ABSTRACT
An attempt is made to define the essence of the tragic through an examination of Euripides' 'The Bacchae', a tragedy that deals with the origins of tragedy itself. The action here culminates in the dismemberment of Pentheus by his mother. It is proposed that the tragic may be related to the earliest phases of differentiation of the subject as a separate entity breaking off from the original mother-infant unit. Tragedy, in this view, could be regarded as the enactment of a primal phantasy of the birth of the 'I' as the result of an archaic act of violence. The process of mourning for the loss of the original unity is central to this development. Pentheus' tragic flaw consists in his repudiation of contradictory dualities and his inability to mourn. The integrative function of 'Logos', both in tragedy and in the analytic process, is underlined. It is suggested that 'Logos' aims to generate meaning not by eliminating contradiction but by embodying the foundational human paradox.
Subject(s)
Drama , Mythology , Psychoanalytic Theory , Violence , Bereavement , Cultural Characteristics , Emotions , Humans , Self ConceptABSTRACT
An examination of the nightmares of four adults in analysis who had been sexually abused as children revealed a characteristic distortion of the body representation as it appeared in the manifest content of the dream. The authors believe that childhood sexual trauma has profound and pervasive effects on the development and consolidation of the body image. Experienced as a grave assault on body integrity and function, it mobilizes primitive anxieties and specific genital anxieties, resulting in distortion, fragmentation, or disintegration of the body representation. The frequently observed multiple somatization of victims of sexual abuse is attributable to such a damaged and persecutory body representation.
Subject(s)
Child Abuse, Sexual/psychology , Dreams , Personality Development , Psychoanalytic Interpretation , Psychoanalytic Therapy , Adolescent , Adult , Anxiety Disorders/psychology , Anxiety Disorders/therapy , Child , Child Abuse, Sexual/therapy , Child of Impaired Parents/psychology , Child, Preschool , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Depressive Disorder/therapy , Female , Humans , Psychosexual DevelopmentABSTRACT
An examination of the nature and function of the analytic frame is attempted with particular reference to schizophrenia. Some if its developmental aspects are also considered. The claim is made that the careful and sensitive management and analysis of the frame in schizophrenia will usher in a depressive phase. Clinical material is used to illustrate this thesis.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder/therapy , Psychoanalytic Therapy/methods , Schizophrenia/therapy , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adult , Body Image , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Ego , Humans , Male , Psychoanalytic Theory , Schizophrenic LanguageSubject(s)
Cultural Characteristics , Culture , Psychoanalytic Theory , Humans , Morals , Social Change , Social ValuesSubject(s)
Day Care, Medical , Hospitals, Psychiatric/history , Psychiatry/history , History, 20th Century , QuebecABSTRACT
Freud was familiar with the platonic writings and made multiple references of Plato's work claiming significant similarities with his own. This paper is an attempt to examine, in some detail, the existing similarities and differences between the two psychological systems. Parallels are striking, but these are, more, agreements in principle only. Fundamental divergences emerge, and these relate to different conceptions of the 'hidden knowledge' within the psyche, and of the nature of 'reality'. The two systems reflect different traditions and responded, historically, to different ideological climates.
