When do consumers favor overly precise information about investment returns?

Consumers are often shown investment returns with high levels of precision, which could lead them to misunderstand the inherent uncertainty. We test whether consumers are drawn to precision-that is offset the uncertainty in investment decisions by over-relying on precise numerical information. Five incentivized experiments compared decisions when expected growth is presented in precise forecasts as opposed to ranges. Consumers are more likely to prefer and invest more in precise forecasts when they are evaluated jointly with ranges and when the range features a potential loss. Under these circumstances, precise forecasts give consumers more confidence to invest. This effect holds when consumers are told investment returns are uncertain. On the other hand, experiencing discrepancies between expected and actual growth dissipates the preference for precise forecasts. We identify conditions under which consumers are more likely to favor precise forecasts and how this could be avoided if necessary. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Conviction Narrative Theory: A theory of choice under radical uncertainty.

Conviction Narrative Theory (CNT) is a theory of choice under radical uncertainty - situations where outcomes cannot be enumerated and probabilities cannot be assigned. Whereas most theories of choice assume that people rely on (potentially biased) probabilistic judgments, such theories cannot account for adaptive decision-making when probabilities cannot be assigned. CNT proposes that people use narratives - structured representations of causal, temporal, analogical, and valence relationships - rather than probabilities, as the currency of thought that unifies our sense-making and decision-making faculties. According to CNT, narratives arise from the interplay between individual cognition and the social environment, with reasoners adopting a narrative that feels "right" to explain the available data; using that narrative to imagine plausible futures; and affectively evaluating those imagined futures to make a choice. Evidence from many areas of the cognitive, behavioral, and social sciences supports this basic model, including lab experiments, interview studies, and econometric analyses. We identify 12 propositions to explain how the mental representations (narratives) interact with four inter-related processes (explanation, simulation, affective evaluation, and communication), examining the theoretical and empirical basis for each. We conclude by discussing how CNT can provide a common vocabulary for researchers studying everyday choices across areas of the decision sciences.

Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of the government communicating uncertainties relating to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on vaccination intention and trust after people are exposed to conflicting information. DESIGN: Experimental design where participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups. SETTING: Online. PARTICIPANTS: 328 adults from a UK research panel. INTERVENTION: Participants received either certain or uncertain communications from a government representative about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, before receiving conflicting information about effectiveness. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Vaccination intention and trust in government. RESULTS: Compared with those who received the uncertain announcement from the government, participants who received the certain announcement reported a greater loss of vaccination intention (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) and trust (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) after receiving conflicting information. CONCLUSIONS: Communicating with certainty about COVID-19 vaccines reduces vaccination intention and trust if conflicting information arises, whereas communicating uncertainties can protect people from the negative impact of exposure to conflicting information. There are likely to be other factors affecting vaccine intentions, which we do not account for in this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/c73px/.

Judgments in the Sharing Economy: The Effect of User-Generated Trust and Reputation Information on Decision-Making Accuracy and Bias.

The growing ecosystem of peer-to-peer enterprise - the Sharing Economy (SE) - has brought with it a substantial change in how we access and provide goods and services. Within the SE, individuals make decisions based mainly on user-generated trust and reputation information (TRI). Recent research indicates that the use of such information tends to produce a positivity bias in the perceived trustworthiness of fellow users. Across two experimental studies performed on an artificial SE accommodation platform, we test whether users' judgments can be accurate when presented with diagnostic information relating to the quality of the profiles they see or if these overly positive perceptions persist. In study 1, we find that users are quite accurate overall (70%) at determining the quality of a profile, both when presented with full profiles or with profiles where they selected three TRI elements they considered useful for their decision-making. However, users tended to exhibit an "upward quality bias" when making errors. In study 2, we leveraged patterns of frequently vs. infrequently selected TRI elements to understand whether users have insights into which are more diagnostic and find that presenting frequently selected TRI elements improved users' accuracy. Overall, our studies demonstrate that - positivity bias notwithstanding - users can be remarkably accurate in their online SE judgments.

The XZZX surface code.

Performing large calculations with a quantum computer will likely require a fault-tolerant architecture based on quantum error-correcting codes. The challenge is to design practical quantum error-correcting codes that perform well against realistic noise using modest resources. Here we show that a variant of the surface code-the XZZX code-offers remarkable performance for fault-tolerant quantum computation. The error threshold of this code matches what can be achieved with random codes (hashing) for every single-qubit Pauli noise channel; it is the first explicit code shown to have this universal property. We present numerical evidence that the threshold even exceeds this hashing bound for an experimentally relevant range of noise parameters. Focusing on the common situation where qubit dephasing is the dominant noise, we show that this code has a practical, high-performance decoder and surpasses all previously known thresholds in the realistic setting where syndrome measurements are unreliable. We go on to demonstrate the favourable sub-threshold resource scaling that can be obtained by specialising a code to exploit structure in the noise. We show that it is possible to maintain all of these advantages when we perform fault-tolerant quantum computation.

Fault-Tolerant Thresholds for the Surface Code in Excess of 5% under Biased Noise.

Noise in quantum computing is countered with quantum error correction. Achieving optimal performance will require tailoring codes and decoding algorithms to account for features of realistic noise, such as the common situation where the noise is biased towards dephasing. Here we introduce an efficient high-threshold decoder for a noise-tailored surface code based on minimum-weight perfect matching. The decoder exploits the symmetries of its syndrome under the action of biased noise and generalizes to the fault-tolerant regime where measurements are unreliable. Using this decoder, we obtain fault-tolerant thresholds in excess of 6% for a phenomenological noise model in the limit where dephasing dominates. These gains persist even for modest noise biases: we find a threshold of ∼5% in an experimentally relevant regime where dephasing errors occur at a rate 100 times greater than bit-flip errors.

Psychoanalytic training in the Eitingon model and its controversies: A way forward.

Psychoanalytic training has been an object of controversy for many years. Arguments have been intense about the details, sometimes called "requirements", and particularly over whether or not training institutes should have routine external validation. We describe these arguments and present preliminary conclusions about the core challenges psychoanalytic trainings face using a unique set of detailed observations collected during structured "conversations" inside nine European institutes. We conclude that whether a psychoanalytic training is "working" is not a matter of compliance with requirements. Rather, it is an issue of how candidates, training analysts, supervisors and committee members, confront within and between each other the consequences of the unconscious dynamics that psychoanalytic training must inevitably create. Institutional psychoanalytic capacity is to take itself as the object. Consequentially, we propose that training committees that seek to claim that their psychoanalytic training is genuinely and safely producing psychoanalysts would be ones that institute routine procedures to show to themselves, transparently, how they attend to the dynamics just mentioned and how they take a neutral inquisitive stance towards them. Fear of oversight, we suggest, is a symptom of deeper anxieties. They can be faced by creating an appropriate setting. Properly conducted visits from outsiders are welcomed.

Ideas prevented from becoming conscious: On Freud's unconscious and the theory of psychoanalytic technique.

This contribution to honour the Journal's centenary elaborates the classical view that what is primarily at stake in a psychoanalysis are ideas patients and analysts have that are prevented from becoming conscious. It is argued, drawing on a "bare bones" or parsimonious model of psychoanalytic treatment, that the ideas concerned are mainly the worrying unconscious beliefs patients have about their experience with their analysts. These are ideas saturated with feeling and derived from the internal templates that patients use to respond to current experience, based on ways they have registered experience from the beginning of their lives. Because such ideas are unconscious, they cannot be taken as hypotheses until revised. Rather, they are assumed to be facts, knowledge of which, because they generate feelings like anxiety, guilt or shame, is to be avoided and hidden. After introducing the model and discussing two short vignettes from psychoanalytic treatment, the author elaborates the view that recognising which ideas are being prevented from becoming conscious in sessions is the kernel of psychoanalytic therapy.

Some brief personal reflections on the 100th Anniversary Conference papers. Where are we? Where have we come from? Where might we go?

This contribution is a personal reflection on the papers presented at the New York and London anniversary conferences, in which the author takes stock to consider what they might tell us about where the discipline is now, where it has come from and where it might go. Taking the clinical contributions as evidence of the way many leading analysts in the field now proceed, it is suggested that there is an increasing and more and more subtle use of the analyst's behaviour, thoughts, fantasies, feelings and experiences, inside and outside the session, as core sources for constructing the patient's unconscious. Placing this observation in the context of issues of evidence raised in the 50th and 75th anniversary volumes, the author argues that a possible future agenda for the field may be to think more plainly about the basis of an analyst's knowledge claims, whether made implicitly or explicitly to patients in sessions. The author wonders if more disciplined understanding of transference consistent with neuroscientific findings of the last few years may be one factor that could prove useful.

Transference and transference interpretation revisited: Why a parsimonious model of practice may be useful.

What psychoanalysts consider psychoanalytic interpretation, in what setting it emerges and specifically why, when and how transference should be interpreted, have become increasingly unclear and controversial. In this paper I set out, elaborate, illustrate and argue the value for post-session reflection, certainly within the object relations traditions, of adopting a parsimonious model of practice. The model rests on the foundations of a specific understanding of free association, evenly suspended attention, resistance and transference and separating two epistemologically distinct intentions in transference interpretation. One, transference construction, aims to make a patient aware of the unconscious ways a patient is behaving in sessions (and then outside them) and how and why that is happening. A second, transference designation, focuses on the more limited aim of making patients aware of how they unconsciously experience the psychoanalyst at specific moments of resistance in sessions. Both types of interpretation may help but, I argue, it is the latter that must form the bedrock for fundamental change.

Digital Identity: The effect of trust and reputation information on user judgement in the Sharing Economy.

The Sharing Economy (SE) is a growing ecosystem focusing on peer-to-peer enterprise. In the SE the information available to assist individuals (users) in making decisions focuses predominantly on community-generated trust and reputation information. However, how such information impacts user judgement is still being understood. To explore such effects, we constructed an artificial SE accommodation platform where we varied the elements related to hosts' digital identity, measuring users' perceptions and decisions to interact. Across three studies, we find that trust and reputation information increases not only the users' perceived trustworthiness, credibility, and sociability of hosts, but also the propensity to rent a private room in their home. This effect is seen when providing users both with complete profiles and profiles with partial user-selected information. Closer investigations reveal that three elements relating to the host's digital identity are sufficient to produce such positive perceptions and increased rental decisions, regardless of which three elements are presented. Our findings have relevant implications for human judgment and privacy in the SE, and question its current culture of ever increasing information-sharing.

Ultrahigh Error Threshold for Surface Codes with Biased Noise.

We show that a simple modification of the surface code can exhibit an enormous gain in the error correction threshold for a noise model in which Pauli Z errors occur more frequently than X or Y errors. Such biased noise, where dephasing dominates, is ubiquitous in many quantum architectures. In the limit of pure dephasing noise we find a threshold of 43.7(1)% using a tensor network decoder proposed by Bravyi, Suchara, and Vargo. The threshold remains surprisingly large in the regime of realistic noise bias ratios, for example 28.2(2)% at a bias of 10. The performance is, in fact, at or near the hashing bound for all values of the bias. The modified surface code still uses only weight-4 stabilizers on a square lattice, but merely requires measuring products of Y instead of Z around the faces, as this doubles the number of useful syndrome bits associated with the dominant Z errors. Our results demonstrate that large efficiency gains can be found by appropriately tailoring codes and decoders to realistic noise models, even under the locality constraints of topological codes.

The role of conviction and narrative in decision-making under radical uncertainty.

We propose conviction narrative theory (CNT) to broaden decision-making theory in order to better understand and analyse how subjectively means-end rational actors cope in contexts in which the traditional assumptions in decision-making models fail to hold. Conviction narratives enable actors to draw on their beliefs, causal models, and rules of thumb to identify opportunities worth acting on, to simulate the future outcome of their actions, and to feel sufficiently convinced to act. The framework focuses on how narrative and emotion combine to allow actors to deliberate and to select actions that they think will produce the outcomes they desire. It specifies connections between particular emotions and deliberative thought, hypothesising that approach and avoidance emotions evoked during narrative simulation play a crucial role. Two mental states, Divided and Integrated, in which narratives can be formed or updated, are introduced and used to explain some familiar problems that traditional models cannot.

Inside and outside the window: some fundamental elements in the theory of psychoanalytic technique.

The underlying concern of this paper is that psychoanalysis as practised today is in danger of losing its specificity and so losing its way. The author suggests this is possible for three reasons: the problem analysts face in responding to the strong emotional demands the great majority of patients necessarily place on them, the unintended consequences of the apparent success of 'here and now technique' and the absence of good clinical theory. The paper mainly discusses the author's ideas about some core elements of the clinical theory that all psychoanalysts must use when they are working and proposes (at the risk of being facile) some relatively simple heuristics related to them which are meant to be helpful. Recalling Kurt Lewin's maxim that 'there is nothing so practical as a good theory', he will suggest that continuous reflection on how one is using theory in daily practice is highly practical, if the theory is good enough. Theory in fact is a necessary 'third' in psychoanalytic practice which, if kept in sufficient working order close enough to clinical experience, provides an ongoing and very necessary check on our sense of reality. But, of course, as a third it can, like reality itself, be the focus of both love and hate with equally problematic consequences. The paper starts with a clinical example of a difficult but apparently successful analysis reaching its end, which will be used throughout the paper to illustrate and elaborate the theoretical ideas set out.

O que são Grupos de Trabalho¹ e o que podem fazer? / ¿Qué son Grupos de Trabajo y qué es lo que pueden hacer? / What are Working Parties and what can they do

Entendido como oportunidade para debater o fato de que temos ideias diferentes e sua sustentação, o pluralismo fornece o contexto para exame rigoroso e respeitoso das diferenças. Mas o debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimento informado real entre pontos de vista discordantes e um quadro de referência institucional e cultural. A política científica da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia que introduzimos em 2001 e o papel dos Grupos de Trabalho (Working Parties) tinham por objetivo criar essas condições para nos ajudar a chegar a conclusões mais seguras. Queríamos facilitar, em longo prazo, uma cultura muito mais rigorosa, mais bem informada e comprometida, entre pares. Uma área importante da discussão é a de verificar a teoria psicanalítica usada na situação clínica, a psicanálise tal qual é realmente praticada no cotidiano atual. À medida que o pluralismo se amplia, observa-se uma confusão cada vez maior possibilitando que a psicanálise clínica se afaste de forma desastrosa de uma metodologia freudiana específica podendo desembocar em algo do tipo "vale tudo". Este artigo começa pela descrição de como os Grupos de Trabalho "trabalham" (diferenciando a ideia de Grupo de Trabalho - Working Parties - da de oficinas-workshops), usando o Grupo de Trabalho sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia como exemplo. A seguir discute o que pensamos acerca dos elementos essenciais que o analista se utiliza enquanto trabalha, em sua teoria clínica cotidiana - tenha ou não o analista consciência destes elementos. Apresentam-se então três exemplos clínicos mostrando como psicanalistas diferentes realmente trabalharam - usando o referencial teórico e comparativo que o Grupo de Trabalho desenvolveu e implementou nas oficinas. Os três apresentadores eram analistas didatas experientes. A seguir, faço a revisão de nove elementos essenciais que parecem dividir a maneira pela qual os psicanalistas contemporâneos realmente trabalham atualmente. Cada elemento levanta questões teóricas razoavelmente específicas - questões fundamentais para as quais as respostas são frequentemente muito confusas, que fazem assim a formação psicanalítica tornar-se confusa. Concluo que os elementos essenciais da psicanálise clínica exigem reflexão, especificação, compreensão e discussão muito mais clara e, consequentemente, muito mais trabalho de todos nós.

Entendido como la oportunidad para debatir el hecho de que tenemos ideas diferentes y su sustentación, el pluralismo suministra el contexto para el examen riguroso y respetuoso de las diferencias. Pero el debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimiento informado y real entre puntos de vista discordantes y un cuadro de referencia institucional y cultural. La política científica de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea que introdujimos en 2001 y el papel de los Grupos de Trabajo tenían por objetivo crear esas condiciones para ayudarnos a llegar a conclusiones más seguras. Queríamos facilitar, a largo plazo, una cultura mucho más rigurosa, más bien informada y comprometida, entre pares. Un área importante de la discusión está siendo la teoría psicoanalítica de la situación clínica, el psicoanálisis tal y como es realmente practicado en el día a día. A medida que el pluralismo se desarrolla, la práctica clínica entra en una fase de complejidad cada vez mayor - con la posibilidad de permitir que el psicoanálisis clínico se aleje de forma desastrosa de la modalidad freudiana específica para algo parecido a "cualquier cosa sirve". Este artículo empieza por la descripción de cómo los Grupos de Trabajo "trabajan" (diferenciando la idea de Grupo de Trabajo de la de talleres), usando el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea como ejemplo. A continuación se discute lo que pensamos acerca de los elementos esenciales que la teoría clínica cotidiana común del analista cubre mientras él trabaja - tenga o no el analista conocimiento de ella. Se presentan entonces tres ejemplos clínicos mostrando cómo psicoanalistas diferentes realmente trabajaron - usando la referencia teórica y comparativa que el Grupo de Trabajo desarrolló y programó en los talleres. Los tres presentadores eran analistas didactas expertos. A continuación se hace la revisión de ocho elementos esenciales que parecen dividir la manera por la cual los psicoanalistas contemporáneos realmente trabajan hoy en día. Cada elemento levanta cuestiones teóricas razonablemente necesarias - cuestiones fundamentales para las cuales las respuestas son frecuentemente muy confusas, que hacen que la formación psicoanalítica se vuelva confusa. Concluyo que los elementos esenciales del psicoanálisis clínico exigen reflexión, especificación, comprensión y discusión mucho más clara y consecuentemente mucho más trabajo de todos nosotros.

Understood as an opportunity to debate the fact we have different ideas and the support for them, pluralism provides the context for rigorous and respectful examination of differences. But for debate to be effective it requires discipline - real informed engagement between competing viewpoints and an institutional and cultural framework. The European Psychoanalytic Federation's scientific policy we introduced in 2001 and the role within it of Working Parties aimed to create such conditions to help us to reach more secure conclusions. We wanted to facilitate, in the long term, a much more rigorous, better-informed and engaged peer culture. One important area of the discussion was the psychoanalytic theory of the clinical situation as psychoanalysis is actually practiced every day. Clinical practice has been in increasing disarray as pluralism has developed - potentially allowing clinical psychoanalysis to drift disastrously away from a specific Freudian modality towards "anything goes". This paper starts by describing how Working Parties "work" (distinguished the Working Party from workshops) using the FEP Working Party on Comparative Clinical Methods as an example. It then discusses how we thought about the core elements that the analyst's ordinary everyday clinical theory will cover as s/he works - whether the analysts knows it or not. Three clinical examples are then presented showing how different psychoanalysts actually worked - using the theoretical and comparative framework the Working Party developed and implemented in the workshops. All three presenters were experienced training analysts. I then review eight core elements that appear to divide how contemporary psychoanalysts really work today. Each element raises reasonably precise theoretical questions - fundamental ones to which answers are often very confused, which then makes psychoanalytic training confusing. I conclude that the core elements of clinical psychoanalysis require much clearer reflection, specification, understanding and discussion and so a lot more work from us all.

O que são Grupos de Trabalho¹ e o que podem fazer? / ¿Qué son Grupos de Trabajo y qué es lo que pueden hacer? / What are Working Parties and what can they do

Entendido como oportunidade para debater o fato de que temos ideias diferentes e sua sustentação, o pluralismo fornece o contexto para exame rigoroso e respeitoso das diferenças. Mas o debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimento informado real entre pontos de vista discordantes e um quadro de referência institucional e cultural. A política científica da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia que introduzimos em 2001 e o papel dos Grupos de Trabalho (Working Parties) tinham por objetivo criar essas condições para nos ajudar a chegar a conclusões mais seguras. Queríamos facilitar, em longo prazo, uma cultura muito mais rigorosa, mais bem informada e comprometida, entre pares. Uma área importante da discussão é a de verificar a teoria psicanalítica usada na situação clínica, a psicanálise tal qual é realmente praticada no cotidiano atual. À medida que o pluralismo se amplia, observa-se uma confusão cada vez maior possibilitando que a psicanálise clínica se afaste de forma desastrosa de uma metodologia freudiana específica podendo desembocar em algo do tipo "vale tudo". Este artigo começa pela descrição de como os Grupos de Trabalho "trabalham" (diferenciando a ideia de Grupo de Trabalho - Working Parties - da de oficinas-workshops), usando o Grupo de Trabalho sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia como exemplo. A seguir discute o que pensamos acerca dos elementos essenciais que o analista se utiliza enquanto trabalha, em sua teoria clínica cotidiana - tenha ou não o analista consciência destes elementos. Apresentam-se então três exemplos clínicos mostrando como psicanalistas diferentes realmente trabalharam - usando o referencial teórico e comparativo que o Grupo de Trabalho desenvolveu e implementou nas oficinas. Os três apresentadores eram analistas didatas experientes. A seguir, faço a revisão de nove elementos essenciais que parecem dividir a maneira pela qual os psicanalistas contemporâneos realmente ...(AU)

Entendido como la oportunidad para debatir el hecho de que tenemos ideas diferentes y su sustentación, el pluralismo suministra el contexto para el examen riguroso y respetuoso de las diferencias. Pero el debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimiento informado y real entre puntos de vista discordantes y un cuadro de referencia institucional y cultural. La política científica de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea que introdujimos en 2001 y el papel de los Grupos de Trabajo tenían por objetivo crear esas condiciones para ayudarnos a llegar a conclusiones más seguras. Queríamos facilitar, a largo plazo, una cultura mucho más rigurosa, más bien informada y comprometida, entre pares. Un área importante de la discusión está siendo la teoría psicoanalítica de la situación clínica, el psicoanálisis tal y como es realmente practicado en el día a día. A medida que el pluralismo se desarrolla, la práctica clínica entra en una fase de complejidad cada vez mayor - con la posibilidad de permitir que el psicoanálisis clínico se aleje de forma desastrosa de la modalidad freudiana específica para algo parecido a "cualquier cosa sirve". Este artículo empieza por la descripción de cómo los Grupos de Trabajo "trabajan" (diferenciando la idea de Grupo de Trabajo de la de talleres), usando el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea como ejemplo. A continuación se discute lo que pensamos acerca de los elementos esenciales que la teoría clínica cotidiana común del analista cubre mientras él trabaja - tenga o no el analista conocimiento de ella. Se presentan entonces tres ejemplos clínicos mostrando cómo psicoanalistas diferentes realmente trabajaron - usando la referencia teórica y comparativa que el Grupo de Trabajo desarrolló y programó en los talleres. Los tres presentadores eran analistas didactas expertos. A continuación se hace la revisión de ocho elementos esenciales que parecen dividir ...(AU)

Understood as an opportunity to debate the fact we have different ideas and the support for them, pluralism provides the context for rigorous and respectful examination of differences. But for debate to be effective it requires discipline - real informed engagement between competing viewpoints and an institutional and cultural framework. The European Psychoanalytic Federation's scientific policy we introduced in 2001 and the role within it of Working Parties aimed to create such conditions to help us to reach more secure conclusions. We wanted to facilitate, in the long term, a much more rigorous, better-informed and engaged peer culture. One important area of the discussion was the psychoanalytic theory of the clinical situation as psychoanalysis is actually practiced every day. Clinical practice has been in increasing disarray as pluralism has developed - potentially allowing clinical psychoanalysis to drift disastrously away from a specific Freudian modality towards "anything goes". This paper starts by describing how Working Parties "work" (distinguished the Working Party from workshops) using the FEP Working Party on Comparative Clinical Methods as an example. It then discusses how we thought about the core elements that the analyst's ordinary everyday clinical theory will cover as s/he works - whether the analysts knows it or not. Three clinical examples are then presented showing how different psychoanalysts actually worked - using the theoretical and comparative framework the Working Party developed and implemented in the workshops. All three presenters were experienced training analysts. I then review eight core elements that appear to divide how contemporary psychoanalysts really work today. Each element raises reasonably precise theoretical questions - fundamental ones to which answers are often very confused, which then makes psychoanalytic training confusing. I conclude that the core elements of clinical psychoanalysis require ...(AU)

O que são grupos de trabalho¹ e o que podem fazer? / ¿Qué son Grupos de Trabajo y qué es lo que pueden hacer? / What are Working Parties and what can they do

Entendido como oportunidade para debater o fato de que temos ideias diferentes e sua sustentação, o pluralismo fornece o contexto para exame rigoroso e respeitoso das diferenças. Mas o debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimento informado real entre pontos de vista discordantes e um quadro de referência institucional e cultural. A política científica da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia que introduzimos em 2001 e o papel dos Grupos de Trabalho (Working Parties) tinham por objetivo criar essas condições para nos ajudar a chegar a conclusões mais seguras. Queríamos facilitar, em longo prazo, uma cultura muito mais rigorosa, mais bem informada e comprometida, entre pares. Uma área importante da discussão é a de verificar a teoria psicanalítica usada na situação clínica, a psicanálise tal qual é realmente praticada no cotidiano atual. À medida que o pluralismo se amplia, observa-se uma confusão cada vez maior possibilitando que a psicanálise clínica se afaste de forma desastrosa de uma metodologia freudiana específica podendo desembocar em algo do tipo "vale tudo". Este artigo começa pela descrição de como os Grupos de Trabalho "trabalham" (diferenciando a ideia de Grupo de Trabalho - Working Parties - da de oficinas-workshops), usando o Grupo de Trabalho sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos da Federação Psicanalítica Europeia como exemplo. A seguir discute o que pensamos acerca dos elementos essenciais que o analista se utiliza enquanto trabalha, em sua teoria clínica cotidiana - tenha ou não o analista consciência destes elementos. Apresentam-se então três exemplos clínicos mostrando como psicanalistas diferentes realmente trabalharam - usando o referencial teórico e comparativo que o Grupo de Trabalho desenvolveu e implementou nas oficinas. Os três apresentadores eram analistas didatas experientes. A seguir, faço a revisão de nove elementos essenciais que parecem dividir a maneira pela qual os psicanalistas contemporâneos realmente trabalham atualmente. Cada elemento levanta questões teóricas razoavelmente específicas - questões fundamentais para as quais as respostas são frequentemente muito confusas, que fazem assim a formação psicanalítica tornar-se confusa. Concluo que os elementos essenciais da psicanálise clínica exigem reflexão, especificação, compreensão e discussão muito mais clara e, consequentemente, muito mais trabalho de todos nós.

Entendido como la oportunidad para debatir el hecho de que tenemos ideas diferentes y su sustentación, el pluralismo suministra el contexto para el examen riguroso y respetuoso de las diferencias. Pero el debate para ser eficaz exige disciplina - envolvimiento informado y real entre puntos de vista discordantes y un cuadro de referencia institucional y cultural. La política científica de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea que introdujimos en 2001 y el papel de los Grupos de Trabajo tenían por objetivo crear esas condiciones para ayudarnos a llegar a conclusiones más seguras. Queríamos facilitar, a largo plazo, una cultura mucho más rigurosa, más bien informada y comprometida, entre pares. Un área importante de la discusión está siendo la teoría psicoanalítica de la situación clínica, el psicoanálisis tal y como es realmente practicado en el día a día. A medida que el pluralismo se desarrolla, la práctica clínica entra en una fase de complejidad cada vez mayor - con la posibilidad de permitir que el psicoanálisis clínico se aleje de forma desastrosa de la modalidad freudiana específica para algo parecido a "cualquier cosa sirve". Este artículo empieza por la descripción de cómo los Grupos de Trabajo "trabajan" (diferenciando la idea de Grupo de Trabajo de la de talleres), usando el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Métodos Clínicos Comparativos de la Federación Psicoanalítica Europea como ejemplo. A continuación se discute lo que pensamos acerca de los elementos esenciales que la teoría clínica cotidiana común del analista cubre mientras él trabaja - tenga o no el analista conocimiento de ella. Se presentan entonces tres ejemplos clínicos mostrando cómo psicoanalistas diferentes realmente trabajaron - usando la referencia teórica y comparativa que el Grupo de Trabajo desarrolló y programó en los talleres. Los tres presentadores eran analistas didactas expertos. A continuación se hace la revisión de ocho elementos esenciales que parecen dividir la manera por la cual los psicoanalistas contemporáneos realmente trabajan hoy en día. Cada elemento levanta cuestiones teóricas razonablemente necesarias - cuestiones fundamentales para las cuales las respuestas son frecuentemente muy confusas, que hacen que la formación psicoanalítica se vuelva confusa. Concluyo que los elementos esenciales del psicoanálisis clínico exigen reflexión, especificación, comprensión y discusión mucho más clara y consecuentemente mucho más trabajo de todos nosotros.

Understood as an opportunity to debate the fact we have different ideas and the support for them, pluralism provides the context for rigorous and respectful examination of differences. But for debate to be effective it requires discipline - real informed engagement between competing viewpoints and an institutional and cultural framework. The European Psychoanalytic Federation's scientific policy we introduced in 2001 and the role within it of Working Parties aimed to create such conditions to help us to reach more secure conclusions. We wanted to facilitate, in the long term, a much more rigorous, better-informed and engaged peer culture. One important area of the discussion was the psychoanalytic theory of the clinical situation as psychoanalysis is actually practiced every day. Clinical practice has been in increasing disarray as pluralism has developed - potentially allowing clinical psychoanalysis to drift disastrously away from a specific Freudian modality towards "anything goes". This paper starts by describing how Working Parties "work" (distinguished the Working Party from workshops) using the FEP Working Party on Comparative Clinical Methods as an example. It then discusses how we thought about the core elements that the analyst's ordinary everyday clinical theory will cover as s/he works - whether the analysts knows it or not. Three clinical examples are then presented showing how different psychoanalysts actually worked - using the theoretical and comparative framework the Working Party developed and implemented in the workshops. All three presenters were experienced training analysts. I then review eight core elements that appear to divide how contemporary psychoanalysts really work today. Each element raises reasonably precise theoretical questions - fundamental ones to which answers are often very confused, which then makes psychoanalytic training confusing. I conclude that the core elements of clinical psychoanalysis require much clearer reflection, specification, understanding and discussion and so a lot more work from us all.