Psychoanalysis and culture: some contemporary challenges.

The evolution and current usage of the concept of culture is briefly discussed. Two divergent views on the initial relationship between psychoanalysis and culture are presented and the influence of the former on the latter illustrated, both in the previous decades and at present. Some general aspects of present-day western culture are then outlined, among them the great flood of information, the culture of narcissism, the temptations of conventionality, the ideology of visual media and the 'light culture', and five propositions that attempt to characterise 'post-modern sensibility'. Finally, four challenges faced today by psychoanalysis are discussed: the changing nature of philosophical and cultural cross-currents as it influences psychoanalysis as a discipline; the empiricist versus the hermeneutic approach; attacks on psychoanalysis as an elitist discipline and profession; and the movement away from the subjectivist and existential concerns and the focus on a more collectivist and pragmatic relationship to reality. The author suggests possible ways to face each of these challenges.

Observing countertransference in brief dynamic psychotherapy.

Six cases treated with Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy were studied. Initial countertransferential reactions were identified, and expectations were determined concerning the evolution of the patient-therapist relationship. The existence of a basic pattern of emotional response to the patient in the therapist throughout the treatment was observed, and the authors propose to denominate it countertransferential focus. Three clinical vignettes are reported.