Madness: Terror and necessity – thoughts on Winnicott

Joannidis, Christo

doi:10.1080/0803706x.2011.609836

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…If an attempt at relieving the patient of their delusion without resolving their need for it is understood as largely unproductive, the psychotherapist may feel unsure as to how they are to proceed – a disturbing kind of uncertainty that can dissuade psychotherapists from engaging with psychotic and delusional patients (Aronson, 1989; Saayman, 2017, 2018, 2019). It has been well established in psychoanalytic theory that working with psychosis can be a confusing and disturbing experience for the psychotherapist (Bion, 1957; De Masi, 2009; Joannidis, 2013; Mills, 2017; Saayman, 2017, 2018, 2019; Schwartz & Summers, 2009). There are many psychoanalytic accounts of how and why psychotic communication is often represented and conceptualized as bizarre, disturbing, un‐understandable, and seemingly devoid of meaning (Arieti, 1957; Benedetti, 1999; Bion, 1954, 1975; Cain, 2010; Calamandrei, 2009; De Masi, 2009; Freud, 1924; Hill, 1955; Karon, 1992; Leader, 2011; Lucas, 2003; Olanen, 2009; Rosenfeld, 1969; Searles, 1963, 1972, 1973, 1975; Winnicott, 1949).…”

Section: Paranoid Delusions Directed At the Psychotherapistmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

Saayman¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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Psychosis can be understood as, in part, a disorder of the self. The various factors that contribute to the development of psychosis and the consequences of psychotic symptoms potentially impede the development of the patient's subjectivity, and can lead to a complete breakdown of the patient's ability to accurately represent their subjective experiences. The development of paranoid delusions partially functions to compensate for the patient's inability to make sense of their subjective experiences in relation to an acknowledged other, in this case the psychotherapist. When the patient confronts the psychotherapist with their paranoid delusion and implicates the psychotherapist as a dangerous object, the psychotherapist is potentially exposed to a complex and disturbing dynamic where their own subjectivity may be drawn into question. This paper aims to explore the psychotherapist's experiences of this dynamic in a clinical setting by making use of a composite narrative of a psychotic patient with paranoid delusions that implicate the psychotherapist. The psychotherapist's experiences are discussed via the following three themes: constructing the patient's subjectivity; the psychotherapist's use of their own experiences; and holding the balance between opposing realities.

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Section: Paranoid Delusions Directed At the Psychotherapistmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

Saayman¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

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“…In popular culture, madness or insanity, or words that describe mental states that diverge from the so‐called ordinary, are used as synonyms to ‘losing one's mind’. Joannidis (2013, p. 55) writes that for Winnicott madness ‘corresponds to the basic human need to go to the end of something begun—to follow the drive force to its endpoint despite the upheavals this may cause, and without the prudence that usually prevents it from developing’. Intimating that we are, on some level, all in search of and avoidant of an unknown beginning; presumably because finding ‘it’ will offer us something indispensable, and that the way to arrive at the start of something is via the end of that same thing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Redescribing the Indescribable: Trauma, Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Therapy

Modlin¹,

Stubley²,

Maggio³

et al. 2023

Brit J Psychotherapy

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The psychedelic state can be thought about as an interdependent intrapsychic, somatic, interpersonal and spiritual happening which encourages, perhaps both to the relief and dismay of those participating in the experience, the shocking and impressive emergence of one's unconscious desires and traumata's; a state which may be experienced as cathartic or healing, and as anxiety-provoking and confusing. Often, in clinical trials investigating psychedelics in mental health conditions, these go hand in hand. Amid a renewed, at times hyperbolic, interest in psychedelics as a potential treatment for mental ill health, significant gaps of knowledge remain. Additional studies exploring the impact of the extra-pharmacological factors and adjunct therapeutic models on treatment outcomes are needed. Drawing from psychoanalytic perspectives, this paper explores points of intersectionality between psychedelic therapy under investigation and psychoanalysis in the context of traumatic stress. To that end, the psychedelic state will be considered an attempt to make the unconscious conscious by immersing self in a bewildering waking-dream to better tolerate reality; immersing self in a wilful state of vulnerability, to develop trust in one's agency and capacity to trust others; immersing self in an indescribable experience to learn how to redescribe, to self and to others the traumatic past.

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“…Les auteurs de langue anglaise offrent des exemples de la terreur provoquée par la psychanalyse elle-même et par la cure qu'elle propose (Sprince, 1971 ;Holloway, 2013) ; de la terreur suscitée par le désir lui-même chez le sujet désirant (Pearlman, 2005) ; mais aussi de la terreur éprouvée par certains enfants en permanence (Ornstein, 2012). La terreur engendre un état de clivage où l'autre apparaît toujours comme ennemi et aussi fréquemment l'Autre (Joannidis, 2013). Cette situation eut des conséquences pour la psychanalyse elle-même, quand les psychanalystes ont cru que leurs ennemis se multipliaient, s'aveuglant face aux ennemis réels.…”

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La politique, l’Autre de la psychanalyse. Terreur, haine, radicalisation

Oliveira¹

2019

psychologie clinique

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À l’occasion d’actions terroristes récentes, nous montrons que depuis longtemps des psychanalystes se sont intéressés à la terreur, dès l’ascension du nazisme jusqu’à la guerre du Vietnam, dès la terreur des femmes et des enfants face aux bombardements aériens jusqu’aux situations cliniques où s’installe la peur. Ce faisant, nous évoquons différents auteurs ayant traité de la terreur, qui peuvent enrichir la psychanalyse, en éclaircissant ses difficultés actuelles face aux formes manifestes de terreur sociale.

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Madness: Terror and necessity – thoughts on Winnicott

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

The Feared Therapist: On Being Part of the Psychotic Patient's Paranoid Delusion

On Redescribing the Indescribable: Trauma, Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Therapy

La politique, l’Autre de la psychanalyse. Terreur, haine, radicalisation

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