Reflections on masochism: An introduction.

Masochism is central to all pathologies and its relevance in clinical practise cannot be underestimated. The initial connection made by Freud was that masochism was a component or partial instinct, still operating within the pleasure principle. The relationship between masochism and the theory of drives marks a main theoretical difference in the different authors' explorations of this subject. The understanding of what is meant by 'masochism' gained complexity following Freud's postulation of a life and death drive (which is more or less contemporary with his 1924 paper on masochism) and the differences made by him between 'primary' and 'secondary' masochism. This introduction to the papers presented in this section will address some of these differences, as well as exploring the notions of primary erotogenic masochism, feminine and moral masochism. It will also look at the notion of binding /unbinding of the life/death drives, and the role of the superego. It will introduce the different papers by Novick and Novick, Bourdin, Frank and Persano on developmental perspectives, primary masochism, views on French analysts such as Benno Rosenberg and on Kleinian ideas on the subject as well as on the role of the body, pain and self harm.

Psychosis and psychotic functioning in adolescence.

This paper presents an overview of the main issues that underlie the outbreak of a psychosis in adolescence. The author addresses significant questions that arise in connection with the use of the terms psychosis, psychotic functioning, and adolescent breakdown, examining different theoretical and clinical approaches to psychosis in adolescence. One of the main areas to be explored is the use of the specific diagnosis of psychosis in adolescence when we witness fluctuating mental states, variability, and changeable behaviour.A central point in the development of a psychotic process is the relationship to external reality. This break with reality was characterized by M. and M.E. Laufer as specifically lived out in relation to the reality of the adolescent's changing body. This paper will look at these authors' understanding of psychotic episodes, psychotic functioning, and psychosis, as well as other theoretical perspectives. The paper will address the economic aspects linked to drive increase, the complex interplay of early anxieties, unconscious phantasies and internal object relations, along with the role of identity, the superego and trauma. The paper also discusses different modalities of treatment and stresses the benefit of psychoanalytic treatment for disturbed adolescents.

"Is this my body?" Dealing with the uncanny in adolescence.

While we can all have uncanny experiences from time to time, there are some patients who live with a permanent sense of estrangement from themselves and the world that surrounds them. Uncanny experiences, in particular those involving the body, gain predominance in adolescence. In some adolescents their difficulty in recognizing their body as their own can become very pronounced after puberty when they are faced with the reworking of the Oedipal conflict and the potential overpowering effect of their drives. In these cases the uncanny experience of a 'disquieting unfamiliarity' can be felt either in relation to parts of their body or to their whole body leading to a feeling of being inhabited by the double. Through detailed clinical material from a disturbed adolescent, the author shows how the double is the product of a process of dissociation, which involves a previous process of projective identification connected to the wish to enter the mother's body to either possess and/or control her, in particular her sexuality and procreativity.. As a consequence of this process, the individual can feel persecuted by the phantasy of an introjected object, which either now claims independence or threatens the subject with the possibility of taking over the whole of the body/ego and thus killing the host. The author proposes that the uncanny effect that accompanies the process of dissociation, and that is lived out through the phantasy of the double, is what paradoxically eases the ego's anxiety of being taken over by the delusional aspects and the potential of a total psychotic breakdown.

Delusion and reparation.

This paper looks at the reparative quality of delusional systems. The Author explores and expands Freud's notion of delusion as an 'attempt at reparation'. Even if a delusion is mostly the consequence of hatred of reality and an omnipotent idealized construction to protect the ego from persecutory anxiety stemming from a destructive superego, its content and function show greater complexity. The function of a delusion is not just to protect the ego but also to protect the object (the analyst in the session) from the patient's violence. In order to show the coexistence in delusional systems of manic defensive aspects with proper depressive reparative ones, the Author presents detailed clinical material from the analysis of an adolescent patient who suffered from intense persecuting voices that negated her right to be alive. The paper proposes that understanding the fluctuation and manifestation of reparative unconscious phantasies, the recognition of their depressive aspects and of their specific function as they are lived out in the transference relationship is central to the development of psychic change in psychotic processes.

Finding unconscious phantasy in the session: Recognizing form.

The concept of unconscious phantasy has played - and still does play - a central role in psychoanalytic thinking. The author discusses the various forms by which unconscious phantasies manifest themselves in the analytic session as they are lived out and enacted in the transference relationship. This paper also aims at expanding the kleinian theory of symbol formation by exploring the impact that emotional aspects connected to early "raw', "pre-symbolic' phantasies have in the analysis and how their corporeal elements interlock with the signifying process. The author follows the expressive forms of primitive unconscious phantasies as they appear in a psychoanalytic session and proposes that the emotional effect that can be experienced in the communication between patient and analyst depends in great measure on "semiotic' aspects linked to primitive phantasies that are felt and lived out in embodied ways. Rather than a move from unconscious phantasies that typify symbolic equations to those showing proper symbolization, these can coexist and simultaneously find their way to what is communicated to the analyst. As early phantasies bear an intimate connection to the body and to unprocessed emotions when they are projected into the analyst they can produce a powerful resonance, sometimes also experienced in a physical way and forming an integral part of the analyst's counter-transference.

Two modalities of manic defences: their function in adolescent breakdown.

The aim of this paper is to explore two different modalities of manic defences and their specific underlying anxieties. I will describe the relation between these defences and the role of the superego and their specific function in adolescent breakdown. While one type of manic defence operates by the ego's identification with a sadistic superego the other one operates via evacuation of a guilt-inducing superego. I will illustrate the proposed ideas with clinical examples from the analysis of two adolescents. This paper stresses the specific differences between these two modalities and the clinical importance of both identifying and addressing the enactment in the transference of the unconscious phantasies and anxieties (paranoid and depressive) that give rise to these two types of defences.

Borges, immortality and the circular ruins.

The author explores ideas surrounding immortality and death focusing on the interplay between their development in two stories by Borges ('The circular ruins' and 'The immortal') and their manifestation in a patient. With the help of Borges's stories, the author addresses the desperate necessity experienced by some individuals to search for immortality. This is not just an expression of the universal wish to live forever but, at a deeper level, arises from the impossibility of bearing the mental pain of experiencing ordinary human vulnerability and loss - death being the ultimate expression of such vulnerability. It is suggested that the relentless pursuit of immortality in such individuals expresses an omnipotent phantasy of ridding the self of the emotional pain and fear that arises through being alive. It leads to a denial of the emotional significance of passage of time, of separation and sexual differences. In actuality, the individual's state of not feeling approximates to a complete loss of human identity and emotional death, with no place for any meaningful others. The individual him/herself becomes a 'mere image', living in a delusional world peopled by him/herself and his/ her projections, and ending up trapped inside the circular ruins he/she has generated. The horror experienced at the stark awareness of the individual's emotional death and the wish to re-establish contact with the good internal objects that have been attacked sets in motion the long process of searching for the recovery of a sense of temporality (that would still include the wish for immortality) and, with it, a sense of identity.

La interpretación

Burgoyn, Bernard y Sullivan, Mary son los compiladores