Language and Psychoanalysis (E-Journal)
Not a member yet
104 research outputs found
Sort by
The Symbolic Function of Transmodernity
Get PDFIn this article transmodernity will be described as the symbolic context within which, in the last decades, new formulations of selfhood and community have emerged that challenge consolidated representations of the world. The aim will be to examine and map out an illustrative range of discourses at the core of the transmodern scenario, highlighting the counterhegemonic potential of its symbolic function vis-à-vis modern representations of reality. In doing so, particular focus will be put on some of the major effects of globalisation, namely spatial displacement, virtuality and fragmentation, arguing that these factors help us to understand the ‘critical’ dimension of globalisation as a traumatic process of dislocation of social space. It is by scrutinising these factors that we grasp the ability of ‘transmodern’ formulations of space and community to challenge the position of modern discourses.
Hallucinatory and Verbal Modes of Thinking
Get PDFAt the beginning of Freud and the Scene of Writing Derrida announced the way he would use Freud: “to locate in Freud’s texts (...) those elements of psychoanalysis which can only uneasily be contained within logocentric closure” (Derrida, 1978, p. 249). In this paper I want to take over Derrida’s reading angle under the form of a question: the question of what escapes the logos in Freud’s work? I tackle this question at two different levels: 1. The level of Freud’s model: in Freud’s model of the psyche what are the modes of functioning that cannot be verbalized? 2. The level of Freud’s formulation: in Freud’s writings what is not exclusively formalized under a verbal form? In the first part I identify within the hypothesis that Freud imagined to describe the genesis of the psyche: a primary hallucinatory mode of thinking and a secondary verbal mode of thinking. I try to show how the creation of unconscious presentations by the hallucinatory mode of thinking operates beyond the logos. Moreover I propose that meaning produced by the verbal mode of thinking covers and hides the hallucinatory mode of thinking, which would constitute a form of functioning of repression. In the second part I try to define the ways Freud invented a form of writing in order to model hallucinatory modes of thinking. I propose to name metapsychological writing this form of writing that uses scientific formulations, graphics, analogies and myths. I argue that what is at stake in the invention of a metapsychological writing is the creation of a conceptual framework to express clinical phenomena specific to psychoanalysis.
Psychotherapy across Languages: beliefs, attitudes and practices of monolingual and multilingual therapists with their multilingual patients
Get PDFThe present study investigates beliefs, attitudes and practices of 101 monolingual and multilingual therapists in their interactions with multilingual patients. We adopted a mixed-method approach, using an on-line questionnaire with 27 closed questions which were analysed quantitatively and informed questions in interviews with one monolingual and two multilingual therapists. A principal component analysis yielded a four-factor solution accounting for 41% of the variance. The first dimension, which explained 17% of variance, reflects therapists’ attunement towards their bilingual patients (i.e., attunement versus collusion). Further analysis showed that the 18 monolingual therapists differed significantly from their 83 bi- or multilingual peers on this dimension. The follow up interviews confirmed this result. Recommendations based on these findings are made for psychotherapy training and supervision to attend to a range of issues including: the psychological and therapeutic functions of multi/bilingualism; practice in making formulations in different languages; the creative therapeutic potential of the language gap.
Introduction
Get PDFWelcome to the first volume of the new journal Language and Psychoanalysis. The journal aims to provide a space that enables researchers with an interest in the intersection between language and psychoanalysis to share their work with academics, students and other individuals, and thus to contribute to the exploration and understanding of the relationship between language and psychoanalysis