Fluctuat nec mergitur or what happened to Reikian psychoanalysis?

Although Theodor Reik was a celebrated psychoanalyst during the 1950s and 1960s, his work has not resulted in the development of a specific psychoanalytic tradition, and his name has gradually disappeared from Western cultural memory. Following the mode of argumentation of the reductio ad absurdum, the author critically examines six possible explanations for this remarkable observation, thereby drawing on published materials and archival sources relating to the life and works of Reik. Once these explanations have been discarded, the author argues that the main reason for the absence of a Reikian tradition within psychoanalysis stems from Reik's belief in the analytic virtue of intellectual independence. This belief may have contributed to his own departure from the psychoanalytic training institution that he helped to create, yet it also implies that Reikian psychoanalysis somehow lives on in all those practitioners who do not seek to affiliate with a doctrinal school of thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theodor Reik: An appreciation.

Theodore Reik (1888-1969) is important and this appreciative symposium will tell why. His life and work are truly relevant to the history of the Division of Psychoanalysis. This appreciative symposium of seven papers by six distinguished authors pays tribute to Reik's special place in psychoanalytic history. The late historian of psychoanalysis writes of two interviews with Reik in 1965 and 1967 (see record 2006-20697-009). Dany Nobus, from London, who is at work on a biography of Reik, wonders what happened to Reikian psychoanalysis (see record 2006-20697-010). Martin Schulman, the former editor of The Psychoanalytic Review, reconsiders the question of lay analysis (see record 2006-20697-011). Zvi Lothane, a noted scholar, continues his interest in free association with an examination of Listening With The Third Ear (see record 2006-20697-012). Morton Israel, who has worked to reestablish Reik's reputation, writes about Reik's compulsion to confess (see record 2006-20697-013). Kyle Arnold, a graduate student, offers another view of The Compulsion to Confess (see record 2006-20697-014). Arnold's paper won the Stephen A. Mitchell Award for an outstanding paper by a psychology student. The final paper, by Kyle Arnold was also submitted independently of the symposium and is included (see record 2006-20697-015). It covers Reik's theory of listening. All of the contributors including myself, as a former student of Reik, have been touched in different ways by his genius. It is hoped that these appreciative papers will reintroduce Reik's ideas to a new generation of psychologist/psychoanalysts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theodor Reik: On psychoanalysis and the unconscious compulsion to confess.

In 1924, Theodor Reik presented a series of lectures in Vienna, which resulted in the publication of the book, The Compulsion to Confess (1925/1959). It was Reik's claim that his conceptualization of the unconscious compulsion to confess was a "discovery" and suggested that it be incorporated in the theory and lexicon of classical psychoanalytic theory. It is from the socialization experiences of the child (the modification of instinctual impulses) that repression is experienced and thus the process of confession is an attempt to quell (unconsciously) feelings of guilt and need for self-punishment. The power of a hostile superego plays the pivotal role, according to Reik, in the development of the neurosis, and it is within the framework and dynamics of the Oedipal complex that unconscious confessions result. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The question of lay analysis reconsidered.

Theodor Reik was central to the struggle for the legitimization of nonmedical or lay analysis both in Europe and the United States. This paper deals with the book Freud wrote in defense of Reik, The Question of Lay Analysis, and places it within its historical context. It then discusses the resistance to lay analysis by the New York Psychoanalytic Society and speculates on some of the reasons for this opposition. Finally, it discusses the state of nonmedical analysis today and a perspective for the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The need to express and the compulsion to confess: Reik's theory of symptom-formation.

The present article offers a close reading of Reik's theory of symptom-formation. Drawing on two-person aspects of Freud's work, Reik argues that human beings have a basic need to express ourselves to others. The child's expressions develop as compromises between the urge to express and the internalized responses of caregivers to expressions, which are consolidated into the superego. When others repeatedly reject the child's expressions, the child comes to reject its own expressions through repression. Repressed expressions return as composites of the need to express and the internalized prohibitions against expression. These composites emerge as unconscious confessions in which the patient both communicates repressed material and punishes herself for doing so. Reik proposes that neurotic symptoms comprise such unconscious confessions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalytic boundaries and transitional space.

The blurring of the distinction between language and action in contemporary psychoanalytic theories expands the traditional boundaries of psychoanalytic therapy. The current article delineates a conceptualization of psychoanalytic boundaries based on D. Winnicott's (1971) concept that transitional space defines the psychoanalytic process. It is proposed that D. Winnicott's (1971) concept shifts the psychoanalytic paradigm to adaptation, rather than interpretation, as the overriding analytic task. The analyst's adaptation and its limitations define the psychoanalytic dyad, and psychoanalytic boundaries, from this viewpoint, are expressions of the analyst's subjectivity. The clinical implications of this concept of psychoanalytic boundaries are demonstrated in the treatment of a severely regressed patient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revising psychoanalytic understandings of perinatal loss.

Discusses the need to revise psychoanalytic concepts to accommodate new understandings about perinatal loss, female sexuality, and guilt dynamics. Unspoken allegiance to some traditional psychoanalytic beliefs that are increasingly viewed as outdated may impede applying contemporary psychoanalytic frameworks to understand perinatal loss. Four tenets of psychoanalytic theory (the unborn child experienced as solely a fantasy, the mother's symbolic equation of her child primarily with the penis, unconscious causation of perinatal loss, and the ubiquity of unconscious ambivalence underlying parental guilt) are critically evaluated and revised to introduce a contemporary psychoanalytic understanding of perinatal loss. The author concludes that recognizing the pregnant woman's developmental, conflict-based, object, and narcissistic ties to her unborn child broadens psychoanalytic understandings of the meanings of pregnancy and perinatal loss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy: Is there a meaningful distinction in the process?

The purpose of this article is to delineate general features of the psychoanalytic process that are more encompassing of contemporary theoretical models, and to use these features as criteria to explore if a meaningful distinction can be made between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Following a brief historical review of the literature, the author discusses the basis of theory, research, and practice of the so-called extrinsic and intrinsic criteria for psychoanalysis, and concludes that a meaningful distinction with psychoanalytic psychotherapy cannot be made. The author then offers the fundamental features of the psychoanalytic process that can include all psychoanalytic approaches. It is proposed that the psychoanalytic investigatory stance involves inquiry based on variable admixture of the empathic and other-centered listening vantage points, and that the distinctive domain of psychoanalytic inquiry is not just the patient's experience of the analytic relationship, but the patient's total experiential world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What psychoanalytic institutes must do to effectively recruit academic clinical psychology researchers to become psychoanalytic candidates.

As many psychoanalysts continue to increase their interest in psychoanalytic research, there has been a concerted attempt by psychoanalytic institutes to recruit academic clinical psychology researchers into the various training programs offered at institutes. Although this goal is laudable, there are a number of issues that psychoanalytic institutes must consider to effectively recruit and retain academic clinical psychologists to become psychoanalytic candidates. First, administrators, teachers, and supervisors at psychoanalytic institutes must become aware of and appreciate the demands of professorial life, especially for junior faculty members, and second, psychoanalytic institutes must make changes that will enable them to accommodate candidates who are academic clinical psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and the disenfranchised: From therapy to justice.

"Neurotic misery" is not the only treatable source of suffering that can be subtracted from the sum of unavoidable "everyday unhappiness." Social inequality and injustice represent another powerful source of unnecessary suffering that, in principle, can be modified and diminished. This article explores the implications of psychoanalytic understanding for developing better approaches to addressing this dimension of human distress, which has been largely neglected in the psychoanalytic literature. In the process, it also reexamines some commonly held assumptions about the nature of the psychoanalytic process and considers how new observations deriving from work with people from different cultural and class origins can contribute to the refinement and further development of psychoanalytic propositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical and philosophical issues in psychoanalysis.

Discusses the question of whether philosophical issues have a significant place in contemporary psychoanalytic thought. Topics covered include how the psychoanalytic theoretic enterprise is best viewed, how the person is viewed as an actor in his own life story, and the nature-nurture controversy. The author believes that current psychoanalytic thought reflects the philosophical concerns of mankind through the ages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working with alcoholics and drug abusers in private practice: A psychoanalytic-chemical dependency model.

Describes a combined model of chemical dependency and psychoanalytic approaches in the psychotherapeutic treatment of alcoholics and drug abusers. The ambiguity of treatment goals and impediments and enhancements inherent in private practice with this population are discussed. Modifications in treatment are recommended on the basis of contributions from the addictions field, the self-help movement, and etiologic research. The broadening scope of psychoanalytic theory and practice with greater applicability to the treatment of addiction is reviewed. Clinical material illustrates psychoanalytic principles and the combined model of psychotherapy with alcoholics and drug abusers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Closing the gap between theory and practice with better psychoanalytic theory.

Proposes 2 criteria that the psychoanalytic theory must meet if it is to be relevant to psychoanalytic practice. First, therapy is concerned with the unfolding, illumination, and transformation of experience. The concepts of psychoanalytic theory, if they are to be useful in practice, must be experience-near (i.e., pertain to the organization of personal experience). Second, psychoanalytic constructs must be relational. Psychoanalytic inquiry entails the investigation of the analysand's experience of the analytic relationship (i.e., the transference). As such experience is codetermined by both participants in the dialog, the investigation must encompass the entire intersubjective field. The most important recent development in psychoanalysis is the growing recognition that intrapsychic experience must be understood in the context of the larger interactional systems in which it takes form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Golland's "Politics of Leveling."

In "Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic therapy: Is There a Meaningful Distinction in the Process?" J. L. Fosshage (see record 1997-38544-006) reassessed, on the basis of theory, research, and practice, the extrinsic and intrinsic criteria for psychoanalysis and concluded, from today's perspective, that a meaningful distinction with psychoanalytic psychotherapy cannot be made. J. H. Golland (see record 1999-00333-007) coming from a classical psychoanalytic perspective, decried these conclusions about psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. This article is a reply to Golland. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral and psychoanalytic perspectives at therapeutic choice points.

Suggests that recent trends in behavior therapy and psychoanalytic therapy indicate some confluence of attitudes even though each type of therapy retains its own distinctive form. Differences and emerging similarities in the conception and practice of these 2 therapies were clarified during the author's supervision of a behavior therapist conducting psychoanalytic therapy with a male college student concerned about homosexual feelings. Possible behavioral and psychoanalytic interventions at choice points in therapy are compared, and the rationale for each is discussed, along with proposed intersecting directions, in the following areas: (a) goal setting (Are goals determined by the client or therapist?); (b) promoting action vs exploring mental content; (c) challenging vs understanding irrational cognitions; (d) modifying cognitive schemata vs elaborating unconscious fantasies; (e) dissipating vs releasing emotions; and (f) the therapeutic relationship (Is it actual or projected?). Suggestions are made for the psychoanalytic therapist and the behavior therapist who is inclined to incorporate perspectives or attitudes of the other. (107 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)