The scenic function of the ego and its role in symptom and character formation

Argelander, Hermann

doi:10.1111/j.1745-8315.2012.00603.x

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…What can you do?” At first, I was surprised and also somewhat shocked by this seemingly “irrational” question but then I could gradually feel her helplessness and her regression to a feeling of an early infantile fear: longing and anger. It came to my mind that she now unconsciously let these early feelings come alive in the transference (in German‐speaking psychoanalysis one could speak of a “scene” according to Argelander (1970/2013), Lorenzer (1983/2016). In the transference, I had now taken on the quality of a mother who had abandoned her.…”

Section: Clinical Vignettesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new Civilization and Its Discontents in times of COVID‐19?

Blass¹

2021

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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The Covid‐19 pandemic brings into focus both the burdens on individuals, and the effects on the culture and society in general. In our encounters with our patients, we as psychoanalysts have experienced the broad spectrum of possible reactions to the viral threat, just as it is found throughout society: from real fear to panic or, on the contrary, to a denial of the impending danger. We are facing drastic changes which are connected with painful losses but sometimes also with new possibilities in our accustomed lives. Nevertheless, the loss of trust in the preservation of individual and general health and of economic existence as well goes beyond the individual and leads to tensions and even cracks in the supposed social consensus. Thus, in the relationship of the individual to society, the pandemic exacerbates the ambivalence between self‐interest and solidarity, not infrequently to the point of forming hostile attitudes. In this article, the author explores the question of to what extent it is possible to speak about a “new Civilization and Its Discontents” in light of the increasing social tensions under the conditions of the pandemic. It is the task of psychoanalysis to explicitly name the unconscious conflict between striving for pleasure and happiness or the search for security, in order to also contribute to dealing with the resulting aggression and fear of death in times of pandemic.

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Section: Clinical Vignettesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new Civilization and Its Discontents in times of COVID‐19?

Blass¹

2021

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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“…This situationally adapted capacity of the ego to shape a scene is felt to be alien to the ego because it simultaneously contains a regressive tendency and relaxes the habitual ego-structures (cf. Argelander, 2013Argelander, [1970, pp. 337-41).…”

Section: The Opening Scenementioning

confidence: 99%

“…337-41). Argelander emphasizes that the particular current situation refers to something more than the transference: "Whereas the transference, as an unconscious process, is constellated from inside to outside, the form it assumes in a given situationthe dynamic configuration assumed by the transference under the condition of the present situationis a fresh creation of the ego" (Argelander, 2013(Argelander, [1970, p. 338). He also emphasizes how tremendously fast the scenic function of the ego can shape an existing situation and simultaneously portray an "infantile configuration" (Argelander, 2013(Argelander, [1970, p. 339).…”

Section: The Opening Scenementioning

confidence: 99%

Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

Wegner¹

2014

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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From the very first moment of the initial interview to the end of a long course of psychoanalysis, the unconscious exchange between analysand and analyst, and the analysis of the relationship between transference and countertransference, are at the heart of psychoanalytic work. Drawing on initial interviews with a psychosomatically and depressively ill student, a psychoanalytic understanding of initial encounters is worked out. The opening scene of the first interview already condenses the central psychopathology - a clinging to the primary object because it was never securely experienced as present by the patient. The author outlines the development of some psychoanalytic theories concerning the initial interview and demonstrates their specific importance as background knowledge for the clinical situation in the following domains: the 'diagnostic position', the 'therapeutic position', the 'opening scene', the 'countertransference' and the 'analyst's free-floating introspectiveness'. More recent investigations refer to 'process qualities' of the analytic relationship, such as 'synchronization' and 'self-efficacy'. The latter seeks to describe after how much time between the interview sessions constructive or destructive inner processes gain ground in the patient and what significance this may have for the decision about the treatment that follows. All these factors combined can lead to establishing a differential process-orientated indication that also takes account of the fact that being confronted with the fear of unconscious processes of exchange is specific to the psychoanalytic profession.

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“…Столороу (Stolorow, 2013) згадує про специфічну естетичну атмосферу, що виникає в кабінеті психоаналітика. У зв'язку з естетикою також доречно думати про описану Аргеляндером (Argelander, 2013) сцену. Боллас (Bollas, 1987), натомість, звертається до поняття естетики первинної турботи, яка виникає між мамою і немовлям, а також в стосунку двох людей на кшталт аналітичного.…”

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Psychoanalytic Manner and Its Relation to the Literature

Kechur¹,

Yaskevych²,

Turezka³

2021

PSYCHOLOGICAL JOURNAL

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This research continues the methodological discussion between psychoanalytically-oriented therapists and their colleagues, who understand the point, the process and the influence of psychotherapy through a CBT-oriented lens. The central point of research is the question of connections between psychoanalysis and literature, or even, of psychoanalysis itself as a kind of literature. The key features of a psychoanalysts mode of thinking is to be found in the plane of aesthetics. It is proposed, that, unlike a CB-therapist, who mainly goes by the rational principles of cognition, a psychoanalyst is prone to experience the reality of psychotherapy in terms of literary aesthetics, and their attempts to verbalize their understanding of the patient is based on a literary perspective. There exists certain similarity between a writers work, as he tries to embody an imaginary character onto a page, and an analysts work, as he tries to incorporate his analytic intuition into a psychodynamic hypothesis and create a psychological portrait of the patient. Thus, the article is focused on the empirical exploration of therapeutic texts, made by therapists based on viewing an unstructured first-session interview, executed by therapists with different levels of psychotherapeutic education, experience and predisposition to psychoanalytic thinking. (For measuring said predisposition an adaptation of the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale(CPPS) has been carried out, its inner coherence and diagnostic validity have been established. The results of simultaneous independent criterion-based analysis of the produced texts by literary experts and psychoanalytic supervisors have shown, that the literary aesthetic is an a priory feature of the descriptions of psychoanalysts, and the more so, the higher the analysts therapeutic quality. This does not so much concern the artistic value of the descriptions, but the artistic taste: the ability to distinguish kitsch and artistic form, and the ability to integrate them into new gestalts on basis of sensual harmony. Thus, the evidence supports the claim, that artistic taste is a fundamental feature of a psychoanalysts therapeutic cognition. It is particularly the aesthetic ability of the analyst, which allows for the specific non-goal-oriented approach to his therapeutic influence, which gives room to the development of the true Self according to Winnicott, and further separates the therapeutic process from the goal-oriented therapeutic learning. Thus it is concluded, that the analytic process from the position of aesthetics may fall under the risk of devolving into forms of kitsch practices.

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The scenic function of the ego and its role in symptom and character formation

Cited by 12 publications

References 15 publications

A new Civilization and Its Discontents in times of COVID‐19?

A new Civilization and Its Discontents in times of COVID‐19?

Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

Psychoanalytic Manner and Its Relation to the Literature

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