Ethical Presence in the Psychoanalytic Encounter and the Role of Apology.

This paper discusses aspects of ethical presence in psychoanalysis, and the possible use of apology in the therapeutic process. The author roughly delineates two periods in the history of psychoanalysis regarding the ethical dimension-the early classical period which is influenced by Freud's ethics of honesty, which gradually evolves towards the more recent intersubjectively-influenced period, necessitating the assimilation of an ethics of relationships. It is suggested that explicit theorizing of the ethical dimension into psychoanalysis offers added value to its effectiveness, and a framework is presented for combining relational, intersubjectively informed ethical dialogue, with contributions of classical technique, enriching the therapeutic potential of psychoanalytic work.

Re-conceptualizing Neurosis as a Degree of Egocentricity: Ethical Issues in Psychological Theory.

Psychology's historical rejection of ethics has led to an oversimplification of the origins and treatments of mental disorders. In this article, we present an analysis of how classical neurosis can be reformulated from an ethical and psychological interaction. We focus on the crucial role that egocentricity plays and argue that this term can help to clarify how ego defensive ethical decisions can undermine psychological capacities and contribute to a progressive depersonalization that can result in typical clinical disorders. In Christian anthropology, the virtues, especially humility and love have a crucial role in the positive growth of human affective and cognitive capacities. In addition, the person in his/her nature is endowed with the capacity to transcend the self and to escape egocentricity through self-giving love of God and of others. This capacity of self-giving is diametrically opposed to egocentricity and opens a new way for possible psychological recovery.

["There can be no unnecessary risks"]. / « Il ne saurait y avoir de risque inutile ¼.

The psychoanalytical point of view regarding the notion of risks helps us to understand the concept of transference and counter transference. Practice analysis groups provide an opportunity for collective discussion and the sharing of experience of clinical situations. Interview with Didier Gauchy, a psychiatrist-psychoanalyst in Lyon.

Working online due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a research and literature review.

Given the contemporary situation of many analysts in the world now being forced to work online due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to review the working online issue. Substantial debate over previous years has questioned whether a genuine analytic process can unfold through online work. This debate is reviewed with the conclusion that such a process is not necessarily precluded. Research outcomes are then reviewed to highlight those things that can facilitate positive outcomes when working online. These cover the 'online disinhibition effect', the therapeutic alliance, particular ways of using the screen, focussing on trauma, the importance of self-awareness, knowing the predictors of mental health, certain potential positives of isolation/quarantine and psychotherapy interventions that may be currently needed. Final recommendations and suggestions are then presented as in the diagnosis issue, professional development and guidelines to do with practical and ethical considerations.

Etant donnée la situation actuelle dans laquelle beaucoup d'analystes dans le monde sont maintenant obligés de travailler en ligne du fait des effets de la pandémie de COVID-19, il est important de revisiter le sujet du travail en ligne. Dans les dernières années, il y a eu un débat important sur la question de savoir si un authentique travail analytique pouvait se déployer dans le cadre d'un travail en ligne. Ce débat est revisité ici avec la conclusion qu'un tel processus n'est pas nécessairement rendu impossible. Les résultats de recherches sont alors étudiés afin de souligner les éléments qui peuvent faciliter des effets positifs quand on travaille en ligne. Cela recouvre 'l'effet de désinhibition du travail en ligne', l'alliance thérapeutique, les manières particulières d'utiliser l'écran, se concentrer sur le traumatisme, l'importance de la conscience de soi, la connaissance des indicateurs de santé mentale, certains aspects potentiellement positifs de l'isolation/la quarantaine et les interventions psychothérapeutiques qui peuvent alors être avisées. Des recommandations et des suggestions sont enfin présentées au sujet du diagnostic, de la formation continue et des consignes sur les considérations pratiques et éthiques.

Dada la situación contemporánea de muchos analistas en el mundo forzados en la actualidad a trabajar en línea debido a los efectos de la pandemia COVID-19, es importante revisar el tema del trabajo online. Durante los años previos, un debate sustancial ha cuestionado si un genuino proceso analítico puede llevarse a cabo a través del trabajo online. Este debate es revisado con la conclusión de que semejante proceso no está necesariamente impedido. Los resultados de la investigación son luego revisados para destacar aquellos elementos que pueden facilitar resultados positivos al trabajar online. Los mismos abarcan, 'el efecto online de desinhibición', la alianza terapéutica, los modos particulares de usar la pantalla, el focalizarse en el trauma, la importancia del autoconocimiento, el conocer los predictores en salud mental, ciertos potenciales positivos del aislamiento/cuarentena e intervenciones en psicoterapia que pueden ser necesarias en la actualidad. Se presentan recomendaciones finales y sugerencias, en el tema diagnóstico, desarrollo profesional y guías con consideraciones prácticas y éticas.

How the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty can help us understand the gulf between clinical experience and the doctrine of evidence-based psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to examine the gulf between clinical experience and the doctrine of evidence-based psychotherapy from the perspective of the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence-based psychotherapy, which requires that psychotherapists ignore their thoughts and feelings with individual patients in favour of following standardized manuals and guidelines, is being increasingly promoted as part of evidence-based medicine (EBM). However, this represents an inappropriate extension of logical empiricist philosophy and significance testing methodology, on which evidence-based medicine is founded, to psychotherapy. It sacrifices a search for truth in psychotherapy, for an illusory search for certainty. The inevitable consequence of this is that psychotherapy becomes a commoditised pseudorelationship. Merleau-Ponty provides an alternative ontology, based on the primacy of perception, that gives an epistemological foundation for the search for truth and integration as a basis for psychotherapy. The practice of evidence-based psychotherapy raises serious ethical concerns about pseudorelationships being passed off as authentic, which could lead to missed opportunities to engage mentally ill patients in treatment and to reinforcement of their damaging sense of alienation.

[Preliminary questions to a reflection on clinical impasses]. / Questions préalables à une réflexion sur les impasses cliniques.

The definition of 'clinical impasse' depends not only on the clinician who-as the proposed argument suggests-would be faced to his powerlessness in specific situations, but this definition is tributary to the clinical and theoretical field inscribed within this clinician's practice. Thus, for example, the practice of psychotherapy and the practice of psychoanalysis implies very different if not opposed positions of the clinician, bringing on the patient's side, very specific difficulties and impasses. In the field of psychoanalysis conceived essentially as a practice of the ethical, one cannot address this notion of 'clinical impasse' without first questioning the position of the analyst, not as much in his rapport with theory and technique used but mainly by questioning the point and the locus within himself from which he directs the treatment. Likewise, for the analysed, can what entails impasse in the treatment be indissociable to the ethical position of the subject?

Impossible Ethics.

The proper practice of psychoanalysis repudiates a rule-based code of ethical conduct. A conflict exists, however, between Freud's rejection of the Biblical commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself and his development of psychoanalytic techniques that demand something very much of this ilk. Other essential conflicts in analytic practice include the impossibility of removing the analyst's desire from the analytic relationship, the unruly nature of unconscious processes in both analyst and analysand, and the après-coup nature of ethical recognition. A discourse of ethics is recommended in which analysts are called on to consider the ethical demands of each clinical moment. Ethical demands on the analysand, as well as the analyst, bring to light the way in which analysis rests on the foundational ethical situation into which humankind is born.

Consenting and Assenting to Psychoanalytic Work.

The moment is opportune for a renewed look at what we understand about patient consent to treatment. Until recently, little reference to informed consent could be found in the literature, as though it has never been a preoccupation for psychoanalytic practitioners. Yet several post-Freudian authors offer reasons to suppose the risk of misunderstandings about consent. In fact, the very discovery of transference, replete with unrequited infantile wishes, implies that at some level, at some moment, in every psychoanalytic treatment there will be moments when "consent" will to some extent vacillate. A distinction, justifiable on etymological and intersubjective grounds, is made between patients' consent as a cognitive, somewhat passive, acceptance and patients' assent as an arduous, conflicted, partial disagreement with the symbolically limiting details of analytic work. It is in the discovery and working through of unexpected unconscious responses to aspects of the analytic setting and to the analyst that patients become "informed" of the unique risks to their psychic equilibrium the process poses, as well as its benefits. Instead of a static and unitary contractual event, informed consent in psychoanalysis is more properly conceived as a multilayered, repetitively posed, and necessarily ambivalent process of good-enough assenting over time.

Tender Is the Night: romantic tragedy or the tragedy of boundary violations?

In the author's reading, Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night (1934) is a sustained investigation of the incest taboo and of the psychological pressures that can lead to its collapse in the clinical situation. This novel allows the reader privileged entry into the "case" of a clinical boundary violation in a way that no scientific paper can permit. Drawing on Chasseguet-Smirgel's (1976) concept of the illness of ideality, the author uses this novel to demonstrate why none of us is safe from the possibility of erotic involvement with a patient.

Patient-Targeted "Googling:" When Therapists Search for Information About Their Patients Online.

The ubiquitous nature of the internet and of online social networking has created new opportunities but also challenges for the psychotherapist. Former notions of anonymity and privacy are now infeasible as a result of massive information sharing through electronic media. The clinical repercussions of these changes are being extensively debated, but issues involving patient privacy and anonymity have not been sufficiently explored. Although several aspects of the impact of the internet on therapeutic setting-such as the need for psychotherapists to exercise caution when making personal information available online-have been addressed in the literature, there has been comparatively little discussion on psychotherapists seeking information about their patients on the internet, a phenomenon known as "patient-targeted googling" (PTG).

Disquiet in the consulting room: everything/nothing that is said here is confidential.

Writing from experiences in the consulting room in private practice in Australia, the author refers to the layered complexity of a conflict of ethical duty which has legal and social implications. The paper explores how the ethics that are congruent with creating a safe vas bene claustrum can be diametrically opposed to the social and legal structures and processes on which we all rely. It is suggested that within the vas, analysts and analysands engage in a shared process of emotionally connected, layered, symbolic thinking. Subpoenas directed at analysts are seeking concrete evidence that will stand up in court. The paper argues that this is a category error based on ignorance and misconceptions of what analytic work entails. The intrusion of a subpoena into the vas has the potential to cause havoc in the mental health and the lives of already vulnerable, possibly traumatized and isolated individuals. It can undermine a fundamental human right and undermine the profession of psychotherapy as a whole. The paper proposes that analysts have an ethical obligation to protect the work contained within the vas from these category errors and to educate other professionals as to why we cannot provide the kind of evidence that the courts require.

Ecrivant à partir d'expériences de sa pratique avec sa patientèle privée, en Australie, l'auteur souligne la complexité s'étageant sur plusieurs niveaux d'un conflit concernant un devoir éthique qui a des implications légales et sociales. L'article étudie comment l'éthique congruente avec la création d'un bon vas bene claustrum peut être diamétralement opposée aux structures et processus légaux et sociaux sur lesquels nous nous appuyons tous. Il est suggéré qu'à l'intérieur du vas, les analystes et les analysants sont impliqués dans un processus partagé de pensée symbolique, à plusieurs niveaux, et reliée aux émotions. Les assignations adressées à des analystes demandent des preuves concrètes qui tiendraient lors d'un procès. L'article argumente qu'il s'agit là d'une erreur de catégorie provenant de l'ignorance et de l'incompréhension sur ce que le travail analytique implique. L'intrusion d'une assignation dans le vas risque potentiellement de faire des ravages dans la santé psychique et la vie de personnes déjà vulnérables, et peut-être traumatisées ou isolées. Cela peut porter atteinte à un droit humain fondamental et saper la profession de psychothérapie dans son ensemble. L'article suggère que les analystes ont une obligation éthique de protéger le travail contenu dans le vas de ces erreurs de catégorie et d'éduquer les autres professions sur la question de pourquoi nous ne pouvons pas fournir la sorte de preuve dont les tribunaux ont besoin.

A partir de experiencias en su práctica privada en Australia, la autora hace referencia a los distintos niveles de complejidad de un conflicto de deber ético que tiene implicancias sociales y legales. El trabajo explora como la ética congruente con la noción de crear un vas bene claustrum seguro puede ser diametralmente opuesta a las estructuras sociales y legales y a los procesos sobre los cuales todos nos apoyamos. Se sugiere que al interior del vas, analistas y analizandos se comprometen en un proceso compartido de pensamientos simbólico, emocionalmente conectado. Las citaciones dirigidas a analistas buscan evidencia concreta que se sostendrá en la corte. El presente trabajo argumenta que este es un error de categoría basado en la ignorancia y la incomprensión de lo que implica el trabajo analítico. La intrusión de una citación dentro del vas tiene el potencial de hacer estragos en la salud mental y en las vidas de individuos ya vulnerables, y posiblemente aislados y traumatizados. Puede debilitar un derecho humano fundamental y la profesión de psicoterapia en su totalidad. El artículo propone que analistas tienen una obligación ética de proteger el trabajo contenido al interior del vas de estos errores categóricos, así como de educar a otros profesionales respecto a porqué no es posible proveer esta clase de evidencia que la corte requiere.

E-mail and psychiatry: some psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic perspectives.

In this paper, we consider the use of e-mail in psychotherapy and its impact on the experience of therapy for both patient and clinician. We discuss in detail the potential for boundary compromise by e-mail use and consider how e-mail may undermine the therapeutic alliance and the cultivation of empathy. Case studies illustrate the possible positive aspects of e-mail and elucidate several fundamental problems with any use of e-mail in psychodynamic treatment.

Ethics in the termination of analysis.

The author argues that the termination of analysis raises not only theoretical and technical issues but also problems of evaluation that are both moral (what is good or bad with regard to termination) and ethical (what is the best way of achieving the intended objective). Broadly speaking, he considers that the subject can be addressed from three different aspects: (a) a psychoanalysis of ethics; (b) an ethic of psychoanalytic treatment; (c) an area of intersection between psychoanalysis and ethics that has to do with mankind 's norms and values. The termination is particularly well suited to investigation of the intertwining of ethics with other aspects of psychic functioning. A specific description is given of the conflict between the 'limit' and 'completeness', the limit being connected with the analysis and the wish, while completeness is the possibility of experiencing the analysis and one's personal life as endowed with the 'sense of an end-point'. The conflict may be expressed in dramatic or tragic forms that can be productively explored through the Aristotelian concepts of peripeteia and recognition. The termination process offers material for establishing an ethics of the limit, highlighting the psychic role of moral judgement and the need to evaluate this role if a satisfactory termination is to be achieved.

The price of a gift: an approach to receiving gifts from patients in psychiatric practice.

When a patient or patient's family presents a psychiatrist with a gift, the clinician is challenged to maintain appropriate professional boundaries but have the flexibility to respond with warmth and appreciation. The psychiatrist must consider such factors as the intention of the gift, its value to the patient, and the anticipated effect of accepting or refusing it on the patient and the treatment. Psychiatric practitioners are ethically obligated to consider patients' best interests when deciding about how to handle the offer of a gift. Ethical deliberations about such situations occur on a case-by-case basis and require careful analysis of how to promote the patient's best interest while adhering to professional ethics. In this article, members of the McLean Hospital Ethics Committee present a pragmatic model for managing the presentation of a gift from a patient or a patient's family member. The pragmatic model, which focuses on the practical results of accepting or declining the gift, minimizes the risk of exploiting the patient by accepting a gift or hurting the patient by declining it. We present five clinical cases that raise ethical dilemmas concerning patient gift giving in psychiatry and discuss each case from the standpoint of the pragmatic model.

What if there is an ethical dimension in psychoanalysis?

The implications of an ethical dimension in psychoanalysis are explored, together with the questions whether and in what sense analysis has anything to contribute to ethical reflection, and whether and in what sense ethical considerations can play a role in analytic theory and process. As regards theory, analytic construction of an ethical agent would require a refocusing of structural and dynamic considerations in order to provide an integrative source of decision-making capacity to serve as the responsible agent in ethical deliberation, choice, and action. Suggestions are made for formulating the nature of the ethical agent in terms of a theory of motivation rather than of drive, and in terms of an integrative theory of the self. To the extent that analysis involves ethical considerations, the way lies open for dialogue and mutually enriching contributions of analysis to ethics and vice versa. Various aspects of the analytic perspective are explored that in themselves carry ethical implications or can be enriched by ethical reflection. Beyond theoretical considerations, the interaction between ethical factors and genetic, structural, and dynamic issues in clinical psychoanalysis loom as matters for future exploration.

Losing a training analyst for ethical violations: a candidate's perspective.

The author presents her experience as the analysand of a training analyst who was investigated and expelled for ethical violations with another patient, including sexual-boundary violations, during her analytic training. While boundary violations by training analysts are not uncommon, the particular trauma experienced by 'bystanders' such as candidates and supervisees is not discussed in the literature, nor the response of institutes to the educational problems that are generated. The author illustrates the complications for candidates that arise from the dual roles of training analyst as educator and analyst when he or she faces investigation or censure, including isolation and secrecy, which promote various splits in the candidate, analytic dyad and group, as well as loyalty conflicts. The discussion covers three phases of the author's experience as a candidate-analysand, namely the period encompassing the institute's ethics investigation, the announcement of findings to her and to the institute as a group, and the ensuing individual and group dynamics generated by her analyst's expulsion from the institute and revocation of his medical license. Theoretical perspectives are utilized to understand the group regression, including contamination and contagion fears, which occurred in the wake of the training analyst's expulsion, and the impact of these processes on the candidate, including the pressure to function as a 'container' for projections of the group. Implications and recommendations for candidates and institutes are made for dealing helpfully with trainees who are affected by the process of dealing with a training analyst's ethical violations. Short-term and longer-term outcomes of the experience are considered.

Ethics and endings in group psychotherapy: saying good-bye and saying it well.

Endings in group psychotherapy are suffused with complexity and potential conflict, some of which entail ethical quandaries. Ethical issues attending endings in group therapy are explored through a discussion of informed consent, time and role boundaries, privacy and confidentiality, unplanned endings, therapist-initiated termination, and competence. Findings from an exploratory survey of members of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and clinical-ethical vignettes are presented to highlight these issues. Clinicians need to develop and maintain ethical fitness and awareness, including attunement to personal responses, to endings and loss.

Too close for comfort: the impact of dual relationships on group therapy and group therapy training.

The healing power of psychodynamically oriented therapy and training groups rests, to a large degree, upon the quality of the here and now interactions. For the work to be effective, the basic principles of analytic group work need to be followed, including the observance of no extra-group contact. Simply said, nothing leaves the room. This principle has both ethical and clinical implications. It is my premise that while some forms of outside contact between members are relatively benign, other types are not. Outside contact that is built into the fabric and context of the group may pose a risk, as may be the case where dual relationships exist between members. The impact of dual relationships between group members in the particular instance of analytic training institutes is the focus of this article. What happens to the transference in this context when members reveal too much of their personal lives to each other through dual relationships is explored. It is suggested that extra-group contact can disrupt the balance between reality and transference distortion in group interactions in at least three ways: (a) "The Emperor's New Clothes" effect, (b) looping, and (c) gaslighting. Vignettes are presented to illustrate these phenomena and suggestions for reform are offered.

Ethics and the sexual countertransference.

In this paper I shall suggest that, in addition to 'conscience', the archetype of Eros plays an important part in 'benign relatedness' and that this is what constitutes an ethical attitude. I also propose that the idea of 'benign relatedness' can provide us with a workable concept for those serving on Ethics Committees especially when our Code of Ethics is unclear or limited. I attempt to show that the analytic attitude is essentially ethical and define what I see as the analytic attitude as a way of demonstrating this. By discussing the neurotic sexual countertransference and unconscious identity I hope to clarify the main reasons for unethical enactments. I use examples of ethical problems, including a personal experience, to illustrate the kinds that occur and lastly I discuss how mourning plays an important part in the resolution and avoidance of these problems.

The invasion of reality (or of negotiation): The psychoanalytic ethic and extinction anxiety.

Extinction anxiety is the expression used to describe a pervasive and ever more realistic sense of futurelessness. A group emotion characterized by terror of the extinction of the human race, the family, or professional or shared cultural group, it grips the individual with a sense of desperation and impotence through the internal groups present in the mind of every individual. The contribution presented here aims to demonstrate how extinction anxiety has also infected psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic institutions, thereby seriously weakening the ethics of psychoanalysis. The term ethics here should not be confused with morals, but is intended as the happiness that is derived from the capacity to be responsible for one's self and one's own professional identity. The contagion of extinction anxiety has, in fact, accentuated the crisis of psychoanalysts and their faith in psychoanalysis. The author relates a particularly tormented clinical experience in order to show how only the relationship with psychoanalysis and its capacity to interpret the manifestations of the unconscious, enables the recognition of the effects of what he defines as a true invasion of reality, thus restoring to thought the power to establish a deep, transformative, and fecund relationship between internal and external reality.