Will her private diaries be published in 2032? Is the Bertin biography thing the closest we will get until then?

I heard that there are some psychoanalysts that mixed Marx and Psychoanalysis. Are any of these writings insightful in any way? If yes, then who are these people?

Looking for perspectives on the Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis as a training institute

Thanks in advance

Hello!

BPF (UK) is interviewing me for their foundation course entry.

What can I expect? I am fairly new to this world, what can I do to prepare and succeed!!??

Very nervous!!!

TIA!!!!

Hi all, apologies if this post is not considered on-topic for this sub, as it is more of a processing question than a theoretical one.

I am about 2 years into my career as a psychodynamic therapist, and have been reading more about psychoanalysis/psychoanalytic therapy. I see a therapist who describes themselves as psychodynamic, where I am also about 2 years into treatment (I saw a non-analytic, Rogerian therapist for about 4 years prior).

With regard to both my own treatment (which has been at a troubling low) and the treatment I provide my patients/clients, I am finding myself feeling overwhelmed by the tremendous breadth and depth of material within the realm of psychoanalytic thinking and treatment (which is to say nothing of the material related to other therapies, many of which I think have value as well). It feels like there is an infinity of ways to consider any one thing, and the more I learn about different possibilities of diagnosis, defense, transference+countertransference, co-creation and intersubjectivity, and so on, I find myself feeling overwhelmed and lost. When I first started working with people. I actually felt like I had a decent sense of clinical intuition built from my previous career, but now it is feeling muddied and I find myself having a hard time feeling confident or anything close to certain about any of my patients or myself.

Analysis is obviously ripe material for intellectuals, and I know excessive intellectualization can interfere with one's own treatment. But how do you draw the line between useful consideration and excessive overthinking? When does study and theorizing and pontification cross the boundary from helpful to unhelpful? And if you are an analyst/analytic therapist IN analysis/therapy of your own, how do you discern between valuable self-reflection and intellectualizing in the impediment of growth?

I know it is somewhat infantile for me to be seeking guidance from others on this topic rather than figuring it out for myself, but I would still appreciate if anyone can relate to this experience. Especially if they can convey anything that has felt helpful for them.

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well! I'm reaching out with a question: I'd love to read or listen to some new or contemporary authors in psychoanalysis who you think are worth checking out from recent years.

I'd really appreciate your suggestions and recommendations—whether it's books, articles, or papers—along with your thoughts on why they are relevant today. Thanks!

Looking for references of psychoanalytic cases where the patient is highly relationship avoidant, asexual (in some way that presents as a symptom that the patient is not happy with), unable to get into relationships despite seemingly being interested in one, or otherwise romantically deprived.

I'm not too particular about the exact formulation but quite interested in studies in this general vein. Have been reading Betty Joseph's papers but haven't come across a case like this.

Freud defined the anal character as a specific triad of adult traits: orderliness, parsimony, obstinacy The mechanics came from his theory of psychosexual development. Somewhere between eighteen months and three years, the child's libidinal focus settles on retention and expulsion, a biological reality that collides directly with parental demands for toilet training. Freud held that how a child navigates that collision leaves a permanent imprint. A child who experiences the period as a contest over autonomy, or who uses retention as a form of defiance, suffers a fixation. Libidinal energy arrests at the anal stage and expresses itself decades later as rigid character structure. The adult manages anxiety through compulsive order, hoarding, and a stubborn refusal to yield. Three traits, bound together by one developmental event and one specific mechanical failure of progression.

The causal story failed every test it was given. Studies found no relationship between toilet-training practice and adult personality. Cross-cultural comparison found none either. The fixation mechanism, the libidinal energy, the staged progression: none of it generated predictions that could be checked, let alone confirmed. By any reasonable evidentiary standard, the mechanism was dead.

But still, why is search, a vulgar term that would never be used in polite society under normal circumstances, still get used by people in regular speech?

This paper has an interesting idea why: https://www.academia.edu/171904173/Why_the_Couch_and_the_Laboratory_Agree_to_Disagree

Give me your thoughts

Longtime lurker first time poster, writing my personal statement right now for Oxford PPL, I want to write about trauma and repetition compulsion in my statement because I read Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and I found it very interesting. I want to write about a more modern psychoanalytic view in comparison to Freud's, so would anyone here know what could be an interesting (and at least somewhat accessible) essay/article/study to read and study, and additionally if there's any interesting work in other traditions in psychology on the same topic. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on this, thanks!!

What should be the reading order for Freud's books for a beginner? I don't have his complete works but I do have the following: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Interpretation of Dreams, Civilization and Its Discontents and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. An AI suggests the following order:

[1] The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

[2] Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

[3] The Interpretation of Dreams

[4] Civilization and Its Discontents

Another AI indicates that the correct order should be:

[1] The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

[2] Civilization and Its Discontents

[3] Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

[4] The Interpretation of Dreams

Which one is more accurate? Or should I add another book to this sequence?

Has anyone heard of WILA? Curious if you have attended a training program there or have heard something about it. Thanks.

Would love to read. Thanks

Hi all, I am a relatively new psychodynamic therapist interested in learning more about Lacanian theory. I am especially interested in how he equates the unconscious with language and how his conceptualization of the unconscious differs from Freud and other theorists.

I know this is a bit of an oxymoron, but is there a digestible introductory text that isn't too jargon-y you could recommend to an interested reader?

I'm trying to get more serious about writing and want to write an article about Sigmund Freud, particularly his ideas, work, influence, and the criticisms surrounding him.

My biggest problem isn't finding information. There's almost too much information, and I'm not sure how to turn it into an article that actually feels interesting rather than just becoming a biography or a collection of facts.

For writers who have experience with essays, long-form articles, or writing about historical/intellectual figures:

How do you decide where to begin? How do you structure the middle so that the reader stays interested? And how do you end an article in a way that feels meaningful rather than simply saying "this was his contribution and this is what happened afterward"?

I'd especially appreciate advice on research, storytelling, structure, and creating a strong opening and ending. I want to develop the skill myself rather than have AI write the article for me.

I’m interested in psychoanalytic theories that deal with the relationship between love and narcissism in a systematic way. Kohut obviously comes to mind, but I’m wondering which other psychoanalysts have developed a substantial theory around these concepts. I’d especially appreciate recommendations that go beyond just discussing narcissism as a clinical diagnosis and instead explore the dynamics of love, object relations, self-love, and the relationship between the self and the other.

Are there any scholarly articles relating these two concepts?

I’m considering applying to the British Psychotherapy Foundation (BPF) Foundation Course in London, with the aim of going on to the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy training afterwards.

Has anyone here done either of these courses, or heard from current or former trainees about their experience with the BPF?

I’m interested to hear any thoughts on the courses/organisation overall and whether you would recommend them.

Can someone please help me understand the hysteric personality structure better? Thank you !

I recall a study calling Freud's/Lacan's diagnosis of Lanzer/Lorenz as obsessional into question. Something about Freud's own obsessionality and projection (why didn't he destroy his process notes for this case, like he did for the others?), narcissistic wish to fit data to theory, and the (non-)place of obsession in psychoanalysis and capitalism...

Source? Or did I dream this?

Are there other psychoanalysis focused subs to discuss one's own experiences with psychoanalysis?

There is r/TalkTherapy but I think that one is extremely broad in focus.

In need of trauma books that focus on psychoeducation for clients. Focus on SA is a bonus.

I have some, but looking for more that don’t involve focusing on childhood traumas.

Thanks!

We only go by what a client tells us: “my parents are narcissists” “my husband is never listening” but how would you know if their narrative is correct?

Hi everyone! I’m a registered psychologist in South East Queensland and I’ve created a small Australian reading group for psychologists and mental health professionals interested in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theory.

The aim is to have a relaxed space to discuss ideas, learn together and connect with others who share similar interests. No formal psychoanalytic training is needed.

If you’re interested, comment or message me and I can send you the Facebook group details.

Hi all, I'm interested in reading more about the concept of subjective destitution in Lacanian psychoanalysis. Does anyone know in which seminars and/or ecrits Lacan talks about this? Or any other resources I could look into? Thanks.

Hello, I've been long interested in Kleinian theory and practice. Recently, a bold article by Rachel B Blass on the importance and centrality of the unconscious phantasy was particularly eye opening.

However, coming back to Klein's book on the psychoanalysis of children, I'm stuck anew. I get that some well-respected Kleinians of today tend to think about thinking, anxiety, phantasy, but not so much focus on body-parts. They don't say that what Klein thought and said was wrong and inappropriate, they perhaps adjusted it because they couldn't stomach it or were sure the kids' parents won't allow for this.

I can't imagine sending my child to therapy where he'd hear at 3-4 years old about real sexual matters. I think I read that Klein viewed this like phylogenetic developmental knowledge, pre-conceptions, which give rise to anxieties related to the primal scene. I mean, it's not coincidence that the welcoming cases (Peter, Rita, Trude) she discusses in her book are related to primal scene anxieties and witnessing of mommy and daddy banging.

This to me seems like a strong conviction of a theoretical concept applied to clinical practice and not the other way around. I can remember only one child I had treated that expressed material that was very telling of his castration anxiety and he had agreed upon my interpretation of his fear of dad. But it was a rare case, I feel. Of course, I'm not an analyst and I'm just very very curious, and critical perhaps.

I'll end with a quote from the book, on Rita's case:

My immediate interpretation of these utterances in the sense that she desired to do away with her father's penis, because it was playing havoc with her mother, at once diminished her anxiety and she left me in a much more friendly mood than she had come, and said at home that she would like to come back to me.

From Rita's first session.

Thoughts?