Biomedical subjects

E M Weinshel

Publications and source records attributed to E M Weinshel.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Therapeutic technique in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

As the distinctions between what we consider to be psychoanalysis and what we consider to be psychoanalytic psychotherapy have become more uncertain and more blurred, it follows that it is equally difficult to designate the techniques that would be appropriate and specific for each modality. The problem has been compounded by the fact that in recent years psychoanalysis in the United States has become considerably less homogeneous than in the past and the ego-psychological structural model is no longer the only point of view in the psychoanalytic marketplace. Further, with alterations in the criteria for analyzability, cases which, generally, had not been viewed as suitable for analysis, have been appearing with increasing frequency on psychoanalysts' couches. We have also recognized that the degree of congruence between our expectations from and the results of psychoanalytic treatment was often less than anticipated. It appears that analysts have become considerably less arbitrary about what psychoanalysis is and how a psychoanalysis can be carried out. The author is unable to delineate one technique that is intrinsic to and limited to psychoanalysis. There are, however, differences in degree and emphasis in the ways in which various techniques are applied in the therapy of psychoanalysis as compared to the therapy of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Special attention is given to the role of a psychoanalytic process and the central place the analysis of resistance plays in psychoanalytic therapy.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1990

How wide is the widening scope of psychoanalysis and how solid is its structural model? Some concerns and observations.

The author advances the thesis that in the past 35 years there has been a relatively silent but nonetheless significant movement within the mainstream of American psychoanalysis toward a more "modest" position. This movement has been stimulated from different sources, sometimes with diverse goals and different programs. One determinant was the reaction to the post-World War II euphoria in regard to psychoanalysis and its possible therapeutic powers. Another element has been the ongoing consolidation of our knowledge and understanding of the ego-psychological, structural-model approach to analytic theory and technique, an approach which emphasizes both intrapsychic conflict and compromise formations. A consequence of this more modest position has been a greater appreciation of the limitations of psychoanalysis as well as the significance of those limitations. This more realistic appraisal of psychoanalysis may not have encouraged the widening scope of the indications for analysis, but the enhanced understanding of its limitations offers the promise of more effective psychoanalytic work in areas that have not been considered ideal for the so-called "traditional" analysis. It is suggested that more sophisticated approaches in the analysis of resistance and character, of "conflict" (in distinction to "diagnoses"), together with a more applicable understanding of the psychoanalytic process, can all contribute to a deepening, if not necessarily widening, of our psychoanalytic endeavors.

Humans↗

PubMed1990

Further observations on the psychoanalytic process.

The psychoanalytic process remains a fascinating and valuable concept, albeit an incompletely understood and controversial one. The author reviews the ideas in his 1984 essay and looks back on some of the critiques and proposals that followed that paper. He suggests that the concept of the psychoanalytic process is viable and useful despite its shortcomings. Consideration is given to the goals of psychoanalytic treatment as they relate to the "process" and how the "process" may be helpful in determining whether or not a patient is "in" analysis.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1989

The future of psychoanalysis.

We have tried, in a necessarily kaleidoscopic and highly condensed manner, to highlight our perspectives on the foreseeable future of psychoanalysis, along a number of interrelated but clearly distinct dimensions. Our discussion has dealt with the nature of our field as a science and also as a discipline, the nature of the training for it, the nature of its research, and the nature and scope of its professional practice. In all of these areas, matters seem both more complex and less clear-cut than they were in the immediate post-World War II period when we entered the field, which is now forty years ago in the approximately one-hundred-year-old history of psychoanalysis. We did not discuss in any detail the International Psychoanalytical Association or the American, its component through which we have our international membership. We have, however, via the IPA Newsletter, given voice to the organizational struggles of the International: the April 1989 issue of the Newsletter carries our account of the organizational changes within the IPA during the last four years and what we think they mean in relation to some of the issues discussed in this article. The fuller story of how our changing psychoanalytic life and identities are reflected in our institutional structures, as well as a more detailed specification of the future directions we have tried to chart in our inquiry, all deserve separate extended treatment and more complete justification.

Forecasting↗

PubMed1984

Some observations on the psychoanalytic process.

The author's aim is to delineate the psychoanalytic process and to distinguish it from the psychoanalytic situation, the transference neurosis, "insight," and psychoanalytic technique in general. Freud's 1913 views provide the basis for a concept of the psychoanalytic process centered on the recognition and interpretation of resistances and on the patient's reactions to the analyst's interventions. This clinically observable "unit" of the process is described and compared with Bernfeld's "facts of observation." The proposition is advanced that the process does not come to an end with the termination of analysis. It continues postanalytically in the form of the patient's more objective and more effective capacity for self-observation. The paper closes with a warning about the "pitfalls of perfectibilism" and with a plea for the elevation of the not-so-good analytic hour.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1984

Anxiety and the restitutional function of homosexual cruising.

Psychoanalytical exploration of latent homosexuality, of homosexual cruising and the related fantasies indicates that it is (among other things) an act of restitution, an effort to resurrect the father, to contradict the ambivalent wishes to rob and murder him, to make sure that he is alive and well and not the victim of the cruiser's competitiveness and destructiveness, to idealize him and render him into an object of love; thus to avoid anxiety and to preclude the father's wrath and retaliation. That such restitutional attempts fail and instead reflect the murderous (both the anal and the genital) intent is no surprise for the psychoanalyst who regularly witnesses contradictory aims in the manifestations of all the neuroses and psychoses including the obsessional. The observations (as well as a host of other clinical phenomena) indicate the intimate relation of anxiety to the aggressive strivings (despite the fact that anxiety instigates repression of the sexual wishes). Anxiety serves as a precipitant of repression and symptom formation while guilt, both conscious and unconscious manifestations, is a product of the oedipal sexual wishes.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

A note on consummation and termination.

The sensation sometimes expressed by analytic patients, most notably during termination of having left some "unfinished business" (to which they hope to return) is not necessarily simply a judgment about the analysis; frequently it is an affective component of the wish for consummation which has not been granted by the analysis. Simultaneously, it expresses the defense against that very consummation. The wish to give the analyst a gift is in some sense the direct opposite, or more correctly, expresses the defense more openly as a bribe and warning to the analyst that he should not expect or hope for consummation of the instinctual wishes which have been the center of analytic work; i.e., it is a defense against the fulfillment of those wishes almost as if the analyst, by attempting to analyze them, insists upon their enactment. Nevertheless, and despite the apparent contradiction, both affects, which serve similar functions, may appear simultaneously.

Coitus↗

PubMed1981

Some clinical consequences of introjection: gaslighting.

In the regression from the oedipal impulses some, perhaps many, people retreat to the introjective (oral) mode of defense. This and other defensive maneuvers culminate in a variety of behaviors which have been extensively and variously described in the literature. The authors describe, under the rubric of "gaslighting," an outcome of the introjective defense in which a victim and a victimizer join psychological modes in expressing and defending themselves against oral, incorporative impulses (greed), each in his or her own way.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1980

Enuresis: a functional equivalent of a fetish.

The split in the ego between consciousness and unconsciousness which sometimes eventuates in fetishism can also be clinically manifested in sleep disturbances, depersonalization, dejà vu and a variety of alterations in the sense of reality. It is suggested that this same split comprises the central dynamic mechanism in enuresis. The sleep disturbance which accompanies enuresis involves a confusion between waking and sleeping, sometimes taking the form of a dream that one is awake. Three patients(adult males) revealed in the course of their analyses that they suffered from childhood enuresis accompanied by a sleep disturbance. Milder forms of sleep disturbances persisted into adult life. In these analyses, certain perceptual distortions, difficulties in the sense of reality, and between fantasy and reality, confusions between waking and sleeping, could all be linked to the functional split between consciousness and unconsciousness and eventually to disavowal of the female genitals. The enuresis represented a functional equivalent of the fetish (and it may be that the urinary stream itself actually served as a fetish). Psychological test data from nine enuretic boys were examined as well. This material clearly demonstrated that these boys wished to deny the differences between males and females, that they suffered from sleep disturbances and that they confused reality and fantasy, sleeping and waking. The combined data suggest the existence of a functional split in the ego used in the service of defence, the product of a regressive fixation and a reinstatement of an archaic mode of thought.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1979

Some observations on not telling the truth.

Lying, in the analytic situation of essentially neurotic patients, is proposed to represent a re-enactment within the analysis and transference neurosis of a particular aspect of the oedipal conflict. These lies permit the partial recovery of old memories and perceptions; the emergence of certain unconscious wishes and fantasies, while simultaneously continuing to protect those wishes by a variety of mechanisms which are best conceptualized as "screen functions"; and the expression of resentment over being lied to by one or both of the oedipal objects. Connections are also made between the oedipally determined lie and an infantile primal-scene trauma.

Adult↗

PubMed1977