Discussion of the Prague Papers: Calling the Term “Radioactive Identification” into Question

Abstract

In this discussion of papers presented at a 2017 conference in Prague devoted to the ideas of Otto Fenichel, the author questions the usefulness of the term “radioactive identification” and suggests that the idea of projective identification may suffice to address specific clinical and political situations. The author distinguishes between the suppression of historical facts that can come to haunt subsequent generations and the eradication of traumatic events (such as the Shoa) where words first have to be found to circumscribe and then describe the unfathomable experiences human beings endured.

Keywords:

• Lacan
• projective identification
• radioactive identification
• Shoa
• the real.

Notes

¹ See, for further discussion, Dahmer (2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeanne Wolff Bernstein

Jeanne Wolff Bernstein, PhD, is the past president and supervising and personal analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC). She is on the faculty at PINC and at The Sigmund Freud Privatuniversität, Vienna, and NYU Post-Doctoral Program for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She was the 2008 Fulbright Freud Visiting Scholar in Psychoanalysis at the Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria, and is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Freud Museum, Vienna. She is a member of the Wiener Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse and works now in Vienna. She has published numerous articles on the interfaces between psychoanalysis, the visual arts and film.