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Biomedical subjects

R H Etchegoyen

Publications and source records attributed to R H Etchegoyen.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Some views of psychic reality.

This paper is based on the Presidential Address given at the end of the San Francisco Congress in August 1995. The author concentrates on discussing the three main Panel presentations on psychic reality from the technical, clinical and theoretical perspectives and in the context of the life cycle. Referring to Grinberg's introduction to the Congress, he reiterates that psychic reality forms the central point from which psychoanalysis can be contemplated. A special mention is given to the Panel on multidisciplinary perspectives of psychic reality, which includes contributions from two well-known philosophers, in connection with the current epistemological status of psychoanalysis in the context of the Congress's main theme. The author concludes by quoting a sonnet, which he feels illustrates the complex dialectic between reality and fantasy, between truth and lies.

Deception↗
PubMed1993

[The dispute between searching and healing in psychoanalysis].

In the age-old dispute as to whether psychoanalysis is a science or belongs rather to the humanities, the author favours a scientific stance. He sees interpretation in the analytic situation as providing scope for reasoned hypotheses which can be validated by empirical examination. In terms of interpretive technique this implies that interpretations must not only be framed in brief and simple terms but also in such a way as to lend themselves less to the verification of theoretical psychoanalytic truths than to the clarification of the truth specific to the given dyadic constellation. Etchegoyen claims that it is then possible for the analysand to confirm or refute an interpretation by the analyst. A successful interpretation, where the analysand finds the hypothesis convincing, is both a scientific discovery and a healing factor.

Humans↗
PubMed1987

On envy and how to interpret it.

This paper analyses the importance of interpreting envy within the analytic situation. We proceed from the Kleinian definition of envy, that which stems from the subject, not from the frustrating characteristics of the object. Among the object's capabilities, that of tolerating what he has not is especially included (negative capacity). We maintain that on the attitude taken by the analyst when faced by negative transference--and by envy in particular--depend the different interpretive lines which will evolve. Owing to its confusional characteristics, envy is always subtly disguised and hardly ever appears in a straightforward manner. It is necessary, therefore, to assess carefully the 'frustration' which depends on envy and that which arises from the object. We consider it important to underline that to this specific complication a further one is added: if the analyst does not adequately interpret it, envy does not become apparent. Clinical material illustrates these points.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Identification and its vicissitudes.

This paper attempts to understand the vicissitudes of identification within the co-ordinates of narcissism and the object relation. Firstly the dialectic pair primary identification/secondary identification are studied, and primary narcissism is suggested as the hypothesis which best explains them. The complex identification processes in the primary scene are considered next and the importance of the introjection of the oedipal parents for the formation of the superego is underlined. The importance of the structuring function of the introjection and projection mechanisms becomes embodied in the concept of projective identification, which comes to question the postulate of primary narcissism. The theory of projective-introjective identification is an extremely powerful instrument for explaining phenomena, however it obliges one to accept that the first introjections are radically different from the others. They have nothing to do with mourning but rather with primitive mechanisms which question the subject/object polarity and, so this author believes, spring basically from envy. Lastly, it is maintained that envy and libido are factors of a dialectic from which the object relation and the earliest processes of identification, previous to the Oedipus complex, proceed at one and the same time.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMed1983

Fifty years after the mutative interpretation.

A detailed study is made of the paper Strachey presented at the British Society in 1933 and of his exposition at the Marienbad Congress, pointing out the similarities and the differences between them which mark an evolution in the outlook of this great English analyst. The influence on Strachey of 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego' and of the Salzburg Congress is easily recognizable, but what distinguishes his contribution is to have separated, with great theoretical precision, the fundamental instrument of analysis--interpretation--from suggestion. By defining the conditions in which the mutative effect takes place, while at the same time giving the reasons that make transferential interpretation the only field of this action. Strachey makes a lasting contribution to psychoanalysis and lays the foundations which, with the development of our knowledge, have made insight stand today at the centre of the most convincing explanations on the nature of psychoanalysis' therapeutic action.

Countertransference↗