{"title":"PSYCHOANALYSIS BETWEEN CATASTROPHE AND CREATION: EMERGING PERSPECTIVES. SÃO PAULO INTERNATIONAL SÁNDOR FERENCZI CONFERENCE 2024.","authors":"Endre Koritar","doi":"10.1057/s11231-026-09561-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-026-09561-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147857228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Veronica Csillag, Margaret Boucher, Tara Chivukula, Alpana Choudhury, Stephanie Unwin-Kuruneri
{"title":"The color of envy: a socio-cultural perspective.","authors":"Veronica Csillag, Margaret Boucher, Tara Chivukula, Alpana Choudhury, Stephanie Unwin-Kuruneri","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09541-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09541-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This collaborative paper has grown out of the discussions of a virtual study group consisting of four women of ethnically and geographically diverse backgrounds, from San Francisco, Austin, and New York City. Racially/ethnically, the members are of South Asian, African and European descent. We have been exploring a range of subjects, including envy. We have been discussing the emergent envy in these clinical vignettes from the perspective of the Kleinian approach which centers on internal mental states, unconscious conflicts and internalized objects as well as exploring envy from a social, cultural, and racial angle as historically represented by the humanistic and interpersonal schools, and more recently by relational psychoanalysis. These orientations may seem to be incompatible but, in fact are always inseparably interconnected as we all have psyches and we all also live in the social-cultural realm.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147482495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prescience and Premonition.","authors":"Nilofer Kaul","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09544-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09544-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper observes the emphasis on the past in psychoanalysis and the relative neglect of the future. Paradoxically, there is a prevalence of 'post' and a relative absence of 'pre.' It is important to fill in these missing links. I have suggested that 'prescience' is a variety of omniscience and shares much of its impulses. The paper discusses three manifestations of prescience and suggests different ways of interpreting these. It is finally argued that Bion's idea of 'premonition' be thought of as a technical tool that can counter this unnoticed form of false knowledge that may be sabotaging the analysis in ways that are hard to capture.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147482571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Prenatal in Lacan's Borromean Knot.","authors":"Lutz Goetzmann, Ludwig Janus","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09542-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09542-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Otto Rank identified the trauma of birth and its psychological sequelae. Subsequently, the manifold observations made by pre- and perinatal natal psychology show that prenatal and birth experiences have a formative character for the individual. In the present article, we emphasize the relationship that might exist between Lacan's Real and the Prenatal. Both are characterized by the fact that there is no \"symbolization,\" (i.e., there is neither the formation of imaginary nor symbolic thoughts). However, we propose that the unborn develops a consciousness that takes in the effects of the real. This consciousness is called \"phenomenal.\" Emphasizing the dynamic between the phenomenal and the real, the effect of the Real on the phenomenal could be called the \"phenoreal.\" Later representations will be possible due to the Freudian concept of \"afterwardness,\" (i.e., due to the subsequent signification of the phenomenal by the imaginary and symbolic registers of knowledge). Pre- and perinatal psychology and Lacanian psychoanalysis will benefit both conceptually and clinically from this link between two related fields.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147356259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"I would prefer not to\"-on rejecting and \"fending off\" absence.","authors":"Hayuta Gurevich","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09543-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09543-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>\"I would prefer not to\" is an enigmatic phrase by Herman Melville that epitomizes what I would like to explore, namely, the fate of the dissociated spontaneous gesture of rejecting and \"fending off\" early traumatic absence, and its clinical implications. I will attempt to consider the paradoxical impossibility of \"fending off\" absence, of rejecting what hasn't occurred yet was expected and needed by the emerging self. Ferenczi's (1933) conceptualization of \"identification with the aggressor,\" Winnicott's (1950) assumptions about motility and aggressiveness, and Green's (1986) concept of \"effacement\" are my stepstones for underscoring the crucial importance of rejection and of \"fending off\" for the development of the self. Bartelby, Ferenczi himself, and a clinical vignette will illustrate the devastating traumatic impact of the absence of facilitation of \"fending off\" in early development.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146222017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integrating Developmental Understanding into Psychoanalytic Supervision: Siloed No More.","authors":"C Edward Watkins","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09545-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09545-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Blackman (2025) provided an instructive developmental stage perspective on the psychoanalytic supervision process. But other highly instructive developmental supervision perspectives-created outside the borders of psychoanalytic ideology-have largely been ignored within the psychoanalytic supervision literature. In this complementary comment, I introduce and consider some of those often-unconsidered pan-theoretical developmental supervision models and their additive value for psychoanalytic supervision, with special emphasis being placed on the beginner/novice phase supervisee.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146151245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fairbairn's Rationale for Excluding Good Objects from the Unconscious: Clinical Implications.","authors":"Ron B Aviram","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09540-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09540-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>W. R. D. Fairbairn developed a unique metapsychology that began as controversial but eventually transformed the trajectory of psychoanalytic ideas by emphasizing the innate need for real relationships. His conception of the unconscious differs from Freud's and provides the foundation upon which he elaborated a new model of the mind. Fairbairn describes the first object relations theory by linking a part of the self to unconscious bad objects. While many clinicians have been hesitant to accept his proposition that good objects do not become part of the dynamic unconscious, it is argued that this is a clinically useful and valid model of human psychology. For Fairbairn, the good object is a preconscious internalization and available for engagement with the external world without distortion. His model of the mind, focusing on the unconscious, helps clinicians conceptualize how early relational experiences limit satisfying contemporary life.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146013226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Re-Finding the Feminine: Forgotten Threads of Meaning in Psychoanalysis.","authors":"Marilyn Charles","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09529-2","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09529-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychoanalysis has been grounded in Freud's discovery of the profound impact of unconscious processes on human being and meaning. And yet, his theories and technique pushed towards the more rational realms of meaning-making. He recognized the extent to which female development remained a \"dark\" and unexplored \"continent\" but seemed to turn a deaf ear to those women, such as Karen Horney, who had a seat at the table as psychoanalysis was forming. One hundred years later, Horney's theorizing about what impedes our ability to recognize more fully the capacities and vulnerabilities inherent in the feminine remains relevant. In this paper, I explore some of the forgotten, or under-valued threads from women who have made significant contributions to our field. I hope to invite greater integration of those capacities disparately marked male or female, qualities which are essential to our development as embodied, rational beings.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"531-553"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145551923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Working with Mind-Body-Brain in a Dyadic Treatment Through Embodied Witnessing to Heal Trauma of Human Origin.","authors":"Clara Mucci","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09533-6","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09533-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries the Freudian intrapsychic and drive-based view of development of the human mind has been replaced by work done in several interdisciplinary fields which prove that the human mind is from its very inception a social mind, which best develops in connection with other minds and bodies, in interpersonal realms. It thrives through attunement, attachment, care and synchrony with numerous other minds and personalities. Moreover, research has also shown that higher order faculties in the human subject develop when there is the constant care and sensitivity of another human based on right-brain functions for a lengthy period of time, regardless of the biological sex of the caregiver. These developments of psychoanalytic theory have a strong impact on all aspects of psychotherapy, particularly with regards to the psychotherapy with survivors of what I have called second and third levels of trauma (Mucci, 2013, 2018, 2022), where an interpersonal focus on testimony and bearing witness thorough mind-brain and body are called for, what I term \"embodied witnessing\" (Mucci, 2018, 2022, 2023a), which could also be applied to personality disorders of traumatic origin, and facilitate healing in trauma survivors.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"610-632"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145597993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Unwelcome Migrants and Their Impossible Narration.","authors":"Andrea Ciacci","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09530-9","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09530-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this paper, the author defines the cornerstones of good hospitality, based on his experience at a Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Good hospitality is defined by its capacity to foster migrants' emotional investment in building a meaningful life in the host country. Traumatic breakups inherited from their previous life experiences can be difficult or impossible to elaborate and integrate. This undermines the continuity of their sense of self. Such critical experiences, loaded with overwhelming suffering, need to be contacted to enable their representability. This is only possible in an environment perceived as fully supportive, where helping relationships can engage with dissociated experiences, fostering their narration. The author also explores the role of authenticity in helping relationships, as a key factor in preventing the migrant-or the patient in the analytic setting-from adapting compliantly to what they perceive as the expectations or desires of the other.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"572-587"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145551868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}