We other narcissists: self-love in Freud and culture.

I examine the paradoxical place of narcissism in contemporary culture, and within the work of Freud. Paying close attention to the repeated moments of equivocation and contradiction within Freud's descriptions of primary and secondary narcissism, I draw on the work of Jean Laplanche, who suggests that the ambiguities in Freud's texts often mirror ambiguities within the constitution of the ego. I argue that we should read Freud's inability to rigorously distinguish self from other in his explications of self-love not - or not only - as a failure on his part, but also as a trace of an alterity at the heart of identity. It is the very 'failure' of Freud's concept of narcissism that leaves it open to the other and makes it remain a vital concept today, when the word narcissism has been reduced to an impoverished notion of self-obsession. In closing I suggest that, with his knotted and never fully coherent concept of narcissism, Freud provides us with a way of thinking about human relationships outside of the binaries of selfless v selfish love that so commonly constrain our popular and theoretical ideas about love.

The primat of the other in psychoanalysis practice: Jean Laplanche contributions / O primado do outro na prática analítica: contribuições de jean laplanche

RESUMO: Laplanche trouxe importantes contribuições para a teoria psicanalítica. Ao retomar os escritos freudianos, o autor traz de novo à cena a sedução, agora como a marca da relação intersubjetiva presente na constituição psíquica de todo ser humano, relação esta assimétrica por excelência entre um adulto e uma criança, entre um sedutor e um seduzido. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir implicações de suas concepções teóricas na prática clínica do analista, onde este, ao manter o enigma, restaura a sedução originária, possibilitando assim novas construções. Nesse modelo, a transferência é vista não como uma resistência que deve ser desfeita, mas como uma reabertura ao originário.

Abstract: Laplanche brought up important contributions to the psychoanalytical theory. When rereading the Freudian texts, the author brings back the seduction scene, now as the mark of the intersubjective relationship present in the psychic constitution of every human being, asymmetric par excellence, between a seducer and a seduced one. The article's aim is to discuss implications of his theory conceptions in the psychoanalytical method, which consists in a revival of the enigmatic and a restoring of the original seduction, resulting in new constructions. In this model, the transference is seen not as a resistance to be broken but as a reopening of the original.

Anti-Racist Racism: Trauma, Traumatism, Traumatophilia.

A particular epistemology of trauma now wields an outsized hold over psychoanalysis. Trauma, we are trained to think, has destructive effects whose ghostly lingerings can, nevertheless, be durably turned into ancestors. But what if we got this wrong? What if trauma is not a piece of shrapnel to be removed but a cause of becoming? And what if the tenet that trauma may be worked through is but a manifestation of a disciplinary spell?Introduction of the concept of traumatophobia invites readers to rethink the relationship of psychoanalysis to healing or repair, and to become attentive, instead, to what subjects do with trauma (traumatophilia). Traumatophilia involves a revivification of trauma, and that is easily confused with compulsive repetition or destructiveness. Traumatophobia, however, also courts psychic energies that can be psychically transformative. For transformation to be possible, however, we need to be working with a notion of psychic life that can be transformed. Careful consideration of a controversial sexual fetish (race play) shows how belated efforts of psychoanalysis to attend to racial trauma have generated new forms of racism: treating the Black unconscious not as a transformative and dynamic force but as housing only repressed representational contents. Considering race play instead through traumatophilia allows a race player's actions to be mined not for unconscious motives or for what past traumata, symbolized or unformulated, those motives carry, but to track their effects. Traumatophilic repetitions, it is argued, deliver traumatisms that may (or may not) be transformational. Questions of ethics are thus central to this paper's thinking, which is grounded in queer of color critique, Black feminisms, and Laplanchean metapsychology. Because traumatophobia preserves the world order (and thus white logics), readers are urged to consider the metapsychology of traumatophilia.

A simbolização do sexual no pequeno Hans / The symbolization of the sexual in little Hans / La simbolización de lo sexual en el pequeño Hans / La symbolisation du sexuel dans le petit Hans

Este artigo examina o caso do pequeno Hans com a finalidade de apresentar sua fobia como um trabalho de simbolização do sexual. A análise de Hans começa com a mãe, em conformidade com a teoria da angústia da época, porém migra em direção ao pai. A principal hipótese de Freud é o recalcamento das moções hostis em relação ao pai. As manifestações do Édipo negativo de Hans são exploradas. O Édipo e a castração são localizados não do lado do recalcado, mas da instância recalcante. O axioma de que o inconsciente é estruturado como uma linguagem é criticado.

This article examines little Hans's case in order to relate the child's phobia with a work of symbolization of the sexual. Hans's analysis starts with the mother, in accordance with the theory of anxiety at the time, but migrates towards the father. Freud's main hypothesis is the repression of hostile impulses towards the father. Hans's negative Oedipus manifestations are explored. Oedipus and castration are located not on the repressed side, but on the repressive instance. The axiom that the unconscious is structured like a language is criticized.

Este artículo examina el caso del pequeño Hans para presentar su fobia como una obra de simbolización de lo sexual. El análisis de Hans comienza con la madre, de acuerdo con la teoría de la angustia de la época, pero migra hacia el padre. La principal hipótesis de Freud es la represión de las mociones hostiles hacia el padre. Se exploran las manifestaciones negativas de Edipo de Hans. Edipo y castración se ubican no en el lado reprimido, sino en la instancia represora. Se critica el axioma de que el inconsciente está estructurado como un lenguaje.

Cet article examine le cas du petit Hans afin de présenter sa phobie comme une œuvre de symbolisation du sexuel. L'analyse de Hans commence par la mère, conformément à la théorie de l'angoisse de l'époque, mais migre vers le père. L'hypothèse principale de Freud est le refoulement des motions hostiles envers le père. Les manifestations négatives d'Œdipe de Hans sont explorées. Œdipe et castration se situent non pas du côté refoulé, mais du côté du refoulant. L'axiome selon lequel l'inconscient est structuré comme un langage est critiqué.

Trauma, subjectivity and subjectality.

Taking a critical stand on contemporary trends in psychoanalysis regarding trauma, the author addresses the problem of psychic trauma mainly in terms of how it affects the patient's status as a subject. After reexamining the notions of subject and subjectivity, the author illustrates the usefulness of the notion of "subjectality," defined as a critical moment of subjectivity, necessary for processing the consequences of trauma. A clinical illustration is provided.

Opening Laplanche's Window: Transference-Countertransference in Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy.

Comparing analytic activity to a spaceship launching, Laplanche (1999, pp. 231-232) suggested that there are "windows;" opportune interpretative moments. Laplanche emphasized the enduring impact of intergenerational "enigmatic messages," such that all individuals cope with an essential "alterity" (otherness to oneself). He did not consider the countertransference implications. I propose that the analyst must also open the self-reflective window and pass through "originary situations" to prepare for intervention. In accordance with Kaes' (2007, p. 98) formulation that "the unconscious is structured like a group," I illustrate how unique windows of opportunity exist in psychoanalytic group treatment. Sharing and competing in a therapeutic space with "like me's," group members reexperience intense "horizontal" as well as "vertical" transferences, as does its leader. Clinical examples illustrate my efforts to mediate among interacting "translations" of early developmental experience-mine as well as other group members-to understand emerging psychic material.

Trieb / Trieb / Trieb / Trieb

RESUMO Duas leituras principais se apresentam sobre o Trieb. Uma delas entende o Trieb como somático. A outra, que este artigo defende, compreende o Trieb como um representante psíquico de estímulos somáticos. Este artigo diferencia três conceitos utilizados por Freud: Instinkt, Reiz e Trieb. Trieb é um conceito-limite, o que não significa que esteja no limite entre o somático e o psíquico. Os Triebe não estão presentes no nascimento, apenas os instintos, que serão pervertidos pelos primeiros. A gênese da sexualidade exige um trabalho psíquico e se dá a partir do apoio. "O pequeno Hans" é utilizado para exemplificar essa posição.

ABSTRACT There are two main conceptions regarding Trieb. The first one understands Trieb as somatic. The other one, which is defended in this article, understands Trieb as a psychical representative of somatic stimuli. It is necessary to differentiate three concepts used by Freud: Instinkt, Reiz and Trieb. Trieb is a limit-concept, which does not mean that Trieb is at the limit between the somatic and the psychical. Triebe is not present at birth, only the instincts, which are perverted by the first ones. The genesis of sexuality requires psychical work and can only be understood though the concept of anaclisis. Little Hans's case is used to exemplify this position.

RESUMEN Dos lecturas principales se presentan sobre el Trieb. Una de ellas entiende el Trieb como somático. La otra, que defiende este artículo, entiende el Trieb como un representante psíquico de los estímulos somáticos. Este artículo diferencia tres conceptos utilizados por Freud: Instinkt, Reiz y Trieb. Trieb es un concepto-límite, lo que no significa que esté en el límite entre lo somático y lo psíquico. Los Triebe no están presentes al nacer, solo instintos, que serán pervertidos por los primeros. La génesis de la sexualidad requiere un trabajo psíquico y se basa en el apoyo. Se usa el pequeño Hans para ejemplificar esta posición.

RÉSUMÉ Deux lectures principales sont présentées concernant le Trieb. L'une d'elles comprend le Trieb comme somatique. L'autre, que cet article défend, comprend le Trieb comme un représentant psychique des stimuli somatiques. Cet article distingue trois concepts utilisés par Freud : Instinkt, Reiz et Trieb. Celui-ci est un concept limite, ce qui ne veut pas dire qu'il est à la limite entre le somatique et le psychique. Les Triebe ne sont pas présents à la naissance, on n'y retrouve que les instincts, qui seront pervertis par les premiers. La genèse de la sexualité exige un travail psychique et repose sur l'étayage. Le petit Hans est utilisé pour illustrer cette position.

Monogamia e identidade: considerações psicanalíticas / Monogamy and Identity: psychoanalytic considerations

Resumo: Entendendo a monogamia como dispositivo contingencial, analisa-se sua capacidade de influenciar os processos de constituição da identidade e as formas de identificação dos sujeitos. A partir das elaborações de Heinz Lichtenstein sobre as origens da identidade humana, incluímos a monogamia, ou alguns traços presentes neste arranjo, na unidade mãe-bebê, supondo que o estatuto hegemônico da monogamia revela algo de sua ligação com a situação antropológica fundamental descrita por Laplanche. Assim, traços do arranjo monogâmico seriam transmitidos à criança em seu estado de "órgão" da mãe e, enquanto pontos constitutivos da identidade, seriam compulsivamente repetidos com o objetivo de manter a coesão desta identidade.

Abstract: With the understanding that monogamy is a contingent device, the paper intends to analyze its ability to influence the processes of identity constitution of the subjects. From Heinz Lichtenstein's elaborations on the origins of human identity, we include monogamy, or some traits present in this arrangement, in the mother-infant unit, supposing that the hegemonic status of monogamy reveals some of its connection with the fundamental anthropological situation described by Laplanche. Thus, traces of the monogamous arrangement would be transmitted to the child in its "organ" state and would be compulsively repeated as constitutive points of identity, in order to maintain the cohesion of this identity.

Idealizações e prescrições psicanalíticas acerca da maternidade em Chodorow: um debate atual / Idelizations and psychoanalytical prescriptions about maternity in Chodorow: A present debate / Idealizaciones y prescripciones psicoanalíticas sobre la maternidad en Chodorow: un debate actual

O propósito deste trabalho é discutir os problemas da idealização da maternidade em teorias psicanalíticas. Adotamos o livro The Reproduction of Mothering como objeto para análise em função de sua repercussão histórica na psicanálise e no feminismo, bem como pela fundamentação teórica utilizada também em recentes estudos psicanalíticos sobre a maternidade. O estudo permitiu evidenciar que, mesmo partindo de uma perspectiva feminista, o livro analisado reproduz a idealização da maternidade, não considerando as ambivalências presentes no cuidado de crianças, nem a possibilidade de mulheres não terem desejo de maternar. A hipótese trabalhada é a de que a perspectiva psicanalítica que dá base para as formulações da autora facilita a prescrição sobre quem pode ou não exercer o cuidado e a reduzir a importância do universo social e desejante de quem cuida. A psicanálise de Jean Laplanche é apresentada como alternativa potencialmente mais aberta para a diversidade presente no cuidado de crianças. Pretendemos com este trabalho evidenciar a necessidade do contínuo debate entre psicanálise e perspectivas de crítica social, como o feminismo, bem como instigar a problematização dos pressupostos das teorias psicanalíticas que se propõe atualmente a discutir os temas da maternidade e do cuidado de crianças...(AU).

The aim of this paper is to discuss the problems of maternity idealization present in psychoanalytical theories. We adopt the book The Reproduction of Mothering as analysis' object because of its historical repercussion in psychoanalysis and feminism, as well as because of its theoretical reasoning also used in recent psychoanalytical studies about maternity. The paper allowed to show that, even starting from a feminist perspective, the analyzed book reproduces the idealization of maternity, not considering the ambivalences present in children care, not even the possibility of women not desiring to be mothers. The hypothesis worked through is that the psychoanalytical perspective that lays the foundation for the author's formulations facilitates the prescription about who can or cannot exercise the care and to reduce the importance of the social and desiring universe of the person who cares. Jean Laplanche's psychoanalysis is presented as a potentially more open alternative to diversity present in children care. We intend with this paper to show the necessity of continuous debate between psychoanalysis and social critic perspectives, as feminism, as well as to instigate the problematization of purposes of psychoanalytical theories that presently propose to discuss themes about maternity and children care...(AU).

El propósito de este trabajo es discutir los problemas de la idealización de la maternidad en teorías psicoanalíticas. Adoptamos el libro The Reproduction of Mothering como objeto para análisis en función de su repercusión histórica en el psicoanálisis y en el feminismo, así como por la fundamentación teórica utilizada también en recientes estudios psicoanalíticos sobre la maternidad. El estudio permitió evidenciar que, aunque partiendo de una perspectiva feminista, el libro analizado reproduce la idealización de la maternidad, no considerando las ambivalencias presentes en el cuidado infantil, ni la posibilidad de que mujeres no tengan deseo de maternizar. La hipótesis trabajada es la de que la perspectiva psicoanalítica que da base para las formulaciones de la autora facilita la prescripción sobre quien puede o no ejercer el cuidado y a reducir la importancia del universo social y deseante de quien cuida. El psicoanálisis de Jean Laplanche se presenta como alternativa potencialmente más abierta para la diversidad presente en el cuidado infantil. Pretendemos con este trabajo evidenciar la necesidad del continuo debate entre el psicoanálisis y las perspectivas de la crítica social, como el feminismo, así como instigar la problematización de los supuestos de las teorías psicoanalíticas que actualmente se proponen a discutir los temas de la maternidad y del cuidado infantil...(AU).

Recalcamento na dúvida metódica: moções inconscientes e seus respectivos atenuadores nas meditações de Descartes / Repression in methodical doubt: unconscious motions and their respective attenuators in the methodical doubt of Descartes

O objetivo do presente artigo é analisar o conteúdo das meditações, presentes no Discurso sobre o Método (1637) e Meditações sobre a Filosofia Primeira (1641), de Renée Descartes, a partir das noções estabelecidas pelo Psicanalista Jean Laplanche sobre Revoluções Copernicanas e recaídas Ptolomaicas. Estendendo o designativo Revolução Copernicana, que Laplanche concede à Psicanálise, em específico, à descoberta de um inconsciente no qual residem disposições profundamente sexuais e de origem alteritária, pretende-se a utilização dessa noção para além do texto freudiano, no qual a teorização de Laplanche está prioritariamente concentrada. Uma vez requalificada, propõe-se a partir dessa perspectiva expor as proximidades do percurso de Descartes em suas meditações e a situação analítica. Esse exercício inclui-se na experiência extramuros, na qual a unidade teórica psicanalítica é colocada em movimento, diante de um objeto que lhe é exterior, renovando a sua vocação revolucionária copernicana fundamental.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the content of meditations present in Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), both of René Descartes' authorship, based on the notions established by psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche about Copernican Revolutions and Ptolemaic relapses. Extending the Copernican Revolutions designation - which Laplanche grants specifically to Psychoanalysis - to the discovery of an unconscious where there are deeply sexual dispositions with alteritarian origins, the intention is to use this notion beyond the Freudian text, in which Laplanche's theories are mainly focused. Once this new meaning has been assigned, we proposed to expose the similarities between Descartes' meditations and the analytical situation. This exercise includes an experience "beyond the walls", where the psychoanalytic practice is put in motion before an external object, renewing its fundamental Copernican revolutionary vocation.

Risking sexuality beyond consent: overwhelm and traumatisms that incite.

What, other than being "screwed," may come of being subjected to something we did not entirely, or even at all, consent to? This essay explores what awaits sexual urges that risk pushing beyond the confines of affirmative consent and into limit consent. Taking up why one might court experiences that chafe against the limit, I suggest that such courting draws on the sexual drive. Via Aulagnier, Laplanche, and Zaltzman I track how the sexual drive may annex traumatic history. These annexations present themselves as traumatic repetitions but may work, at times, to spin compulsive recursions into traumatisms that can incite transformative psychic labor. To probe these ideas more deeply and flesh out the mechanics of why experiences that occur at the border of our consent can have transformative potential, I turn to Jeremy O. Harris's searingly beautiful theatrical work, Slave Play, to propose that pleasure suffered at the especially strained intersection of sexuality and racial trauma may produce traumatisms that dissolve ego structures in growth-inducing ways. While seemingly merely repeating ghastly historical crimes, erotic humiliation and racialized sexual abjection, work here to yield and make overatures to expanded psychic freedoms. Because there is no return to a pre-traumatic state for traumatized subjects, I propose that we become less preoccupied as analysts with what can be done about trauma and more curious about what can be done with trauma shifting, thus, psychoanalysis's attitude towards trauma from traumatophobia to traumatophilia.

Priority of the other: Psychosis through the lens of Laplanche's general theory of seduction.

Jean Laplanche's interest in psychosis dates back to at least the early 1960s, that is to say, the period of his cooperation with Lacan. As Laplanche's thought developed towards the general theory of seduction, which was his most significant theoretical achievement, the conceptualization of the aetiology and symptomatology of psychosis became increasingly complex. The paper aims to present crucial elements of the Laplanchian theory of psychosis, such as the role of sexual reality and ego-agency, the concept of intromission and implantation, and finally the concept of the radical failure of translation. The last part of the article is devoted to the possibility of psychoanalytic or psychoanalysis-inspired treatment of psychosis. In addition, a modified topography model proposed by Laplanche is presented. A "unified theory of the apparatus of the soul" - as Laplanche calls his topography - is an attempt to reconcile the theory of psychosis with the general model of psychic apparatus.

The drive as paradigm-Laplanche's sexual as paradigm shift.

This paper begins with the argument that Freud's concept of the drive can be viewed epistemologically as a "paradigm" using the definition developed by Agamben. A paradigm is an analogical form of knowledge where the grouping of a set of examples makes phenomena more intelligible without there being a general rule for membership in the group. Next, this view of the drive as paradigm is used to argue that Laplanche's development of his concept of "le sexual" in French, rendered in English as the sexual [in italics], is a paradigm shift for Anglophone psychoanalysis. Laplanche's distinction in Freud's German text between Trieb and Instinkt makes clear the confusion caused for Anglophones by Strachey's relentless translation of Trieb as "instinct" in the Standard Edition. The essence of Freud's infantile sexuality is connected to Laplanche's view that the drive is sexuality beyond genitality, beyond sexual difference which is extremely mobile as to aim and object with an economic regime in the pursuit of excitation. The drive is the source of enigmatic messages left by the child's caretakers and forms the unconscious. Ramifications of Laplanche's view of the drive are explored in a clinical case from the literature and in a film by Kieslowski.

Falo passivo e sedução originária / Passive phallus and originary seduction

A partir da teoria da sedução generalizada, propomos um resgate histórico epistemológicoda noção de “falo passivo”, elaborada por Loewenstein e Bonaparte.Criticamos as teorias dos autores para mostrar que a castração e as narrativas de gênero como códigos tradutivos permitem compreender o falo passivo como uma possível resposta às seduções precoces. Concluímos demonstrando que a noção poderia apontar para a diversidade do pulsional, mas tal como apresentada por ambos autores, reproduza operação de recalcamento na medida em que é conceituada em termos de diferença.(AU)

From the generalized seduction theory, we propose an historical and epistemological rescue of the notion passive phallus, elaborated by Loewenstein and Bonaparte. We criticize the theories of both authors in order to show that castration and gender narratives as traductives codes allow to understand the passive phallus as a possible response to the early seductions. We conclude demonstrating that the notion could point to the drive diversity, but as showed by both authors, reproduces the repression operation in asmuch as conceptualized in terms of difference.(AU)

Falo passivo e sedução originária / Passive phallus and originary seduction

A partir da teoria da sedução generalizada, propomos um resgate históricoepistemológico da noção de "falo passivo", elaborada por Loewenstein e Bonaparte. Criticamos as teorias dos autores para mostrar que a castração e as narrativas de gênero como códigos tradutivos permitem compreender o falo passivo como uma possível resposta às seduções precoces. Concluímos demonstrando que a noção poderia apontar para a diversidade do pulsional, mas tal como apresentada por ambos autores, reproduz a operação de recalcamento na medida em que é conceituada em termos de diferença.

From the generalized seduction theory, we propose an historical and epistemological rescue of the notion passive phallus, elaborated by Loewenstein and Bonaparte. We criticize the theories of both authors in order to show that castration and gender narratives as traductives codes allow to understand the passive phallus as a possible response to the early seductions. We conclude demonstrating that the notion could point to the drive diversity, but as showed by both authors, reproduces the repression operation inasmuch as conceptualized in terms of difference

TEN SHORT ESSAYS ON HOW TRAUMA IS INEXTRICABLY WOVEN INTO PSYCHIC LIFE.

The author contends that it is possible to reconcile trauma and drive theories of psychopathology if we carefully examine the general notion of trauma and reexamine Freud's () theory of war neurosis and of repression itself as an elementary form of traumatic neurosis. The logic of these views follows Laplanche's reintroduction and generalization of the seduction theory in contemporary psychoanalysis.

The Queerness of the Drive.

The view of sexuality Freud first proposed in the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality contains a discrepancy between the sexuality perverse and polymorphous described in the first two essays and the biologically directed, reproductive sexuality of the third essay. According to Jean Laplanche, the theorist of psychoanalysis who is Freud's closest reader and translator, the discrepancy is due to two contradictory opinions Freud apparently held at different moments of his writing: one, that sexuality is exogenous, an effect of seduction by adults; two, that sexuality is endogenous, innate in the human biological organism. This article focuses on Laplanche's elucidation of two aspects of sexuality present in each adult: an instinctual, hormonally based, and ultimately reproductive sexual impulse, which begins at puberty, and the drive-based sexual impulses first theorized by Freud as polymorphous-perverse infantile sexuality, which begin in infancy and continue to be active throughout the individual's life. Laplanche's rereading of Freud leads to a more complex understanding of sexuality as always deviant, in one way or another and to a greater or lesser degree, from the established social norms. So-called sexual deviance, therefore, is not a problem within the sexual but an issue within the social field.

Working with chronic and relentless self-hatred, self-harm, and existential shame: a clinical study and reflections (Paper 2 of 2).

This second of two papers focuses on the shame which emerged in the first 14 years of analysis of a woman who was bulimic, self-harmed, and repeatedly described herself as 'feeling like a piece of shit'. To explore this intense and pervasive shame I draw on Jung's and Laplanche's emphasis on experiences of unresolvable, non-pathological 'foreignness' or 'otherness' at the heart of the psyche. Images, metaphors, elements of clinical experience, and working hypotheses from a number of analytic traditions are used to flesh out this exploration. These include Kilborne's use of Pirandello's image of shame as like a 'hole in the paper sky' which, I suggest, points to a crack in subjectivity, and reveals our belief in the efficacy of the self to be illusory. Hultberg's observations on shame as having an existential mode (function) are also explored, as is the nature of analytic truth. Using these ideas I describe my patient's process of finding some small but freeing space in relation to her shame and self-hatred. Through enduring and learning from her shame in analysis she realized that it was part of a desperate unconscious attempt to draw close to her troubled father and so to 'love him better'.

Working with chronic and relentless self-hatred, self-harm and existential shame: a clinical study and reflections.

This paper is the first of a two-part series which explores some of the theoretical and experiential reference points that have emerged in my work with people whose relationship to their body and/or sense of self is dominated by self-hatred and (what Hultberg describes as) existential shame. The first paper focuses on self-hatred and the second paper focuses on shame. This first paper is structured around vignettes taken from a 14-year analysis with a woman who was bulimic, self-harmed and repeatedly described herself as 'feeling like a piece of shit'. It draws together elements of Jung's concepts of the complex and symbol, and Laplanche's enigmatic signifier to focus on experiences of 'inner otherness' around which we are unconsciously organized. It also brings Jung's understanding that emotion is the chief source of consciousness into conversation with Laplanche's approach to the transference which is that by being aware that they do not 'know', the analyst provides a 'hollow' in which the patient's analytic process can evolve. These combinations of ideas are linked speculatively to emerging understandings of the neuroscience of perception and throughout the paper clinical material is used to illustrate these discussions.

Mourning the dead, mourning the disappeared: the enigma of the absent-presence.

Freud's interest in the impact of death on the living goes back further than Mourning and Melancholia (1917e, [1915]). In Totem and Taboo (1912-13) Freud noted the ambivalence of the emotions we experience in relation to the dead. In this paper, I focus on Mourning and Melancholia as a landmark in the understanding of both the normal and psychopathological aspects of mourning and depressive processes in human beings. Mourning and Melancholia bridges Freud's first and second topographic theories of the psychic apparatus and constitutes for many authors the foundation of his theory of internal object relations. With this psychoanalytic understanding of mourning as a framework, I discuss 'special mourning processes,' such as the those confronted by psychoanalysts in Argentina when treating the relatives of thousands of people who were 'disappeared' by the military dictatorship in the 1970s; they are 'special' in the sense that the external reality [which] constitutes the starting point of the psychic mourning process, as described by Freud, is absent. I argue that the 'absent-presence' of the body as an enigmatic message initiates a special mourning process that bears certain characteristics of, and is isomorphic to, Laplanche's seduction theory.