Orthodox Psychoanalysis

Orthodox PsychoanalysisKLEINThe understanding of personality (the individual )is the foundation of the understanding of social life(Klein 1959)

FAIRBAIRNAll sociological problems are ultimately reducible to problems of individual psychology(Fairbairn 1935)

WINNICOTTThe clue to social and group psychology is the psychology of the individual(Winnicott 1958)

NORBERT ELIAS

Norbert Elias (1897 - 1990) was a sociologist who focused on relationship between power, behaviour, emotion, and knowledge across time

Humans are by their nature made for each other….(Elias 1991:91)

Norbert Elias – Key Ideas

Figurations of InterdependenciesHumans are oriented by both nature and nurture

to exist only in interdependent relationship with others

Interdependent figurations link the psychological to the social.

As these figurations change, individual personality structure necessarily changes as well.

The individual and society (figurations) are therefore inseparable

Norbert Elias – Key IdeasPersonality and social structure are in

close interrelationship; as social structure changes, so does the individual personality structure

internalised conventions

External constraint becomes internalized to produce automatic restraint

Norbert Elias – Key IdeasCentral to all human relationships:

Power - a structural characteristic of human relationships

Interdependency

Language - it is the linguistic community that opens the horizon in which man can understand himself as an individual

Norbert Elias – Key Ideas

Considered the dichotomies below as socially constructed fictions;

- The biological and the social - The external and the internal - The individual and the group

Created a synthesis of different perspectives and traditions

Norbert Elias‘Human being is constantly developing himself.’

Norbert Elias

Does not modern man behave more rationally than people in pre-modern societies?

Does he not control his urges more successfully, from sexuality to aggression?

Is it not precisely as the development of a better, and above all more stable, form of self-control and the control of feelings that civilisation unfolds ?

.

FARHAD DALALHis first degree was in Physics.

He taught Maths and Physics in comprehensive schools in London for 14 years.

He trained as a psychotherapist, then as a group analyst

Farhad Dalal

‘We are permeated to the core by the social – the ‘I’ is constituted by the ‘We’’

Farhad Dalal – Key IdeasEach individual is born into a social

milieu and is permeated by the prevailing discourses embedded within that milieu

These discourses are fundamental and integral to the developing individual self

What is prior to the infant is what is written into the fabric of the social

Farhad Dalal – Key IdeasDalal reverses mainstream psychoanalytic

thought;

The understanding of social life is the foundation for the understanding of (the individual’s) personality(from Klein)

All problems of individual psychology are ultimately reducible to sociological problems(from Fairbairn)

The clue to the psychology of the individual is social and group psychology(fromWinnicott)

Farhad Dalal – Key IdeasNEW PARADIGM

If we begin:NOT WITH the individual(eg Klein,Freud)NOR WITH the individual- in -relation with another individual(eg Winnicott,Fairbairn)NOR WITH individuals-in-relation (eg Foulkes)BUT WITH individuals- in-social-relation (eg Elias) – DIFFERENTIALS in POWERINTERDEPENDENCY AND POWER – CENTRAL TO ALL HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

The Social UnconsciousIT IS NOT THE SOCIAL IN THE

UNCONSCIOUS

The representation of the institutionalisation of social power relations in the structure of the psyche itself.

In this sense it is the bridge between the social and the psychological (Dalal 1998)

The Social Unconscious

‘What is invisible to us are the rules and constraints, and the sociocultural power figurations in which they are embedded, all of which structure our being …………………..and it is this that I take the structural or social unconscious to be’(Dalal 1998)

The Social Unconscious

‘The possibilities available to any individual are constrained by the power relations in the milieu into which the individual is born.……………………the nature of the so called true individual authentic self cannot be other than fundamentally constituted by where it is positioned in the power relational field’ (Dalal 2001)

LYNNE LAYTONTeaches psychoanalysis, at the Massachusettes

Institute for Psychoanalysis

Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School

Editor of ‘Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society’ - International journal critically addresses the intersection between psychoanalysis and the social world and explores the roles psychoanalysis might play in bringing about social justice and progressive social change

Normative Unconscious Processes

Describes the psychological consequences of living within particular;

Gender Class Race HIERARCHIES Sexuality

Normative Unconscious ProcessesIn US culture:

Gender HIERARCHIES Class Racial Sexuality

Produce a variety of social norms and ideologies that require splitting of ;

DEPENDENCE from INDEPENDENCE

Normative Unconscious ProcessesIn US culture;

Regimes of power, social norms and ideologies Hierarchies of race, gender, class and sexual orientation Condition the development of identity and relational patterns Produce versions of autonomy, dependence and selfhood that require the splitting of human capacities eg Dependence/Independence Separation /Individuation Cognitions/Affects


MIDDLE-CLASS MALE NORMATIVE IDEAL

Autonomy/Assertion/Agency /Ambition – valued

Vulnerability, dependency and emotionality are split off and repudiated as "feminine”, shameful

Men were pulled to develop a grandiose and dominating sense of self, one in which the other is devalued and the need for the other is denied.

Normative Unconscious ProcessesCapitalist Patriarchal Society – Version of Maculinity

Norms of middle-class masculinity idealised a form of autonomy that comes into being by splitting off/repudiating ;dependency,vulnerability,and embeddedness in relationships /intimacy


Ideal Version of Femininity

Self - esteem rooted in attachment and relationality;

Relational and caretaking capacities - valued

Ambition and assertive strivings allowed if relational priorities not threatened

disapproving glances……..

‘……………..It is the damning glances, harsh words and withheld love that penetrate the psyche and that, when repeated over time, push one to split off parts of oneself in order to get or retain love and approval.’

Layton, L. (2007) ‘What Psychoanalysis, Culture And Society Mean To Me’, Mens Sana Monograph 5:1, 149

‘Gagged and chained to the feminine role’Toril Moi, Professor of English and philosophy at Duke University - literary critic, feminist

Cited in Katie Conboy and Nadia Medina (1997) Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory, N.Y: Columbia University Press, p102

‘………………thus do psychological structures such as dependency, agency, vulnerability, reason, etc. become gendered, raced, classed and sexed.’

Layton, L. (2007) ‘What Psychoanalysis, Culture And Society Mean To Me’, Mens Sana Monograph 5:1, 150

Normative Unconscious ProcessesPatients tend to have no idea that

what they suffer from is:The way they are split in twoWhy is it so difficult to feel like a

man when feeling vulnerableWhy it is so hard to simultaneously

accomplish a sense of : Competence AND Connection

Lynne Layton – Key IdeasIn her clinical work Layton emphasizes the link between personal and social distress; between the dominant discourses within society in relation to race, gender, class, sexuality which limit what is psychically possible for the individual

She makes explicit ways in which oppressive ideologies and socio - political contexts may perpetuate psychological distress and encourages her patients to challenge these discourses and to to co-construct, through therapy, new and more advantageous personal narratives

Lynne Layton – Key IdeasOur identity and social position are

intrinsically interwovenPsychoanalysis should speak to the loss of

social provision and abandonment of social responsibility

Suggests expanding psychoanalytic interventions outside the consulting room to social agencies and institutions

Promotes the idea of psychoanalyst as social critic and activist

Lynne LaytonClinical Considerations

The importance of ideological power in human distress

Ways in which ruling ideologies and mainstream discourse within society (e.g. in relation to race, gender, class, sexuality etc.) shape subjective experience and identity

Deconstructing oppressive discourses

- not being seen as the pathological other - alleviation of distress through challenging ideas of self-blame - therapeutic construction of more advantageous personal narratives


How do we account for the intersection of society and individual subjectivity?

In what ways are societal norms lived?

How do normative unconscious processes operate in identity formation?

What effects do cultural hierarchies and unjust social norms have on the psyche?


1.To identify ways that ideology is lived in normative unconscious processes.

2.To listen clinically for the ways that class, race, gender, sexual and other hierarchies shape the psyche and intersubjective relations.

3.To recognize enactments in which patient and therapist collude to perpetuate norms that cause psychic pain.

Lynne Layton

Do political concerns belong in psychodynamic/psychoanalytic treatment?

How do class and politics shape the unconscious?

Modes of Transmission 1. Mirroring & Corrective Feedback Loops

2. Figuration Of Interdependencies

3. Language/Discourse/Ideology/‘Zeitgeist’

4.Hierarches of class, gender, race & sexuality

5. Transgenerational Transmission Of Trauma - ‘‘Chosen Trauma’

Modes of Transmission MIRRORING AND CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK

LOOPSMalcom Pines (1982,1985)•Stresses the critical role of imitation in developmental process•‘Psychoanalysis has neglected the face in favour of the breast’•Gestures, actions, play – imitative mirroring – simulation of dialogue•Link structure and content of the psyche with structure and content of the environment

Modes of Transmission FIGURATION OF INTERDEPENDENCIES

Concept of figuration refers to the network of interdependencies formed by individuals(Elias,1994)

Need to belong;At the centre of groups of belonging are always vortices of power and resources; material,cultural

Modes of Transmission LANGUAGE/DISCOURSE/IDEOLOGY

Symbol Theory (Elias 1991)

Every individual learns a pre-existing social language-thought is an inner conversation

‘to speak,to think,to know….all three activities are concerned with the handling of symbols’(Elias 1991)

The shape and form of symbol is constructed through social activity and power relations

Transgenerational Transmission of Trauma

The past is never dead.It’s not even past.

William FaulknerRequiem for a Nun (1951)

Modes of Transmission TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF

TRAUMA ‘Chosen Trauma’- Vamik Volkan‘Chosen trauma is the shared mental representation of an event in a large group’s history in which the group suffered a catastrophic loss, humiliation, and helplessness at the hands of enemies.’ Volkan,V.(2005) ‘Large-Group Identity, Large-Group Regression and Massive Violence’, Molde presentation July 2, 2005 version, p 8

Modes of Transmission TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF TRAUMA

‘Chosen Trauma’- Vamik Volkan

When members of a victim group are unable to mourn such losses and reverse their humiliation and helplessness, they pass on to their offspring the images of their injured selves and the psychological tasks that need to be completed.

This process is known as the transgenerational transmission of trauma. (For a review and an examination of this concept see: Volkan, Ast and Greer, 2002.)

Volkan,V.(2005) ‘Large-Group Identity, Large-Group Regression and Massive Violence’, Molde presentation July 2, 2005 version, p 8

TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF TRAUMA

The historical trauma becomes embedded in the collective cultural memory of a group and continues to be transmitted to subsequent generations

Trauma, no matter how ancient, mythologically stays alive in the collective consciousness of groups and societies, maintained in stories and other narratives over time

For example, in 1389 – Serbia suffered a traumatic defeat in the Battle of Kosovo at the hands of the Ottomans and Muslims.

Slobodan Milosevic, before becoming president, vowed that Islam would never subjugate the Serbs.

Our own history precedes our birth


Reference for previous slide;East Kimberley, NW Australia, 1906 (Klaatch Collection )


AT THE WHITE MAN'S SCHOOLRob Riley

At the white man's schoolWhat are our children taught?Are they told of the battles our people fought?Are they told how our people died?Are they told why our people cried?Australia's true history is never readBut the black man keeps it in his head Cited in Shane Merritt (2009),transgenerational Trauma of Indigenous People, www.earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au, accessed 15 June 2012

http://www.earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au/

If your work could change one thing in this world – what would it be?

‘To liberate people’s minds from all oppressive ideologies, including religion, into freely chosen and responsible views of the world and human interests.’

A.C, Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London(until June 2011)

Widening the Lens

To more fully understand the nature of human experience, do we need to also look beyond the breast?

‘Our most private and intimate mind, our Sancta Sanctorum is traversed and determined by a gossamer web of multiple relations and contexts’

Tubert-Oklander, J. (2006). ‘I, Thou, and Us: Relationality and the Interpretive Process in Clinical Practice’ Psychoanalytic Dialogues,16:216.

Documents

Orthodox Psychoanalysis