Editorial
Francis Grier, the new Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, thanks the editors and consultants of the IJP, and looks forward to a flourishing future for the journal.
Psychoanalytic theory and technique
Drawing on Freud's conception of “attention” and Bion's emphasis on the power of observation, Avner Bergstein reflects on the analyst's attempt to approach the unrepressed unconscious and explores the clinical implications of “intuition.”
Tracing the origin of Bion’s concept of “extension” in the work of the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, Didier Houzel argues that “extension” is central to Bion’s exploration of psychic growth and the analytic process, in particular the transference. The concept of “extension” helps to dissect the role of the analyst’s intuition, argues Houzel.
In her examination of remote analysis, Stefanie Sedlacek argues that it can promote regression to idealised object images, but previously repressed biographical memories can also be experienced in the “double virtuality” and so worked through. With the distance and presence fostered by remote analysis, the psychic reality of unfulfilled longing can be made palpable.
Berdj Papazian examines the transgenerational roots of somatising mechanisms in “bubble babies,” or children who are “neutropenic” or develop arthritis. These transgenerational pathologies are triggered by obstacles in oedipal structuring, a denied symbolic castration, and destructive aggression occurs, with possible epigenetic components. Papazian postulates a splitting of the primordial self at the level of the proto-mental.
History of psychoanalysis
Between 1920 and 1925 a shift occurred in psychoanalytic theory that related primarily to the status of aggression. Ulrike May explores the European authors who participated in this change, and to what extent they prepared the ground for the reception of Melanie Klein’s work on aggression. The author also looks at how Freud distanced himself from this departure from the primacy of the sexual.
Outlining J.O. Wisdom’s critique of Bion’s Learning from Experience, Joseph Aguayo examines Wisdom’s crucial distinction between the scientific/deductive aspect of Bion’s book from its clinical/inductive trajectory. In this way, Aguayo offers a contemporary guide for a way of reading Bion’s Learning from Experience.
IPA Guest Speaker paper
In her Guest Speaker paper delivered at the International Psychoanalytical Association Congress, Siri Hustvedt draws on what she calls the umbilical connection – which is literal and figurative – to explore the between states in creativity and psychoanalytic healing.
Obituaries
François Ladame writes an obituary of Eglé Laufer (1925-2021), Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society and Founder and President of the Brent Centre for Young People, reflecting on her exceptional work with severely ill adolescents and her idea of the body as an internal object.
Catalina Bronstein provides a touching biographical account of Eglé Laufer’s life, and outlines some of the wide contributions Eglé Laufer made to adolescent psychoanalysis, including on the impact of pubertal changes, the adolescent’s relationship to the body, developmental breakdown, and adolescent suicide.
Film essay
Christopher W. T. Miller, Lindsay L. Clarkson and Donald R. Ross explore the film First Reformed through a psychoanalytic lens, looking at the paranoid-schizoid mindset that underlies both ruthless exploitation of the planet, and impassioned objection to destruction of the environment. The authors argue that a more integrated mental relationship with the environment can facilitate concerned, preservative action.