Affects and globalization

As early as 1895 in The project for scientific psychology, Freud discussed the significance of psychological qualities. He used “qualities” to refer to the differentiation between internal and external realities. He was of the opinion that the consciousness was needed to perceive this difference. Later it was Freud's opinion that drives make themselves felt as ideas and affects. He considered that the affects were potentially harmful. Thought is destroyed if the affects pour into the ego and the consciousness in an uncontrolled manner. The ego must therefore guard itself against free invasion by affects. In this statement, Freud implies a function that moderates the access of the affects to the consciousness. This moderation means that the affective life can function analogously with reason and that it in fact can deepen it.

But, in 2008, it is not only the ego that must guard itself. After September 11, 2001, we live in a new era, in which terrorist use fear and terror as a weapon to induce psychological states that make free consent impossible. “Today we are in a process of redefining both terrorism and war,” writes Philip Bobbitt in his challenging, complex book Terror and consent: The wars for the twenty-first century. He argues that, in order to protect the open societies, the war against terror has to be fought on different fronts: against global networked terrorism like al Qaeda, against the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and also to prevent or mitigate genocide, ethic cleansing, and the human rights consequences of civilian catastrophes, for example when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. As a law professor, also serving in the White House in periods, he emphasises the need for reformation of international law and a clear definition of terrorism.

However, from history we also learn that either the law or the internalization of the law of the father or the capacity to think protects us against evil, our own potential to take part in evil acts. Harald Welzer tries to understand what it is that motivates the perpetrators, normal family men and harmless ordinary people, to murder fellow citizens in his book Perpetrators: How ordinary people become mass murderers. It is scary reading, and a scary reminder of how fast German society changed between 1933 and 1945.

During this short period, national socialistic thinking was established resulting in the exclusion of Jews from the universe of obligation. Welzer argues that the fate of the Jewish community was sealed in an edict from 1933. At that time, a civil servant defined who was Aryan and who was not. This edict gave ordinary Germans a possibility to improve their material welfare at the same time as they could claim that they only followed the law. Within the space of a few weeks, a server at mass in church can turn into a mass murderer if the appropriate social and situational environment pertains. For many men, it became natural to kill a fellow human being, even if there was a possibility to say no. But instead of refusing, most of these men followed the basic assumption of the group. Few individuals had the autonomy and ethical judgment making it possible to say “You simply cannot do this.”

Such an independence and moral integrity is found in Irène Némirovsky's unfinished Suite française. In this book, she is portraying life in France between June 4, 1940 and July 1, 1941, the period during which the Nazis occupied Paris. She writes in a way that makes it possible for the reader to sense her love for life. At the same time, she empathically demonstrates how difficult it might be for a person to keep her integrity in a period of turmoil, when love has to fight with other loyalties.

One of the main characters, Lucile Angellier, whose husband is a prisoner of war, unwillingly falls in love with the German commander, Bruno von Falk. Love unites them but deep differences and loyalties keep them apart. When Lucille listens to Bruno's music, she contemplates the individual and the group, reminding herself that the present will vanish, but after ten or twenty years this beautiful music written by Bruno still will exist. In these few sentences, she formulates her values and love of life. Lucille's emotions are in harmony with reason, making her clear minded and courageous.

In this issue of International Forum of Psychoanalysis, we have collected articles discussing affects from different theoretical positions. Romulo Aguillaume, in his article “Affect in psychoanalysis theory and practice,” argues that, regardless of the theoretical model, the goal of psychoanalytic practice is to incorporate emotions into the field of representation, granting the psyche a certain degree of stability. Bobbitt's book on terror and consent is an example of an intellectual work, which is necessary for contemporary intellectuals in order not to be overwhelmed by fear and terror.

From our clinical work, we know that in each individual there is a continuous evaluation of unpleasure and pleasure, or in other words of the hedonic tone. This evaluation influences the subject's decision to approach or withdraw from an object that arouses its interest. Even if pain often results in immediate withdrawal, there are a number of situations and conditions in which the subject is prepared to endure not only disinclination, but also considerable pain in order to achieve a desired goal. The feeling of pleasure connected with the ability to master anxiety is linked to the concept of functional pleasure, as Fenichel defines it. In their article “The concept of functional pleasure: Should it be abandoned?,” Siegfried Zepf and Florian D. Zepf argue that functional pleasure should be linked to the unpleasure principle, resulting in a separation from the principle of acquiring pleasure.

Zvi Lothane also discusses the question of acquiring pleasure in his article “The uses of humor in life, neurosis and in psychotherapy: Part 1.” Referring to Freud, he claims that humour is not resigned. It is rebellious and it liberates the subject from a cruel reality and gives temporary relief from intolerable stress. Lothane also emphasises that humour is a social phenomena. It takes either two or three persons to appreciate a joke.

The social and the interpersonal relation is in the centre of the theory of Karen Horney as it is outlined by Mario Rendon in his article “The vicissitudes of affect in Horney's theory.” Rendon presents his reading of Horney's theory from the perspective of affect. He claims that:

as an inner compass, affect results from evaluations, promotes actions, allows communications, and is crucial in learning. Affects consist of adaptations motivating behaviours, in situations where a flexible response–which includes more refined variation–is preferable to a reflex or instinctual response. It is a bridge instinct and reason, hence its ambiguous nature.

Simo K⊘ppe, Susanne Harder, and Mette Væver complicate the understanding of affects. In their article “Vitality affects,” they examine how this concept is developed in the writings of Daniel Stern. Vitality affect refers to a dimension of experience in which individual meaning corresponds to a series of basic forms including vital processes such as breathing, as well as the experience of music and dance.

These basic forms are rooted in our constitution, personal history, and affective memories. Such basic forms affect us as psychoanalysts and especially the way we are able to hold our patients, the joy and fear we are able to share with them, and the way we communicate the overall aesthetic experience of the psychoanalytic process. This theme has been elaborated by Christopher Bollas. Karla Hoven-Buchholz reviews his last book The Freudian moment.

We certainly live in the shadow of our memories. Lawrence M. Ginsburg, in his article “Young Freud's linkage with Persia,” gives us new information of a linkage between the young Freud and the Persian poet, scholar and Sufi mystic Dshami.

This issue of International Forum of Psychoanalysis also contains two other book reviews. Zvi Lothane reviews a book about Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893–1933. Expressionismus-Psychoanalyse-Judentum. Finally, Marco Conci reviews Eveline List's scientific biography of the first woman psychoanalyst, Margarete Hilferding.

Writing this editorial, I look forward to the Forum in Santiago de Chile in October 2008 with the theme Identity and globalization: The new challenge for psychoanalysts. Globalization means that we are entering a new era, which Fareed Zakaria calls the post-American world. All over the world, the social context is in rapid change. This development strains social bonds, with a deep impact on the subject and his or her identity.