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Samuel Zysman

Publications and source records attributed to Samuel Zysman.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Melanie Klein in Buenos Aires: beginnings and developments.

In the first decades of the 20th century, Freud was known and quoted in Latin America by an elite of enlightened minds. In the 1940s a convergence took place in Buenos Aires of European exiles with local pioneers, and thus the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association was founded in 1942. Since then psychoanalysis has grown steadily and has spread into hospitals and universities, influencing culture at large. The socioeconomic situation of that time permitted this phenomenon to develop, to the astonishment of observers. In this paper the authors study the strong influence of Kleinian thought during the first 30 years of this development. The original works of local thinkers constitute the intellectual capital that sustains the idea of an 'Argentine psychoanalytic school'. During the 1970s, both society and psychoanalysis endured deep and complex changes. Lacan's teachings gained support and Klein's influence began to decline. At present the Buenos Aires Kleinians keep working, while their relationship with Lacanians and other schools is calmer. Respectful discussions became thus possible, oriented to strictly scientific differences.

Argentina↗
PubMed2003

Erna and Melanie Klein.

Erna was one of the child patients treated by Melanie Klein in Berlin, employing her recently discovered play technique. Since Erna died in Chile, the authors considered the IPA Congress in Santiago an opportunity to present a paper as a homage both to Erna and, especially, to Klein. She learned much from that very disturbed child, which she later used to sustain the ongoing development of her theories. The paper explores biographic data relevant to understanding both the case and the theories. It analyses the case material to follow Klein in the discovery and the handling of the child's transference and the harsh expressions of hate, jealousy and envy, which are brought in, with sad consequences, by strong persecutory feelings. Klein's comparison of this case with that of Freud's Wolf-man is also considered, mostly to show that the similarities were less than originally claimed, and that Klein, perhaps, was introducing a theoretic shift which led her technique to gradually change from 'Nachträglichkeit' to the 'signification-resignification' pair, akin to Strachey's concept of the mutative interpretation. Lastly, the comprehension of Erna's strong psychotic traits and the links with later developments of the theory on psychosis are studied.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Psychoanalysis and epistemology: mental development and formulation of theories].

This paper aims at studying from a psychoanalytical perspective the relationship between the acquisition of knowledge, the formulation of theories based on the generalization of such knowledge, and, what we consider to be an antecedent, the infantile sexual theories (IST). Psychoanalysis is also a psychology of normal psychic processes, among them creative activity which includes scientific thought. This is of interest to psychoanalysts and to epistemologists and paves the way to necessary interdisciplinary endeavors.

History, 20th Century↗