Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):7-8
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-1
Here we find ourselves with the first issue of a new decade, following the ten-year anniversary of the Journal’s founding.
Rejoicing at the support offered by the Journal’s founders, the feedback from our readers strengthens our belief in the future existence of the Romanian Journal of Psychoanalysis (RJP) and the serious and dedicated work of its team, contributing to the promotion of written psychoanalysis.
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Keywords: editorial
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11(1):11-14
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-2
The approach of authenticity and the authentic is among the subjects that are of great interest to the Romanian Journal of Psychoanalysis, especially since it comes as a continuation of the previous theme, the psychoanalytical perspective over identity. Like identity, the authentic allows for the differentiation of the individual and the affirmation of his or her uniqueness, in relation to the Other.
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Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):17-36
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-3
: In his work “Selfpresentation”, written in 1925, Freud brings up an old remark Fliess made on the spiritual nature of the dream. A dream would be spiritual “by necessity”, as “the straight and immediate path leading to the expression of thoughts is closed”. Wit would thusly also have to be considered in dream interpretation. But this notion of Freud’s leaves aside the relation between wit, comedy and humour, explored in the very last chapter of his book Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious (1905).
It is in his analysis of the Rat Man (1909) where, without forming a theoretical approach on the relationship between comedy, wit and humour, Freud more implicitly sketches the way analytic work can transform the comical (in this case, the comic involved in the symptom of constraint, which involves a “comic of movement”) into wit, and wit into humour. The present work asks to know whether this trajectory, so present in this famous case study of Freud’s, is not, in certain respects, present in all analytical work.
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Keywords: humour, dream, comic, wit, case writing, obsessional neurosis
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):37-50
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-4
This article reviews the importance of the double for the integration of narcissism and the formation of the Self. A brief review of Freud’s articles On Narcissism and The Uncanny serves as a starting point for reflection on the narcissistic double.
The article On Narcissism uses the myth of Narcissus as reference. With regard to the uncanny, it demonstrates the frequent appearance of the double in literature and in certain intensive regressive states, or the disorganization of the Self, along with the disturbing relationship between the familiar and the uncanny.
Subsequent contributions from contemporary authors, such as de M’Uzan, have developed this concept within normal evolution and pathological formations.
The concept of the mirroring object has been theorised by different authors such as Lacan, Winnicott, and Kohut, among others, pointing out the importance of the object in the formation of the subject, and the ways of mirroring transference in the analyses of this type of narcissistic functioning, along with the associated technical difficulties.
The function of the internal and external frame is considered to be a third necessary for (re)constructing the triangulation. One clinical case illustrates some transference-countertransference difficulties in these cases.
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Keywords: identity, Narcissus myth, narcissistic double, mirroring object, third
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):51-64
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-5
: The deportations that took place in the Moldavian SSR featured several traumatising instances: deportation, uncertainty, stigmatisation, survival in harsh conditions, the violation of all rights, loss of loved ones, witnessing multiple deaths and the threat of one’s own death. The interdiction to speak of these events, enforced for almost five decades, was a specific part of this trauma. Identification with the aggressor, the exaggerated tendency to adapt, the annullment of one’s own authenticity, and the development of false Self — all these were defence strategies indispensable for many of the deported. The descendants of the deported bring in the psychotherapy conscious and unconscious messages their predecessors transmitted: “Be cautious, do not act out, do not stand out, be quiet, be loyal to your superiors, believe no one, the ones closest to you will sell you out”. A slow process of metabolising trauma, by former generations and the lifting of the interdiction to speak of said trauma have facilitated openness in the most recent generation to a psychotherapeutic endeavour.
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Keywords: trauma, identification with the aggressor, false Self, authenticity, identity, trans-generational transmission
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):65-92
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-6
Maturescence is not a synonym of midlife, but a really special period during midlife. In this paper the author deeps into his previous ideas about the metapsychology of maturescence bringing about a new set of «opening doorways» in order to open the discussion to new horizons —not blurred by chronic repetitions—, as if he challenged himself and the reader to think of aging again from the very beginning. His idea is to show the importance of aphanisis —the fear of the dissappearance of sexual desire, a psychoanalytic concept relatively forgotten— to understand the emotional and psychical most common true «latent content» related to maturescent processing. To get to the point, he fights with several indirect ways of understanding —something he calls «intruders of thought» and «deviants of thought», among others items— to focus on the topic of the painful riddle of death (Freud dixit). Finally, he also poses what he names «the natural position»: the acknowledgement of paradox and uncertainty as the true driving force towards wisdom and creativity not only in artists but also in «simple mortals».
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Keywords: maturescence / midlife / aging / aphanisis / uncertainty / death
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):93-107
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-7
Authenticity and the authentic, despite the absence of a consistent metapsychological conceptualization, is an important milestone in psychoanalysis, since defining the authentic, its conceptual and metapsychological setting from a psychoanalytic perspective, can be an exciting challenge for a psychoanalyst for whom abstinence and neutrality are structuring guidelines. At the level of common language, authenticity is often attributed to spontaneous attitudes, behaviours or reactions. At the level of the psychoanalytic paradigm, spontaneity implies forms of manifestation that could belong to unelaborated, unprocessed drive dynamics that elude the censorship and the psychic transformation processes. There are reactions through an act that eludes the experience of psychical working over or the working-trough process specific to psychoanalysis. So the question naturally arises: how can we remain authentic if we transform the drive from a spontaneous reaction into a complex expression that uses representations and cultural forms carried out across several levels of symbolisation? What could the meaning of authenticity be, considering the concepts of psychical working over, working-through and transformation, specific to the psychoanalytic thinking and clinical experiences?
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Keywords: : authentic, truth, complexity, reverie, inform, process
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):129-148
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-9
The paper aims to illustrate the issue of authenticity during the training as a psychoanalyst, first establishing a meaning for the concept of ‘authenticity’, and following the factors involved in the process of ‘authentication’ (a term used contextually as describing the process of acquiring authenticity). Three sources are considered to influence the candidate’s interventions during sessions: their own analyst, their supervisor for the training-cases, and the theory (respectively, the authors of the articles most influencing the candidate’s clinical and theoretical thinking). These three factors involved in the process of acquiring authenticity are addressed in the three sections of the paper, the conclusion being that all of them share the same fate, in a movement of authentication allowing in the end the debut of a life as an analyst in one’s own name.
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Keywords: authenticity, authentication, analyst, supervisor, theory, candidate
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):151-170
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-10
Authenticity may be difficult to assess in schizophrenia. The evolution in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a patient, J., under care at a day centre, shows a form of changing that would allow authenticity. From the beginning, J. speaks of two themes, repeated at each session: the seismic situation of the world, and the “vision” he claimed to have experienced it in the past, a cinematic hallucinatory occurrence. J. gives the impression of being dominated by mental automatism. Some events mark his institutional care, both outside the psychotherapy, but also within. After four years, two moments of authenticity are to be noted: the first is a declaration of transference, the second having to do with a more commonplace aspect. Both moments show emotional overload, but leave no doubt about the patient’s personal involvement.
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Keywords: acting out, automatism, hallucination, institution, psychotherapy, psychotic transference
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):171-186
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-11
Neutrality and subjectivity represent notions that seem contradictory in the analytic process, with further clarification and integration, both conceptually and clinically, being required. In a relational context, neutrality should be regarded as a tendency towards balance between safety and danger, the equidistance between the three impulse-Ego-Superego instances, and not as indifference or inactivity. In a broad sense, neutrality means to keep countertransference under control and not to impose values, as well as the non-judgemental willingness to listen and learn. The analyst’s ability to remain unbiased is inevitably limited, as the object of our investigation — the patient’s psyche — cannot be perceived as isolated, uncontaminated by the instrument of analysis, which is the analyst’s mind itself. Analytic activity, including the manner in which the therapist listens and makes punctual technical decisions, is influenced by the psychological individuality and subjectivity of the analyst. Inter-subjectivity relates to the developmentally-acquired capacity to recognize the other person as a separate centre of subjective experience, to attribute an inner state-of-mind to others. The analyst’s subjectivity is important, and the manner in which the patient perceives it must be acknowledged. Exploring the patient’s perception of the analyst’s subjectivity is a major element involved in transference analysis.
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Keywords: neutrality, subjectivity, relationship, process, enactment, countertransference
Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):189-194
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-12
Through its richness and multiple perspectives and references, this book by the erudite psychoanalyst Vladimir Marinov seems to represent a great argument in favour of the idea of multi-determinism in psychoanalysis. The author regards the artwork, in this case sculpture, from so many points of view that, while reading, our interest for the artistic works of sculptors Constantin Brâncuși and Alberto Giacometti, and for artistic work in general, receives numerous explicative hypotheses and clarifications while also growing in intensity: each answer deepens the multi-dimensional profoundness of the explored artistic creation.
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Rom J Psychoanal 2018, 11 (1):109-126
doi:10.26336/rjp.2018-1101-8
: In this paper I examine the overdetermined significance of the small gifts offered to me by my analytic patient, Miss A. — in particular, her wish to escape from the memory, re-lived in the transference, of her deprived childhood, into the fantasy of an extra-analytical relationship. Miss A’s presents, mostly cards, were hidden in the envelope containing the money for my fees and they were never openly talked about. Their meanings emerged, in the course of the analysis, as focusing on early pre-œdipal conflicts of oral, anal and phallic-intrusive quality. The analysis of Miss A’s communications through gifts allowed us to explore and understand a number of important aspects of her personality and psychopathology.
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Keywords: gifts, emotional deprivation, extra-analytical relationship, acting-out, intrusiveness, psychoanalytic technique
Abstract: The papers published in the ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS have undergone editorial screening and anonymous double-blind peer-review. They may be reviewed by the Editors, Editorial Office staff and assigned peer reviewers unless otherwise permitted by the authors.
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Abstract: ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS only receives original articles for publication (in electronic or printed form, in English, French or Romanian) about any psychoanalytic theme. When submitting an article, the author must confirm that the paper has not been published elsewhere and is not being considered for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part, and is intended for sole publication in the Romanian Journal of Psychoanalysis.
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