The Power of Stories.

Stories hold an important role in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Their power derives in part from the fact that humans are biologically programmed for storytelling. Stories foster connection with others, socialization, and identity formation. They are integral to all psychoanalytic theories of therapeutic action, and their telling is therapeutic in itself. Psychoanalytic theoretical paradigms can be considered stories, as well. A positive outcome of analytic treatment has the individual emerging with an open-ended story that encompasses past, present, and future. Finally, an autobiographical example demonstrates how shared stories consolidate group identities, uphold and perpetuate a group's power over others, and perpetuate racial and ethnic stereotypes.

Obstacles to oedipal passion.

Many new theoretical and technical developments have extended our understandings of triangular conflicts in the psychoanalytic setting. Yet until recently psychoanalysis has lacked theoretical concepts for passion and, most particularly, for oedipal passion. Contemporary psychoanalytic understandings of the nature of oedipal passion help explain why it is both difficult to articulate and why it continues to be "forgotten". The author argues that individual resistances to oedipal passions reappear and are reinforced in collective theories that distance us from oedipal issues. She presents two clinical cases that illustrate enactments around, and resistances to, oedipal passions within both analyst and patient.

Reckoning with sexuality.

A review of Freud's ideas about the sexual drive and sexuality reveals reoccurring questions: What is the relation between the sexual drive and its somatic underpinnings? Can we integrate formulations couched in terms of meaning with those couched in terms of energy? What is the relation of the sexual drive to other drives, psychic structures and affects? The author focuses on two further questions: what can we understand about the experience of sexual passion, and why is there so much anxiety, regulation, and opposition in regard to sexuality, both individually and generally, even within psychoanalysis itself? The author argues that the discomfort with and repudiation of sexuality are related to the nature of the sexual drive itself and to its origins in early childhood and are tied to many of the issues that have marked its history in psychoanalysis. The author discusses a clinical case of a man who tried to isolate and eradicate his sexual drive. His felt absence of sexual drive is an individual instance of the larger discomfort and unease with the truths about human sexuality around which Freud built his theories of development and mind.

Twos and Threes: Musical Chairs in Female Psychic and Social Life.

Jockeying for position in the context of a threesome is a major preoccupation in female social behavior, and in female inner experience, throughout the life cycle. This oscillating phenomenon can be thought of as "twos and threes." While such configurations are often understood in terms of sibling rivalry or social influences, the focus here is on underlying female triangular dynamics. "Twos and threes" are differentiated from the more familiar rivalries among siblings and from the concept of sibling oedipal triangles. Clinical examples and a contemporary novel by Tana French are presented to demonstrate that concealed and overlooked female oedipal or persephonal conflicts may underlie these experiences and appear in the transference and countertransference.

Supervisory countertransferences and impingements in evaluating readiness for graduation: Always present, routinely under-recognized.

Utilizing detailed, in-depth material from supervisory hours from around the world (explored in End of Training Evaluation groups), this paper shows that supervisors are subject to multiple, diverse and, at times, ongoing intense countertransferences and impingements on their ability to evaluate candidates' progress. Multiple external and internal sources of these impingements are explored. It is suggested that supervisory countertransferences and their manifestation in parallel enactments remain under-recognized, their impact underappreciated, and the information they contain underutilized. It is argued that the recognition, containment, and effective use of the parallel process phenomena and supervisory countertransferences are essential in order to evaluate candidates' progression and readiness to graduate. Common signals of such entanglements in the supervisor's evaluative function are identified. Three remedies, each of which provides a 'third,' are offered to assist supervisors in making effective use of their countertransference: self-supervision, consultation, and institutional correctives.

The femininization of the female oedipal complex, Part II: Aggression reconsidered.

This paper examines and explores the manifestations of aggressive impulses in the so-called female oedipal complex. The authors describe how competitive aggression on the part of young girls, seemingly missing in children's stories and myths, is unconsciously inhibited, disguised, or externalized. They report similar phenomena in women patients involved in triangular conflicts, and present a selected review of the literature on the inhibition of aggression within the female triangular situation. Stressing dynamic patterns in the object relationships in the female triangular situation, the authors offer a psychological explanation for this inhibition. They present clinical material to demonstrate how overt murderous and competitive aggression toward the mother appears after considerable analytic work. They conclude that girls and women frequently relinquish a sense of agency over both aggression and sexuality in dealing with triangular conflicts, to preserve a safe relationship with their mothers.

Countertransference and the female triangular situation.

This paper represents an attempt toward reconciling contemporary changes in psychoanalytic understandings of female development, particularly in respect to separation issues, with their clinical applications to female patients. Psychoanalytic thinking typically has categorized separation conflicts as pre-oedipal, but the authors suggest that these are an integral part of the triangular situation of the girl. The authors argue that an allegiance to erroneous theory and/or individual blind spots have led to the infantilization, pre-oedipalization or cultural stereotyping of females, which constrains the effectiveness of their analyses. The authors present a selected review of the literature on gender-based countertransference biases in both male and female analysts, with reference to female 'oedipal' material. Analytic case material of two women is presented which demonstrates how theoretical misperceptions and countertransferences to triangular separation conflicts can produce an impediment to progression in analysis.

Female sexuality. The pleasure of secrets and the secret of pleasure.

Why are secrets so fascinating and pleasurable, especially for little girls? A review of the psychoanalytic literature suggests that the ability to keep a secret represents an important developmental step. This paper proposes that secrets are integral features of female sexuality and that the sharing of secrets is important in how females relate to each other throughout development. It examines the role of sharing secrets in the psychoanalytic process and presents case material of female patients who cherished secrets and for whom the novel The Secret Garden was a favorite during childhood.

Conflicted gender. The case of a woman who believed she was half male and half female.

The author presents the case of a middle-aged woman who had a fantasy that she was half male and half female, which did not emerge until she was well into her analysis. Initially, the analytic work focused on issues of attachment and trust, as the patient was mute and despairing, and unable to verbalize affects or put together a coherent story of her life. Gradually over the course of her analysis, a history of severe emotional neglect and trauma was pieced together--she had been left at the hospital as a newborn because her mother had not wanted a girl. It was only after the establishment of more comfortable and stable connection to the analyst that the conflicts around gender and the boy/girl fantasy came into focus. Two masturbation fantasies, a primitive, non-visualized sensation of sexual insatiability with abdominal throbbing, and a more traditional beating fantasy were also analyzed. The fantasy of being both male and female, which was conscious since childhood, was both a result of and a solution to more basic issues. It was a sign of problems in integration of internal parental identifications, a shaky maternal attachment, and difficulties in dealing with affect. The fantasy reflected a profound sense of being unwanted and unloved and became a narcissistic solution for these troubling feelings. The author details the interplay of constitutional, familial, and psychological factors that contributed to this solution. Because issues of gender were highlighted in this case, their complex relationship with other underlying factors could be appreciated.

The patient's objects in the analyst's mind.

In every analysis, the analyst develops an internal relationship with the patient's objects-that is, the people in the patient's life and mind. Sometimes these figures can inhabit the analyst's mind as a source of data, but at other times, the analyst may feel preoccupied with or even invaded by them. The author presents two clinical cases: one in which the seeming absence of a good object in the patient's mind made the analyst hesitate to proceed with an analysis, and another in which the patient's preoccupation with a "bad" object was shared and mirrored by the analyst's own inner preoccupation with the object. The use and experience of these two objects by the analyst are discussed with particular attention to the countertransference.

The widening scope of indications for perversion.

Much has changed in clinical practice and theory that bears on the diagnosis and treatment of perversion since Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905). Definitions of perversion have been freed from assumptions of a heterosexual normality and from moralistic interpretations. The authors endorse the current emphasis on aggression and early narcissistic problems and include the notion of splitting and sexualized scenarios in their definition of perversion. They present several vignettes of male and female patients to demonstrate the debts owed to Freud's theories and the way in which their thinking differs. They emphasize the understanding of the transference-countertransference picture and the patient's management and control of excitement.

Edith Wharton's threshold phobia and two worlds.

The American novelist Edith Wharton suffered an unusual childhood neurotic symptom, a fear of crossing thresholds, a condition that might be called a "threshold phobia." This symptom is identified and examined in autobiographical material, letters, diaries, and selected literary fiction and nonfiction left by Wharton to arrive at a formulation not previously drawn together. A fascinating theme-living or being trapped between "two worlds"-runs through much of the writer's life and work. The phobia is related to this theme, and both can be linked more broadly to certain sexual conflicts in women. This understanding of Wharton's phobia, it is argued, throws new light on the developmental issues and conflicts related to the female "oedipal" or triadic phase, characterized by the need to negotiate the two worlds of mother and of father.

Female exhibitionism: identification, competition and camaraderie.

The ancient figure of Baubo plays a pivotal role in the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone with an exhibitionistic act that brings Demeter out of her depression. The Baubo episode raises questions about the meaning of female exhibitionism, suggesting divergences from earlier psychoanalytic conceptualizations as either a perversion or a compensation for the lack of a penis. In line with contemporary thinking about primary femininity, such as that of Balsam or Elise, the authors propose a more inclusive understanding of female exhibitionism, which would encompass pleasure in the female body and its sexual and reproductive functions. They argue that female exhibitionism can reflect triangular or "oedipal" scenarios and the need to attract the male, identification with the mother, competition or camaraderie with other women, a sense of power in the female body and its capacities, as well as homoerotic impulses. The authors posit a dual early desire and identification with the mother that underlie and characterize female sexual development. The authors present clinical data from adolescent and adult cases of female exhibitionism which illustrate these Baubo-like aspects and discuss the technical issues that are involved in such cases.

Clinical implications of contemporary gender theory.

The current intellectual scene in psychoanalysis is marked by vigorous theoretical controversies about gender. The ideas being debated have important implications for clinical work, which have not been thoroughly explicated or integrated into common practice. These implications include the following: gender can accrue idiosyncratic meanings; gender identity is considered fluid and rigidity of gender identity deemed problematic; gender-related conflicts are typically described as divergent; analysis of superego conflicts related to gender becomes particularly important; and, finally, gender-related biases are seen as inevitable and must be taken into account in the clinical situation. A detailed clinical example illustrates the application of these ideas. While the more dramatic cases related to gender have been more frequent subjects of study, conflicts about gender are everyday occurrences for our patients and deserve further attention.