Freudian sexual theory can provide useful insight into the nature and roots of conflict, although the scientific basis of that theory became outdated and led to its disappearance, more or less, from the psychodynamic literature. This was already beginning when Berne was studying with Federn, and although sexual theory featured in Berne’s work, he paid little attention to its scientific validity and shifted his focus away from the sexual underpinnings of relationship and conflict. In his pioneering work on the scientific aspects of relationship and conflict, Berne emphasized structure hunger as their basis. In this article, by reworking the scientific aspects of Freudian sexual theory, the author looks again at Berne’s work in light of that theory and provides a means, perhaps, by which to enhance the understanding of how transactional analysts can work with conflict.
Just like a personal ego, the zeitgeist of a practice such as psychotherapy is constantly changing, influenced by both internal and external events. As with the personal ego, not only is it changing but it is also resisting change, leading to a state of imbalance and potential conflict. A psychotherapeutic relationship can help an individual re-establish balance in the changing world and live more fully in the present, but the relationship with an organisation or group can be more challenging. Just as we can identify with our ego, so can we identify with a group: does the onus fall more on the individual or the group to adapt, both to change and to the resistance to change? What can help in this process of adaptation? With the Freudian concept of the erotic bonds of love and hate in the background, I will call on my personal story as a psychotherapist born in the year the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) was founded, with the aim of exploring these questions with a focus on the changing zeitgeist of NZAP.
Terror arises on the one hand from the fear of death and on the other the passion for life. In working with terror as it manifests in the transference, a challenge for the practitioner is to maintain homeostasis in its physical, intellectual, emotional and relational aspects, as terror is a strong force for tipping the balance of emotional regulation with consequences mentally and physically. This paper will explore this challenge, starting by going back to the roots of psychoanalysis and a paper written by Sabina Spielrein in 1912: “Destruction as the Cause of Coming into Being.” Building on Spielrein’s work, it will attempt to deepen understanding of her theory linking terror to the primitive sexual transference. Of particular interest is the recognition of dissociation in both patient and practitioner and working with it in the therapeutic relationship. The presence of terror and dissociation in the wider community, both currently and historically, is touched on.
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