Dealing with “new fears”: Psychoanalysis facing global threats and terrorism

Abstract

In the present time of increasing global stress and threats from outside reality, there arise “new fears” of destruction, of annihilation, and of loss of existence. As a consequence, psychoanalysis is faced with new challenges. It is expanding its range to face the fears that arise from these global threats. This requires special attention to analysts’ personal transference and their resistance against it to enable them to be used as a container for the fears of their patients.

Key words:

• global threats
• external reality
• transference/countertransference
• personal transference of the analyst

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Ermann

Author

Michael Ermann, Professor, MD, is a training and supervising analyst in Berlin, Germany. From 1985 to 2009 he was head of the Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Munich. He is a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association and the German Psychoanalytic Society (DPG), having been president and a member of the board of the latter from 1987 to 1995. From 1982 to 2016 he was a delegate and member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies (IFPS). He is chief editor of the Forum der Psychoanalyse and was formerly a co-editor of this journal (the IFP), where he has published several papers. (www.m-ermann.de)