{"title":"\"I would prefer not to\"-on rejecting and \"fending off\" absence.","authors":"Hayuta Gurevich","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09543-4","DOIUrl":"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":"1-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","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":"The Prenatal in Lacan's Borromean Knot.","authors":"Lutz Goetzmann, Ludwig Janus","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09542-5","DOIUrl":"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":"69-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","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":"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}
{"title":"The Casale Monferrato Case: A Psychoanalytic Intervention Between Social and Individual Catastrophe.","authors":"Antonella Granieri","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09531-8","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09531-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this paper, I delve into the conscious and unconscious repercussions of the risk associated with residing in a contaminated site due to industrial pollution. Specifically, I focus on the experience of the population of Casale Monferrato, deeply traumatized by both the significant number of deaths resulting from occupational and environmental exposure to asbestos, and by decades of sustenance from the Eternit factory, which ultimately brought pollution and death. My work in Casale Monferrato since 2006 has allowed me to highlight how the psychoanalytic approach enables exploration of the relationship between psychological well-being and the quality of the living environment, while addressing both individual and collective dimensions of the socio-environmental catastrophe. Over the years, I have also designed and implemented psychoanalytic clinical interventions in the field aimed at patients affected by asbestos-related diseases, their families, and the entire Casale Monferrato population exposed to contamination risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"588-609"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145514809","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":"Second Special Issue: Changing Theoretical and Clinical Issues.","authors":"Lisa A Mounts, Michele A Muñoz","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09532-7","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09532-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"527-530"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145423315","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":"Karen Horney's Self-Analysis: A Personal Journey.","authors":"Noga Guggenheim","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09539-0","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s11231-025-09539-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper describes my experience reading Horney's (1942) Self-Analysis which when published more than 80 years ago, was innovative in introducing a path of self-help that has largely remained unexplored. Even today, it might still be considered controversial among the various psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic perspectives. After presenting some background on Horney I describe her principal ideas on self-analysis as expressed in her book, how it was reviewed, and its relevance to current psychotherapeutic practice. I will end with a clinical vignette and a personal reflection.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":"554-571"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145598077","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":"Selected Papers by Susan Kavaler-Adler. Volume 1: Developmental Mourning, Erotic Transference, and Object Relations Psychoanalysis, International Psychoanalytic Books, New York, 2022, 546 pp.","authors":"Loray Daws","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09536-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09536-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145551884","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":"Independent Women in British Psychoanalysis: Creativity and Authenticity at Work, edited by Elizabeth Wolf and Barbie Antonis, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2024, 178 pp.","authors":"Jennifer Davids","doi":"10.1057/s11231-025-09535-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-025-09535-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145543855","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}