of French theories. These were replaced by the hegemony of German psychiatry that was also replaced, in the last decades, by Anglo-Saxon influence. Spanish psychopathologists have not been very original, but some of them (Sanchi´s Banu´s, Lo´pez Ibor, Llopis, Valenciano, or Castilla del Pino) reached personal theoretical contributions that deserve to be remembered. This paper studies the main influences that Spanish psychopathology has received, from neurohistology and German descriptive psychopathology, through psychoanalysis, phenomenology and existential analysis, to anti-psychiatry, biological psychiatry and current atheoretical quantitative psychiatry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: The psychoanalytic concept of specular image refers to the complex construction that associates the body image with the language coordinates of the individual, thus making him/her a human subject. The acquisition of this specular image implies the loss of corporeal exchanges between mother and child, i.e., the “neutralization” of those body parts or extensions where these exchanges take place. These conceptions of body image and subjectivity lead to the hypothesis that neurological disturbances of body schema may alter the patients'' subjectivity and their relation to the lost “object” insofar as they alter body image.Material: In the present paper, we present two patients aged under 50, with a unique first ever stroke due to ischemia in the right middle cerebral artery territory and asomatognosia.Methods: On one hand, Bisiach''s protocol was used to assess hemiplegia, sensory troubles, visual troubles, hemineglect and anosognosia, and adapted to assess asomatognosia. On the other hand, subjective data were gathered during a semistructured interview and a self-portrait test.Results: This showed that asomatognosia was accompanied by a destructuration of body image and aberrant oral manifestations involving the paralyzed hand.Discussion – Conclusion: The psychological positive phenomena accompanying asomatognosia might correspond to the intrusion of the lost object in the patients’ psychic reality, due to the alteration of body schema and body image. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]