psihoterapie

Psychosis

2010-03-12T19:10:57+00:00

Poate e cineva interesat de Psychosis, an innovative new journal, invites research and commentary papers on: evidence-based treatments including individual, family and group therapies derived from a range of models including psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural and systemic, and from a range of disciplines including nursing, psychology, social work, psychiatry, occupational therapy, art therapy etc. descriptions of psychotherapy and first person accounts of psychosis and of experiences using mental health services the integration of psychological and social understandings and treatment approaches into all phases of recovery training and knowledge of mental health professionals in psychological and psycho-social interventions in the treatment and prevention of psychosis conceptual analysis and ethical considerations related to diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation issues Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches fills an important gap in mental health literature, namely research focused on the psychological treatments of psychosis (e.g. cognitive-behavior therapy, psychodynamic therapy, family therapy etc.) and the psycho-social causes of psychosis (e.g. poverty, drug abuse, child abuse and neglect, distressed families, urban living, discrimination, rape, war combat etc.). The journal publishes papers on both quantitative research (e.g. rigorously designed outcome studies and epidemiological surveys) and qualitative research (e.g. case studies of therapy, first-person accounts of psychosis and experiences of people with psychosis in the mental health system), as well as papers focusing on conceptual and ethical issues. Some feedback from those in the field: "This exciting new journal will help create a balance in the scientific literature about psychosis, which has been dominated for far too long by a simplistic bio-genetic paradigm. The more evidence-based and integrated approach offered by Psychosis is long overdue."Professor Richard BentallBangor University, UK, and author of Madness Explained (Penguin, 2003)'Psychosis' will be extremely useful not only in providing information on psychotherapies and other psychosocial interventions for psychoses, but also in re-educating all of us about the importance of the psychosocial dimension in the development, persistence and outcome of psychoses. Dr Mario Maj Italy, President of the World Psychiatric Association Peer Review IntegrityAll research articles in this journal, including those in special issues, special sections or supplements, have undergone editorial screening and peer review. DisclaimerTaylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in its publications. However, Taylor & Francis and its agents and licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the Content and disclaim all such representations and warranties whether expressed or implied to the maximum extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and are not the views of Taylor & Francis.

Pisicul, bisturiul, rana şi fluturaşii

2010-02-07T14:53:34+00:00

sau Despre lasitate Aveam 10 ani ?i eram hot?r�te s? d?m la medicin?. Nu am vrut s? particip la ?anestezierea? cu kelen a pisicului s?lbatic, voiam doar s? fac disec?ie pe el. Gabi i-a pus tamponul la bot, pisicul a c?zut blan?, iar Corina i-a �nfipt �n burt? bisturiul de gingii �mprumutat de mama de la cabinetul stomatologic la care lucra. Ce-i drept, i-am v?zut, �n fug?, organele, dar mai mult n-am rezistat, drept care nu am participat nici la coaserea, inutil?, desigur, a bur?ii proasp?t ucisului. Fetele m-au f?cut la??. Adev?rul e c?, la 10 ani, nu eram f?cut? pentru medicin?. La 12 ani am plecat de la ?coal?, dup? ora de anatomie, cu cadavrul unui iepure care cu o or? �n urm? fusese viu. L-am dus acas? ?i m-am oprit cu el �n baie. Era imens. C�nd i-am v?zut bl?ni?a gri �nconjur�nd masa aceea de organe care nu mai func?ionau, mi s-a f?cut r?u. Mi-era ru?ine s?-l duc afar?, la lada cu gunoi. Sim?eam nevoia s?-l �nmorm�ntez. Pe scara blocului, ve?nica tanti Du?? ? prototip existent �n orice bloc - m-a �ntrebat ce am acolo, �n pung?. Un iepure disecat, i-am r?spuns. ??i ce faci cu el?? ?�l duc la gunoi.? ?D?-l �ncoa?, c?-l m?n�nc eu.? I l-am dat u?urat?, dar tot la?? m-am sim?it. Acum c�?iva ani, sor?-mea a c?zut pe ni?te sc?ri care aveau marginea �mbr?cat? cu metal. M-a sunat s? o duc la spital. La spital am intrat cu ea la urgen?e ?i c�nd am v?zut piciorul sf�rtecat p�n? la os, am sim?it c? le?in. Noroc c? i-a venit b?rbatul, c? mi se �ntunecase c�nd am v?zut acul cu a?a chirurgical? �n el. ?i iar m-am sim?it la??. �n timpul facult??ii nu m-am dus cu Gabelula s? �mpr??tiem flutura?i pentru concursul de Miss deoarece mi se p?rea o chestie infantil?. Gabelula m-a f?cut la?? pentru c? nu slujeam cauza. M-am tot �ntrebat �n ce const? la?itatea, sim?ind c? am de dus o povar? mult prea grea ?i pe care nu aveam chef s? o duc f?r? s? o �n?eleg. Dar cum se nume?te ?privilegiatul? care, nerefuz�ndu-i-se nimic niciodat?, spune �ntotdeauna: ?Nimic nu-mi rezist?!?? Cum se nume?te scriitorul doct care, suferind de o intermitent? claustrofobie, refuz?, aproape speriat, orice ?sistem? scriitoricesc, �n primul r�nd eseul? Se �n?elege, el a ajuns deasupra acestui gen, i se pare infantil, neadecvat cu noul s?u statut, uit�nd c? a ajuns acolo (?i) prin intermediul lui. Cum se nume?te politicianul care practic? politica prin intermediul dispre?ului fa?? de ea, dublat, cum altfel, de dispre?ul fa?? de cei care l-au ales? Cum se nume?te un guvern c?ruia nu-i pas? de ograda �nv???m�ntului ?i a s?n?t??ii? Dar o televiziune care practic? prin emisiunile sale batjocura la adresa publicului? ?i �ntreb?rile ar putea continua. Vreau s? spun c? niciodat? nu am ?tiut prea bine ce �nseamn? s? fii la?, e o no?iune alunecoas?, care scap? unei defini?ii stricte. Un act clar de la?itate ?tiu c? a fost cel �n care nu am acceptat s? ?salvez? b?iatul care se �ndr?gostise de mine �ntr-o toamn? aurie, la cules de struguri, ?i care m-a iubit nebune?te mai bine de un an. P�n? la urm?, nu avea nici o vin? c? se �ndr?gostise. Dar niciodat?, nu ?tiu de ce, nu l-am considerat la? pe cel de care, mai t�rziu, m-am �ndr?gostit eu, f?r? urm? de reciprocitate. (Era acela?i.) La?? am fost ?i atunci c�nd, din prea mult? empatie, am p?r?sit o rela?ie care se zb?tea �ntre iubire ?i cinism. Nu o mai puteam suporta, era prea mult? iubire, era prea mult cinism. O s? spun ?i eu precum filosoful: dac? m? �ntreab? cineva ce e la?itatea, nu ?tiu; dac? nu m? �ntreab?, ?tiu perfect. Poate are cineva o defini?ie mai valabil?.

Ioana Scorus, 2003

Feminin şi sacralitate

2010-02-07T14:45:22+00:00

O carte de dialog epistolar �ntre Catherine Cl�ment ?i Julia Kristeva, n?scut? la propunerea celei din urm?, av�nd ca tem? femeia ?i sacrul, a ap?rut �n 2001 la editura Albatros, �n traducerea din francez? a Alinei Beiu-De?liu. Cartea se nume?te chiar a?a, Femeia ?i sacrul, ?i �ncearc? s? r?spund? unei sume de �ntreb?ri devenit? important? �n epoca �n care tr?im: ?Exist?, oare, un sacru specific feminin? Ce loc au, de fapt, femeile �n aceast? istorie datat? �ncep�nd de la na?terea lui Iisus, ce ?ans? au, �n fond, ele, cu dou? mii de ani dup? el? Dar femeia ?i femininul �n iudaism, budism, confucianism, daoism, islam, �n religiile animiste din Africa ?i din alte p?r?i? Ce recunoa?tere sau nerecunoa?tere, dar ?i care viitor, care perspective? ?i dac? este adev?rat, cum credem noi, c? femeile se vor trezi �n mileniul ce vine, care poate fi sensul profund al acestei treziri, al acestei civiliza?ii?? La Catherine Cl�ment o prim? fa?? a sacrului ?ar exprima o revolt? instantanee care str?bate trupul ?i care strig??, referindu-se la femeile negre din Africa ?i care, �n timpul unor procesiuni, intr? �n trans?, manifestat? prin strig?te, le?inuri etc. Acest lucru se manifest? pe fondul religiilor animiste. Interesant este c? ?accesul? la trans? �l au, majoritar, dac? nu chiar exclusiv, femeile needucate, slujnicele, ??r?ncile. Acest lucru, aceast? diferen?iere este str�ns legat? de �ns??i diferen?ele de cast? (?O cast? este un fel de sertar unde individul care se na?te e clasat �nc? de la na?tere, ?i de unde el nu poate ie?i �n nici un fel.?), asem?n?toare, �ntr-o oarecare m?sur? , �n viziunea Catherinei Cl�ment, cu conceptul marxist de origine de clas?, deoarece respectivul concept e un fel de ? sertar mintal care determin? pulsiunile ?i g�ndirea �nc? de la na?tere.? �n acest caz, casta de origine joac? acela?i rol ca �ntoarcerea refulatului la Freud. ?Trebuie s? existe o disciplin? foarte riguroas? dac? se dore?te s? fie fr�nat? aceast? re�ntoarcere a ?. Or, ?disciplina riguroas?? nu poate fi ob?inut? dec�t prin intermediul educa?iei, educa?ie pe care ??r?ncile, slujnicele nu o au, nu au de unde s? o aib?. La Julia Kristeva un prim aspect al sacrului apar?ine unei alte dimensiuni umane: ?certitudinea de sine �n fiecare clip?, care decurge din certitudinea de a avea tot timpul.? (s.m., I.S.) ?Aceast? atitudine plin? de senin?tate �?i are r?d?cinile �n certitudinea vie?ii.? Ceea ce crede Julia Kristeva c? s-a uitat ast?zi este faptul c? ?aceast? sacralitate a vie?ii are o istorie, ?i c? aceast? istorie depinde de locul pe care religiile sau societ??ile l-au acordat femeilor.? Tot apropo de sacralitatea vie?ii, Kristeva aminte?te de cele dou? totalitarisme, cel nazist ?i cel stalinist, care au �n comun ?monstruozitatea lag?relor, adic? nimic altceva dec�t distrugerea vie?ii.? Amintind de Hannah Arendt, care preia de la greci deosebirea dintre zo� (via?a biologic?) ?i bios (via?a ce se poate povesti, capabil? de a deveni biografie), Kristeva crede c?, azi, femeile sunt mai capabile ca oric�nd s? hot?rasc? asupra vie?ii, dar sint ?i mai ?bine preg?tite ca niciodat? s? nu mai fie ni?te simple , ni?te , (?), ci s? dea un sens acestui act de d?ruire, care este via?a.? (s.a.) Cu alte cuvinte, dup? epoca ?lipsei de valori? at�t de adulat? ca realitate �n sine �n fa?a c?reia mai mult ne-am �nchinat dec�t am �ncercat s? o �ncheiem, ar putea urma o alta, aceea a ?totalitarismului soft?, �n care valoarea suprem? s? fie via?a �ns??i, via?a �n sine, adic? ?via?a f?r? �ntreb?ri, femeile-mame trebuind s? fie doar produc?toarele naturale ale acestei noi .? Este vorba despre o ridicare la un rang �nalt al vie?ii decotate, a lipsei sale de sens, �ntr-o lume �n care, dup? 2000 de ani domina?i de sacralitatea lui Iisus, firesc ar fi ca omenirea s? evolueze, astfel �nc�t nu lipsa sensului s? fie valorizat? (cum altfel dec�t negativ), nu ?via?a �n sine, ci via?a purt?toare de sens, la formularea c?reia femeile sunt chemate s?-?i aduc? ?i dorin?a, dar ?i cuv�ntul lor.? (s.m., I.S.) Religiosul: poate sau nu exista f?r? sacru? R?spunsul este amplu ?i minunat. �l d? Catherine Cl�ment: dac? func?ia religiosului const? �n organizarea cultului, care se reduce, �n cele din urm?, la gestionarea timpului, sacrul face exact invers, ?eclipseaz? timpul ?i spa?iul. El trece �ntr-o nelimitare f?r? reguli ?i rezerve care este specific? divinului.? Cu alte cuvinte, dac? religiosul este o trecere ?semnalizat??, sacrul este un acces imediat spre divin. ?Dintre z?voarele clivajelor pe care le sfarm? cu voio?ie sacrul, cel mai important este, f?r? �ndoial?, distinc?ia �ntre sexe.? Urmeaz? o sum? de exemple de ?travestire sacr??, clasice �n etnologie. De altfel, etnologicul cu antropologicul se �nt�lnesc pe �ntreg parcursul c?r?ii, fiind baza pe care argumenta?iile celor dou? autoare se desf??oar?. O alt? form? a sacrului detectat? de c?tre Julia Kristeva, de data asta, este cea a ritualurilor, referindu-se explicit la cel universitar britanic, at�t de conservator, lucru care vine �n oarecare contradic?ie cu noile or�nduiri biserice?ti (culmea!), unde ?i femeile ?i-au c�?tigat dreptul de a preo?ii. Descalificarea sacrului este o alt? form? a lui �n vremurile moderne: ?�mbog??ire, aer condi?ionat, televizor, calculator, supunere ?i copila?i? Sacrul pierde teren �n favoarea familiarismului.? O frumoas? incursiune filosofic? este f?cut? din punct de vedere al accesului la sacru. Sunt pomeni?i Hegel ?i Heidegger, ?judeca?i? ?i pe scurt analiza?i din perspectiv? psihanalitic?, loc unde J.K. exceleaz?, fiind, ast?zi, psihanalist? practicant?. De altfel, limbajul psihanalitic este, �n acest volum, la el acas?, iar cele dou? autoare, prin acest limbaj �n primul r�nd ?i nu �n ultimul prin �naltul nivel al discursurilor, propun aceast? carte nu oric?rui cititor, ci celui cu nivel superior de cultur?, dar ?i care st?p�ne?te �ntr-o oarecare m?sur? domeniul interdisciplinar. Cu siguran?? cartea, foarte bine scris? ?i extrem de interesant?, nu a spart box office-ul, lucru care se petrece peste tot �n lume cu acest gen de scriere, dar care nu-i coboar? cu nimic valoarea, din contr?, ar putea fi considerat?, din acest punct de vedere, elitist?. Libertatea sacrului? ?(?) tot ceea ce e divin poate fi echivalat, b?rbat sau femeie, templu, biseric?, moschee, feti?. V?d �n acest lucru �nc? o dovad? a libert??ii specifice ariei sacre tranzi?ionale: ea ?tie s? fie amoral?. Cred c? aceasta este func?iunea ei.? Cu ce se �mpac? mai bine aplecarea femeilor c?tre sacru? Cu ?revolta brut?, eroismul nesupunerii, entuziasmul de moment, pe scurt, cu sc?p?ri din timpul social.? Aflat?, dintr-o dat?, �n fa?a iminen?ei unei opera?ii chirurgicale pe care fiul ei trebuia s? o suporte, Kristeva �?i aminte?te c? ?Nimic nu este mai sacru pentru o femeie dec�t via?a copilului ei.? Dar tot ea subliniaz?: ?Acest lucru dovede?te, dac? mai era nevoie de vreo dovad?, c? le lipse?te total leg?tura cu sacralitatea?? Ceea ce �nseamn? doar c? leg?tura este mediat?, ?i nu absent?. Un alt concept pe care se mar?eaz? permanent ?i care este analizat din diferite perspective este cel al bisexualit??ii omului, �n special al celei feminine. Vorbind despre cultul falusului la diferite popoare ?i �n diferite epoci, se ajunge iar??i la Hegel, cel care nume?te ?eterna ironie a comunit??ii? acel sentiment de �nstr?inare care d? anumitor femei acel aer de maturitate lipsit? de iluzii, de senin? deta?are. ?Aceast? deta?are, care este chiar indiciul feminit??ii, provine din imersiunea noastr? �n Fiin?? ?i �n afara timpului sensibil.? Iat? o fraz? al c?rei adev?r va fi lesne contrazis de orice Fiin??-b?rbat? Dezacordurile dintre autoare sunt ?i ele prezente �n destul de multe r�nduri, dar ele par a fi mai mult un pretext pentru a se ?�mp?ca? dec�t unul de a se ?certa?. Oricum, ?i ?cearta?, ?i ?�mp?carea? decurg c�t se poate de �nalt, a?a cum le ?ade bine la dou? spirite care caut?, �n numele culturii ?i al �ncerc?rii de a g?si adev?ruri valabile, un limbaj comun, capabil s? fac? din aceast? carte una de idei �n libertate, deci asumate p�n? la consecin?ele finale. Ar fi multe de spus despre acest vast subiect, chiar inepuizabil, care este sacrul, dar a continua cu exemplele ar �nsemna s? reduc curiozitatea cititorului, ba chiar s? o ucid. M? voi opri aici, deci, nu �nainte de a mai face o subliniere. Fiind un volum epistolar, imediat e?ti tentat s? te �ntrebi dac? epistolele au fost scrise sau nu cu g�ndul la tipar. Chiar dac? da, aceasta nu modific? cu nimic valoarea (de adev?r, estetic? etc) volumului, cu toate c? unii se �nt�mpl? s?-?i pun? �ntreb?ri �n ceea ce prive?te sinceritatea acestui gen de scriere. Dar, �nc? o dat?, nu asta conteaz?. Important este c? dou? femei deloc feministe au acceptat s? caute �mpreun? chipuri ale sacrului, �ntr-o lume �n care sacralitatea aproape c? nu mai exist?. Ce au g?sit? Care sunt concluziile? Ce a fost ?i ce mai este azi sacrul? Citi?i aceast? carte ?i ve?i g?si r?spunsul. Trebuie s? mai spun c? traducerea este destul de bun?, dar nu exemplar?, din p?cate destul de multe locuri �n care scr�?netul metalic al falsului g?sindu-se �n paginile c?r?ii. Nu ar fi r?u s? se revin?, verific�ndu-se traducerea de c?tre un adev?rat cap limpede. �n rest, lectur?? spornic?. Pentru c? benefic? va fi, cu siguranta. psih. Ioana Scoru?

„Figuri” ale respectului

2010-02-07T14:41:51+00:00

Bun? ?cititoare? a lui Nietzsche, Freud ?i Platon, ?ur�ndu-l? pe Rousseau, atras? �n egal? m?sur? de filosofie ?i psihanaliz?, de literatur? ?i de problemele sociale, Sarah Kofman este, al?turi de H�l�ne Cixous ?i Luce Irigaray, una dintre reprezentantele de seam? ale feminismului filosofic francez. Extrem de nervos ?dar ?i cu voluptate, a? spune-, Sarah Kofman �ncearc? s? demonstreze, printre altele, �n aceast? carte (Respectul pentru femei, ed. Idea Design&Print, 2002, trad. ?i postfa?? Bogdan Ghiu) �n care practic? o deconstruc?ie ?cel pu?in insuficient?, dac? nu de-a dreptul contraf?cut?? (cf. B. Ghiu), c? b?rba?ii se folosesc de o sumedenie de p�rghii pentru a manipula dup? bunul lor plac femeile, �n lupta ?inegal?, se �n?elege,- de dominare. Idealizarea femeilor nu poate fi dec�t suspect?, spune Kofman, clivajul din cadrul sexului feminin nefiind altceva dec�t produsul unei separa?ii operate de sexul masculin. Plec�nd de la acest clivaj (pe c�t de real, pe at�t de gre?it pus �n c�rca sexului masculin, dup? p?rerea mea), autoarea �ncearc? s?-l atribuie, ca act repetitiv, celui pe care figura matern? �l instituie �n copilul de sex masculin: fecioara ?i t�rfa, lucru ?insuportabil?, �n cele din urm?. Feminismul femeilor nu ar fi dec�t imaginea �n oglind?, dar drept consecin??, a antifeminismului masculin. Astfel, respectul pentru femei se datoreaz? nu unei realit??i pure ?i simple, nu vreunei legi morale, ci de-a dreptul fricii b?rba?ilor de a nu fi ?fascina?i de femei?. Trec�nd prin concluzii de genul ?femeia �l fere?te pe b?rbat s? devin? pentru el �nsu?i un obiect de dezgust?, r?sturn�nd chiar ?i cele mai verificate ?i acceptate ipoteze, aproape abuz�nd de interpret?ri psihanalitice care se potrivesc mai degrab? �n contexte stricte dec�t �n generaliz?ri, Sarah Kofman cred c? nu reu?e?te, �n aceast? carte, dec�t s?-?i strige propria imposibilitate de a se elibera dintr-o sclavie imaginar?, desigur c? impus? de c?tre b?rba?i. A nu se �n?elege, �ns?, c? �ncerc s? spun c? ar fi vorba despre o carte proast?. Din contr?, mi se pare o dovad?, chiar str?lucit?, de ceea ce poate face exaltarea dintr-un intelect dotat cu talent literar ?i cultur? divers?. �n nici un caz nu se poate spune c? argumentele pe care Kofman le aduce pentru a-?i demonstra ipotezele nu ar fi valabile, nici c? structura �n care le asambleaz? nu ar putea fi una solid?, ci doar c? locul �n care se plaseaz? autoarea pentru a deconstrui este unul al militantismului orb, care crede c? ceea ce poate fi luat din psihanaliz?, dac? i se atribuie ?i oarece not? filosofic?, este capabil a demonstra invaliditatea oric?rui adev?r. Atribuind �nc? de la �nceput baze false clivajului feminin, demonstra?ia nici nu putea ajunge la un astfel de adev?r valabil. R?m�ne pl?cerea lecturii, filmul derul?rii ?gesticii? neobositei Kofman ?i, �n cele din urm?, un sur�s permisibil, condescendent poate, fa?? de at�ta inutil, dar fermec?tor efort. Bogdan Ghiu este ?i mai ?r?u? dec�t mine, sf�r?ind cu o �ntrebare: ?deconstruc?ia: mai cur�nd masculin? dec�t feminina...?" psih. Ioana Scoru?

The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion

2010-02-01T22:40:09+00:00

Cititi si va minunati!!! Is homosexuality a form of mental illness? A small but evangelical band of psychotherapists believe that it is ? and they're on a mission to 'heal' the afflicted. Patrick Strudwick enters the bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because for several months I infiltrated this network of therapists and put myself ? a happy, "out" gay man ? through treatment. According to a report by Professor Michael King of University College London, one in six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists have sought to reduce or change a patient's sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners here, along with a clutch of international "conversion" organisations, are becoming co-ordinated and unified. They plan to gain credibility, university backing and government funding. In some cases, the NHS is even paying for the treatment. This is despite the fact that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ? psychiatry's glossary of conditions ? 36 years ago. And despite much evidence that such practices are damaging and ineffective. My investigation began last spring, shortly after King's report was published, when an evangelical group held a conference in a central London church for therapists wanting to learn how to "reorient" their patients. I wanted to know who these therapists were, what happened during the treatment, and what effect it would have on the recipient. I posed as a potential client wanting to be cured. *** Two hulking security guards search me on my way in. Inside, there are two large lecture halls with more than 100 delegates. They are mostly men; they seem subdued, waiting for the show to start. Tables at the back of the hall display books on how to make people heterosexual. The keynote speaker is Dr Joseph Nicolosi, an American psychologist and the author of some of the movement's core texts. He is the founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), one of the biggest international conversion organisations. He has a cropped beard and wears a crisp suit. "Homosexual behaviour is always prompted by loneliness," he tells the rapt audience with big gestures and a dramatic voice, "It's a pathology, a struggle to connect with the male identity." His thesis is faintly Freudian: a distant father and an overbearing mother create deep wounds in a child, which lead to homosexuality. He speaks about the work at his own Californian conversion clinic. "We advise fathers, 'If you don't hug your sons, some other man will.' We train the mothers to back off.'" During the lunch break gay protesters gather outside the venue, kept back by a police cordon. I can hear the din of the chanting and the whistle-blowing. The organisers advise us to stay inside. I approach a psychiatrist, David, who had earlier asked a question from the floor, to see if he will treat me for my homosexuality. David tells me he runs a clinic which helps men "reach their heterosexual potential". He won't treat lesbians. "I have resolved my own sexuality," he says, explaining that he is now married with children, and gives me his business card: it reads, "I took the road less travelled." David points out a female psychotherapist who also practices conversion therapy, so I go over and introduce myself ? I call myself Matthew. She looks homely and her hair is greying. Her name is Lynne. She too gives me her business card. She is a fully accredited member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP), the largest of the psychotherapy bodies. After the conference I look David up online. As I'm researching his practice and qualifications, I see a reference to Iris Robinson, the scandal-stricken Ulster MP who in 2008 famously compared homosexuality to child abuse. In an interview with the BBC, she mentioned she knew a "lovely psychiatrist" who "tries to help homosexuals to run away from what they are engaged in." For the next step in my "treatment", I contact David and Lynne to arrange one-on-one sessions. *** I have a dictaphone taped to my stomach as I arrive at Lynne's large house, north of London. She had told me beforehand that she would charge me �40 per session and that she always prayed at the beginning and end of the sessions. I'm shown into a spacious living room. "I love my work and in particular this whole area of SSA [same sex attraction]," she says, as we sit down. "It's such an important area to work in." She has a wholesome face and the suburban air of someone who, when not trying to convert you to heterosexuality, would probably be rustling up a jolly good Victoria sponge. Like those at the conference, she doesn't say "gay"; she only uses the term "SSA". I ask how she views homosexuality ? as a mental illness, an addiction or an anti-religious phenomenon? "It's all of that," she replies. And then we pray. "Oh Father, we give you permission to work in Matthew's life to bring complete light and healing into every part of his being." After asking God to heal me, she opens her eyes. "I know the boundaries to keep within," she says. She begins by asking me about my psychological history. I tell her that I was depressed as a teenager because I feared I would face prejudice for the rest of my life. Can I learn to not feel attraction to men? "Yes," she replies, "because that attraction is connected to a deep need that needs to be met and responded to and healed." But how do I instead become attracted to women? Lynne explains that it's about "reprogramming" and going back into my early developmental stages. "Parts of you have developed but there is a little part of you that has stayed stuck," she says. Oh, like being retarded? "It is a bit like that," she agrees. Lynne asks why I have come for treatment. I tell her that I'm tired of meaningless sexual encounters and that I have rediscovered my faith. She gets a whiteboard out and starts writing my words up on it. "I can't deal with the meaningless anymore," she says as she scrawls. "Hmm. Good sentiment." "Are you feeling quite lustful with the SSA?" she asks. I reply that I am ? but not just lust. In my last relationship, I say, I felt profound love towards my boyfriend. "That needs to be broken," she says. "There's a darkness that's very real that keeps you as its dog, but of course our God is more powerful than that." Lynne's approach is two-pronged. She gives practical advice to intercept my sexual feelings towards men and, in keeping with Nicolosi's theories, delves into my past to search for my "wounds". These, she says, will explain why I turned to homosexuality. She begins her wound hunt by asking about my family. I tell her that I have a close relationship with my parents and that they always gave me huge amounts of love, so I didn't understand why Nicolosi says that homosexuality is caused by inadequate parenting. "Well, there was something happening within your family dynamics that led to your depression," she says. Lynne explains that people only identify as gay when they are already depressed. "There's a confusion, there's an anxiety, there's a lot of pain," she says. "Often the thought can be, 'Oh I'm confused about my sexuality so I must be gay'." She says that at the heart of homosexuality is a "deep isolation", which is, she says, "where God needs to be". "Did you have a difficult birth?" she asks. No, I say. Why? "It's just something I have noticed. Often [with homosexuality] it is quite traumatic, the baby was put into intensive care and because of the separation from the mother there can be that lack of attachment." She moves on. "Any Freemasonry in the family?" No, I say, again asking her to elaborate. "Because that often encourages it as well. It has a spiritual effect on males and it often comes out as SSA." Next, she looks for self-esteem wounds. "I think you have some unhelpful thoughts about yourself, about who you are," she says. "What do you think about yourself? In the deepest part of you, in your stomach." "I think I'm a good person," I reply. She wants more. "I think I am a determined person." Still not enough. "I think I've a lot to give." "But do you like yourself?" she asks, becoming impatient. "I think I'm a good person," I repeat. "Yes that's different though from 'do you like yourself?' Deep underneath this there's other stuff we need to get to. I think you must have had quite a lot of bullying." No, I say. "There was no sexual abuse?" she asks, leaning in and squinting again. No, I repeat. "I think it will be there," she replies, dropping her voice to a concerned tone. "It does need to come to the surface." And so, she prays for me again. "Father, we give you permission to bring to the surface some of the things that have happened over the years. Father, enable your love to pour into that place of isolation in that little boy, whatever age, we give you permission to go there, with your healing power and your light, go into those parts, open all the doors, and access each one with your light." She looks up. I ask her again about this abuse. "I think there is something there," she says. "You've allowed things to be done to you." In the next session I ask if she thinks the abuse would have taken place within my family, because I can't remember it. "Yes, very likely," she replies. The following session takes place on the phone as Lynne is abroad. This time, she focuses on the practical. She recommends that I distance myself from my gay friends and take up a sport such as rugby. I ask what I should do about masturbation ? is it best to abstain completely? "It is, it definitely is," she says. "It will be a battle, but the more you can say no to it, the stronger you get. The enemy is going to bombard you." She tells me what to say internally when I think about an attractive man: "Father I need help, I know it's wrong, you have all the power over my thoughts and I give that image to you Father, and I ask that you will help me to put the right image in my mind." Lynne recommends I read a book called Setting Love in Order by Mario Bergner, an "ex-gay". In it, he claims that through prayer he also managed to cure himself of HIV. So with prayer can an HIV-positive person really become negative? "Well the Lord heals, doesn't he?" she replies. "Are you HIV-positive?" It transpires during the sessions that she gets most of her clients through an NHS GPs' surgery near her home. She says they refer people to her for treatment for their homosexuality. I tell her I know someone in that area that wants referring, should he just say its for anxiety and depression? "I think it would be better to say anxiety and depression initially and then we can take it from there," she replies. "He can usually get four sessions with the practice, which are paid for by the NHS." At the end of the session I ask about my chances of success with this treatment. "It's down to what you want," she says. "Good will come out of this. The Lord will lead us through." *** I am being cured of my homosexuality via Skype. We use webcams throughout to see each other. David holds my gaze constantly. There are more psychotherapeutic models and theories and a little bit less God, but the agenda is the same: you have been wounded. Like Lynne, David takes a psychological history. He asks me why I'm seeking treatment and says that, with a bit more investigation, he can tell me why I became gay. His prognosis is optimistic. "One third of people change completely," he says, "one third of people experience significant change, and one third don't experience change. Those people may have been more deeply wounded." He says you have to find the wounding in order to move forward. So he sets about finding mine. But this isn't his only tool ? his central thesis is that you have to replace homosexual sex with what he calls, "the Four Intimacies: intimacy with God, intimacy with oneself, intimacy with the masculine and intimacy with the feminine." By strengthening your relationships in all these areas, and particularly by having more platonic contact with men, he says, your need for sexual contact is negated. David sets out an action plan. He recommends I join Christian men's groups. "Often there are [for homosexuals] a lot of wounds around masculine community," he explains. He also gives me "exercises" to do. These include standing in front of the mirror naked, touching and "affirming" myself. He makes another such suggestion. "A man may choose to go for a massage as a way of having healthy contact [with another man]," he says. In the next session I tell him I have followed his advice. "It made me aroused," I say about the massage. "An erection is just an erection," he replies. "All that indicates is that your body has been programmed that [sex] is the only way men have physical intimacy." But how do I interrupt lustful thoughts? "The attraction isn't the problem," he says. "It's the story that you tell yourself of what the attraction means. Ask yourself why you find a man attractive. Is it because he's got broad shoulders? Well, what do the broad shoulders mean to you?" He then asks if I know the work of someone called Elizabeth Moberly. "She talks about the cannibalistic nature of homosexual sex," he says. Cannibalistic? I ask. "If I see you're a younger man," he explains, "and the story I tell myself is that younger men are fitter, or more powerful and I'm feeling particularly weak, then suddenly you have something that I want to possess." "What kind of men do you find attractive?" he asks. "I don't have a type," I say. He looks displeased. "Sometimes when I was younger I went for older men," I add. He asks me about my childhood. I tell him it was happy. "Any big traumas?" he asks. No, I say. "Any sexual or physical abuse?" Again, he finds nothing. "Tell me about your father." I say that he was great, supportive and that we are very different. He is scientific and introverted, whereas I am more like my mother: creative, extrovert. This is a breakthrough. "So in your mind there's something that says, 'I'm like mum, but dad's over there, he's different from me,' so there hasn't been that gender-affirming process. When puberty kicks in, those natural needs for masculinity become sexualised. Suddenly older men want to have sex with you, and it's pretty intoxicating. That's what's lead you down the line of homosexuality. "But the men you were having sex with or falling in love with are just as wounded as you," he adds. "They cannot complete you in the same way as a woman. What would complete you is sex with a heterosexual man but a heterosexual man isn't going to want to have sex with you, so it's that desire to get what you can never obtain." So is homosexuality a pathology? "It does represent a pathology," he replies. "Often the dynamics behind it aren't healthy. God's intention for us is to have an opposite-sex relationship." I suddenly remember his wife and children. "You're very much a success story then," I say. "Well, I mean it works," he replies. "I never went down the line of gay identifying, it was something I experienced that I had disgust around and I always wanted to be married and have kids." What about his same sex feelings now? "Sometimes if I'm not looking after myself then that can bring up a sexual charge," he replies, "but it's not a big issue for me now, it's more unhealthy patterns of porn and masturbation, if I'm feeling a bit flat." In the following session I tell David I've had sexual thoughts about him. "Thank-you for being honest," he replies with a small laugh. "I'm trying to model unconditional love for you, so it is very natural that you would have sexual thoughts related to that. Although we're doing this over the internet, there is still a potential for a sexual connection. So there's probably a part of your mind that's thinking that through." "Do you have to deal with sexual feelings towards men you're working with?" I ask. "I get echoes of it sometimes," he replies. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't." I tell him that I had tried the standing-in-front-of-the-mirror-naked technique that he recommended, but, like the massage, it had aroused me. "I would be surprised if you didn't experience sexual feelings," he says. And with that he starts to "affirm" me. "I think you're a brave man," he says. "I think you're really strong in terms of being willing to look at your life and who you really are, and you also look as if you look after yourself in terms of your body. How do you feel being affirmed in this way by another man?" I say that when men compliment me on my appearance it triggers sexual feelings. He probes again, asking me how I'm feeling as he talks about my body. Aroused, I repeat. But rather than moving away from this apparent sexual trigger, he asks if we can do an "exercise" around it. I agree. "Close your eyes and focus on that arousal you're feeling down in your genitals," he says. "I want you to hear, as a man, as I look at your body, I see strong shoulders and a strong chest, I see a man who has an attractive body and I want you just to notice the arousal you feel as you hear me talking about that. Imagine an energy and picture that energy as a colour, and make the brightness of the colour relate to the intensity of the sexual feeling, so you might be starting to get a bit of a hard on, you might be starting to feel an erection and that sexual energy, but I want you to just picture that as a coloured light. What colour would it be?" Red, I say. "I want you to imagine that red colour, that energy and listen to the affirmations that I see you as a strong, confident man, and I want you to move that red light from your genitals up into your chest to join that feeling of affirmation as a man, and as you breathe in that affirmation do you notice now what happens to the arousal?" I tell him it's still there. We're at the end of the session. I ask who his supervisor is. He tells me that his supervisor is involved with "Richard Cohen's organisation". Later, I do an internet search. Richard Cohen has been permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association. He founded the International Healing Foundation, a conversion organisation. David then mentions that he is attending a meeting in London next week to discuss how to create a training school for therapists working in this field. I ask if I can come too. A week later I am sitting round a table with the heads of every major British conversion organisation ? some of whom are also therapists. We are in the bright, cramped London offices of Living Waters, an evangelical conversion association. Our special guest is Dr Jeffrey Satinover, 62, an American psychiatrist. "We need to think of practical ideas for forming a training programme [for conversion therapists]," says Satinover. "We can learn a lot from what the Mormons did. They created a training programme and linked it with a university." They decide that in order to gain such a link, and the credibility and funding that would go with it, their training school also needs to do research into the field. "If I could get trainees doing a PhD in this area that would help, because that brings funding in," says David. "It's difficult to access money, but if we're clever there are ways." He talks about his conversion practice, and how it's funded. "We use people's private medical insurance," he says. *** I phone Lynne. I explain that I'm a journalist. "Who is this please?" she says, confused, or in denial. I repeat myself and then read to her what the psychiatrist Professor Michael King from UCL had to say about her practices when I contacted him with transcripts of the sessions: "This is grossly improper practice," he told me. "She's imposing prayer and using evidence-free techniques. The whole approach towards the subject of sexual abuse is extremely unprofessional. Leading [and] suggestion in a therapeutic situation is the absolute antithesis of what an exploration of sexual abuse should be about. It's the base of many of these false memory syndromes. She should not be able to get referrals from a GP. Her membership of the BACP should be immediately revoked." Lynne is silent. Finally, she summons her defence. "When I take someone on, I work with the person's value system," she says. "You told me you were a Christian so that then means that I work in that person's value system. Everything I did was totally within the BACP's ethical framework." I quote one of their guidelines: "Practitioners should not allow their professional relationships with clients to be prejudiced by any personal views they may hold about sexual orientation." She hangs up. I phone the GP surgery and get through to one of the partners. Is it true his practice refers patients to Lynne to treat their homosexuality? "That is not true," he says, before admitting that he has never had a discussion with the other partners in the practice about this. "If the patient said that's what they wanted we can't stop them going for help," he says. Later I lodge a complaint with the BACP about Lynne. David remains completely calm when I reveal I am a journalist. As with Lynne, I read out what King said about his practises: "None of this would be recognised within psychiatric practice. No psychiatrist could ever justify explaining their fantasy life to a patient. It's not good practice to talk about your own psychotherapy or your own difficulties. He's encouraging an arousal during a session ? it's like a hypnotic technique. I wonder what he's doing with patients ? that he is at risk of crossing the line. My personal opinion is that he is going against every code of practice from the RCP. The College should withdraw his membership." "All I can say is that I try my best to deliver a service to help people, to provide people with an alternative in terms of change," David replies. "It [his treatment] is only for people who come asking." I lodge a complaint about David with the GMC. The purpose of this investigation was to find out how conversion therapists operate. What I didn't expect was that I would learn how their patients feel: confused and damaged. I began to constantly analyse why I found particular men attractive. Does that man represent something that's lacking in me? Do I want him because he looks strong which must mean I feel weak? Did something happen in my childhood? The therapists planted doubt and worry where there was none. My experiences, I learn, are typical. I speak to Daniel Gonzalez, one of Nicolosi's former clients. "Conversion therapy is a very complicated form of repression," he says. "It's a way of convincing yourself that your same sex attractions have some alternate meaning. It continued to haunt me for years." I also speak to Peterson Toscano, who spent 17 years in Britain and the US trying every different reorientation treatment available. He says simply: "It's psychological torture." Some of the therapists' names have been changed. sursa: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-exgay-files-the-bizarre-world-of-gaytostraight-conversion-1884947.html

Mad, Bad, and Sad

2009-10-30T09:34:23+00:00

Mad, Bad, and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi Mad, Bad, and SadA review by John Leonard Consider Hannah Green's rose garden, Sylvia Plath's bell jar, Virginia Woolf's lighthouse, and Marilyn Monroe's pills. Or such textbooks on falling apart as Doris Lessing's The Four-Gated City, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, R.D. Laing's The Divided Self, Erving Goffman's Asylums, and Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization. Not to neglect the revisionist analysis of Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Freidan, Susan Brownmiller, Phyllis Chesler, Julia Kristeva, and Juliet Mitchell. Nor the impassioned witness of Kay Redfield Jamison, Kate Millett, and Germaine Greer. If you've already read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray, how about taking a look at Leon Daudet's Les Morticoles, in which the loony bin is a music hall where patients perform the Folies Hysteriques? Isn't it fortunate that Freud's Bertha Pappenheim and Jung's Sabrina Spielrein were more resourceful than their sad, fictional sisters, Shakespeare's Ophelia and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor? I am trying to suggest the range, wit, wisdom, and richness of Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors (Norton, $19.95). Lisa Appignanesi, both a novelist and scholar of literature, psychoanalysis, and feminism, leads us on a grand tour of derangement, from matricide to anorexia. Starting off at Mary Lamb's 1796 murder of her mother in their kitchen, with a case knife, and ending with, approximately, at Elizabeth Wurtzel's deliverance by Prozac, she looks into such hospital wards and madhouses as were available in the nineteenth century, and the preferred theories preached and therapies practiced before feud and pharmacology came to the rescue. Purgatives, leeches, blistering, and hypnosis, for instance, plus cold baths, antispasmodics, and electroconvulsions, were thought to be antidotes to fantasy, phobia, delirium, hysteria, monomania, melancholia, dissociation, possession, and the vapors, which in turn had likely been caused by heredity, syphilis, change of life, overwork, self-indulgence, religious ecstasy, romantic novels, or masturbation. These mind doctors wrote their own novel, a sort of Madame Ovary, with their female patients as helpless characters. Later, everything would be blamed on conflicted sexuality, which caused repression, regression, reaction formation, projection, sublimation, post-traumatic stress disorder, recovered memory, and satanic ritual abuse. Now, of course, we no longer really care why, or whether, madness might have anything to do with a crazy geopolitics and a broken social order, as long as we're allowed to medicate.It's astonishing how often women were told that they were better off, with their wayward uterus, not reading or thinking or competing. It's disheartening to earn that Alice James suffered the theories, and that Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman suffered the practice, of a windbag like Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. (At least the bully got his due from Gilman, in her savage novella The Yellow Wallpaper.) It's paradoxical that so much of the twentieth century's obsessive faith in the mother-child relationship as the crucible of sanity can be attributed to female psychoanalysis such as Helene Deutsch and Melanie Klein. And it is scandalous that Freud in America should first have been co-opted for Disneyland, shorn entirely of his tragic sense of life, and then subsequently reviled by gender-war ideologues. Appignanesi is smarter. Freud, "the modernist who launches the discontinuities of self and dream emphatically on to the stage of literature and art," taught us how to listen. A time is coming, she believes, after all of us have woken up from our thralldom to the pharmaceutical industry, when men as well as women will want more meaning, wish finally to be understood, and need again a talking cure. John Leonard was the New Books columnist for Harper's Magazine and a media critic for New York Magazine, The Nation, and CBS News Sunday Morning. His books include Lonesome Rangers, When The Kissing Had To Stop, and The Last Innocent White Man In America.

Broken Fathers/Broken Sons: A Psychoanalyst Remembers

2009-10-30T09:23:56+00:00

Reprinted with permission: The Psychoanalytic Review. Vol. 96, #5 October 2009 (Book Review Essay) pp. 860-868. Broken Fathers/Broken Sons: A Psychoanalyst Remembers, By Gerald J. Gargiulo. New York: Rodopi, 2008, 150 pp. The subtitle is ?A Psychoanalyst Remembers.? After reading this potent, poignant and moving, beautifully written memoir, we appreciate what the meaning is of the psychoanalytic idea of placing emphasis on remembering. This means trying to recapture the truth of the past experiences in their actual context, rather than act out distorted portions to preserve our own self-justifying pictures of the past in order to vindicate our own sense of injury. What is it we must remember? The title is Broken Fathers, Broken Sons, a picture of the familial trauma of conflict over generations. What?s presented is the pain of a particular consciousness struggling to come into being, so that we see an individualized version of the common experience of the effort to achieve the dignity of autonomous selfhood that we all can recognize. Is there a particular virtue about the way a psychoanalyst remembers? As an individual he suffers; as a practitioner he knows the way memory is a ?child of desire,? inevitably selective in any recall. The evocation and identification of the subjective element in Gargiulo?s narrative of the past is a marvelous feature of this memoir. The details of emotional abandonment and rejection are not spared, but questions regarding this accuracy of recall are constantly evoked, so that the exclusive view of one?s victimization slowly gives way to the resurrection of a fuller context. One?s parents may not have been available as one would have liked, but in other ways they were supportive. The broken relations experienced with them expressed their failings as well as one?s own turning away from them. So we need to tell our stories to others, so that we too might hear them for the first time, and be able to restore something of the objective reality?the reality that the others lived that is not excused but more completely understood in its impact on us. One virtue of a psychoanalytic retelling of the situation is an open and honest exploration of all the details, to see their forgotten links and emerging coherence. We appreciate the psychoanalytic ethic of the obligation we all have to be in a continuous struggle for self-knowledge. A psychoanalyst recognizes what seemingly is a moral obligation to be responsible to himself for resolving his own conflicts. The telling of a life story is metaphorically similar to the progression of a psychoanalytic case 2 with the loosening of repression and the emergence of insight and selfknowledge. We play a role in creating and fostering what happens to us, and indeed one measure of wisdom is the ability to recognize the way we construct our own reality. Continuarea la http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/GargiulosBookReview-Jenkins2.pdf

Gânduri masculine despre tentaţii feminine

2009-08-28T11:35:10+00:00

?Un b?rbat n-ar mai avea dou? treimi din problemele care le are dac? nu s-ar aventura s? fut?.?, spune Philip Roth undeva, �n Animal pe moarte. Vi se pare, cumva, un enun? vulgar? La prima vedere, s-ar putea s? fie a?a, cu at�t mai mult cu c�t acel cuv�nt nu face parte din D.E.X., semn c? e ceva �n neregul? cu el. Dar v? spun eu c?, �n contextul c?r?ii, vorbele lui Roth sunt c�t se poate de potrivite, deloc stridente, �n total acord cu restul. Pentru c? a?a se �nt�mpl? cu scriitorii mari: de?in re?eta unui echilibru perfect. Dincolo de problema vulgarit??ii sau a lipsei de vulgaritate a acestui enun?, se pare c? el define?te foarte exact o ?problem?? a b?rba?ilor, ?i anume insa?ietatea, s-o numim a?a. Explica?iile care s-au dat acestui fenomen de-a lungul timpului sunt diverse ?i din perspective din cele mai diferite. De exemplu, s-a spus c? un b?rbat �?i caut?, �n fiecare femeie, mama. Dac? nu tocmai mama, am spune noi, m?car modelul ei. Alt? explica?ie vorbe?te despre animalitatea b?rbatului, al c?rei scop este s? procreeze c�t mai mult, doar acesta este rostul speciei, s? se perpetueze. Alta d?dea vina pe nevoia de varia?ie a b?rbatului, pe faptul c? se plictise?te repede de acela?i trup, de aceea?i mireasm?, de acelea?i m�ng�ieri. Dar c�te am �ncercat s? nu mai lu?m de bune explica?ii de-a gata ?i s? facem un minim efort de a g�ndi cu mintea noastr?? De ce b?rba?ii ace?tia ai no?tri vor mereu ?i mereu o alta? Vasile Dem. Zamfirescu vorbe?te la un moment dat �n Jurnal-ul s?u despre femeia ideal? ca sum? a tuturor iubitelor foste ?i viitoare. Pentru Constantin Noica, so?ia ideal? este femeia secretar? ?i mam?. Mai cinic, Samuel Beckett spunea c? atunci c�nd femeile nu ?tiu ce s? fac?, se dezbrac?. ??i acest lucru e probabil singurul lucru bun pe care �l pot face.?, completeaz? el. De altfel, Beckett era foarte bun prieten cu Cioran, de la care nu prea avem astfel de panseuri, fiind bine cunoscut pentru discre?ia sa cu privire la intimitate. (Dar ?i acest mit a fost zdruncinat, prin apari?ia jurnalului ultimei sale iubite, de pe c�nd avea ?aten?ie!- 70 de ani, Friedgard Schulte-Thoma, jurnal dedicat �n �ntregime acestei leg?turi amoroase Parc? �n?elegem acum mai bine vitalitatea lui Cioran care l-a ?inut p�n? la senectute.) Tot cinic dar �n alt sens este ?i Aristotel: ?Femeile �?i iubesc mai mult copiii, pentru c? pot fi sigure c? sunt ai lor.? Pe Johannes Cotta �l putem include �n aceea?i categorie, a b?rba?ilor obi?nui?i s? dea verdicte cu valoare de adev?r suprem, dar nu-l putem condamna, pentru c? s-ar putea ca singurul gen de femeie pe care acesta l-a cunoscut s? fi fost cel caracterizat de el prin ?Aten?ie la o femeie care g�nde?te logic! C?ci logica ?i femeia sunt at�t de heterogene, �nc�t este �mpotriva naturii c�nd apar �mpreun?.? Bob Hope este un reprezentant al unui alt tip de b?rbat, cel cu umor: ?C�nd o femeie �?i contureaz? buzele, este ca ?i c�nd un soldat �?i cur??? mitraliera.? Ei da, a?a mai merge, nu-i a?a? Parc? �ncepe s? ne creasc? pu?in sufletul, parc? �ncepem s? ne revenim. Nu mai ?tiu cine a spus c? trei tipuri de b?rba?i nu �n?eleg femeile: b?rba?ii tineri, b?rba?ii de v�rst? mijlocie ?i b?rba?ii b?tr�ni, �ns? cu aceasta deja ne-am deplasat �n zona realit??ii, ve?i spune majoritatea. �ns? la cea mai sincer? ?i spectaculoas? concluzie ajunge, evident, Freud: ?Marea �ntrebare la care nu ?tiu s? r?spund, �n ciuda a treizeci de ani de studiu despre femei, este urm?toarea: Ce vor, de fapt, femeile?? V-a?i �ntrebat vreodat? sincer, singure �n fa?a oglinzii, ce vre?i, de fapt, voi? Atunci c�nd femeile vor g?si r?spunsul la aceast? �ntrebare ?i �?i vor asuma curajul s?-l rosteasc? simplu ?i deschis b?rbatului iubit, primul pas spre idealul de echilibru pe care fiecare �l vis?m este f?cut. Restul ?ine de �n?elepciune ?i, cred eu, de educa?ie. Ceea ce v? doresc tuturor, din suflet. Psi. psihoterapeut Ioana Scorus

Alergia – altă perspectivă

2009-08-28T11:33:05+00:00

Alergia este o boal? care ocup? un loc important nu doar �n medicin?, ci ?i �n psihosomatic?. Termenul ?psihosomatic? este absent la Freud ?i la Groddeck; el apare �n Statele Unite ale Americii c?tre sf�r?itul anilor ?30, cu Franz Alexander. Psihosomatica este disciplina medical? care studiaz? originea psihic? a unor boli ?i folosirea mijloacelor psihologice �n terapia lor. �n scrierile sale, Alexander vorbe?te despre o staz? de energie �n aparatul psihic, energie care ar putea stagna �ntr-un organ investit �n mod specific de c?tre psihic, rezultatul fiind o ?nevroz? de organ?, nevroz? care poate merge p�n? la lezarea organului respectiv. Cu alte cuvinte, un organ poate fi ?ales? �n mod incon?tient ca ?reprezentant? al bolii, dincolo de o cauz? strict organic?. Acest proces, de ?alegere? a unui organ prin care lipsa unei cauze organice se converte?te �ntr-una somatic? se nume?te somatizare, ceea ce a dus la aceasta fiind un conflict incon?tient �n via?a psihic?. �n urma a numeroase studii s-a constatat c? ?i alergiile pot fi rezultatul unor somatiz?ri, ele neav�nd suport �n factorii externi, de mediu, ?i nici �n sensibilit??ile sistemului imunitar, responsabil, �n general, pentru acest tip de afec?iuni. O caracteristic? esen?ial? a alergiei este faptul c? scap? simboliz?rii, deoarece ia �nsu?i corpul ca mijloc de exprimare. O alt? caracteristic? este conversia. Literatura de specialitate ofer? numeroase exemple de alergii cauzate pe fond psihic. Henri Hyde Salter remarc? �nc? de la 1860 c? emo?iile pot avea un rol important �n declan?area crizei de astm. Sir John Flower, �n 1898, recunoa?te astmul isteric. �n 1905, odat? cu publicarea de c?tre Freud a celebrului caz al Dorei, problema somatiz?rii �ncepe s? fie mai clar orientat?. Marcinowski, �n 1913, scrie c? astmul este determinat de o isterie de baz? iar Weiss, �n 1922, vorbind despre un pacient aflat �n terapie psihanalitic?, ajunge la concluzia c? astmul pe care �l tratase era secundar fricii de separare de mam?. Ca orice teorie, nici cea psihogen? a alergiei nu este unanim adoptat?. �n anii urm?tori numero?i terapeu?i vorbesc despre rolul factorilor psihici �n alergie. �n 1931, David L�vy ajunge la concluzia c? numero?i copii devin astmatici ca urmare a unei respingeri materne. Statisticile dovedesc ?i ele c?, �ntr-adev?r, multe alergii sunt provocate de psihic. Astfel, �ntr-un studiu realizat �n 1938, doi americani constat? c? din 50 de cazuri de alergie clinic?, 30 au la baz? un factor emo?ional. Pentru Miller ?i Baruch exist? trei factori care dirijeaz? istoria copilului alergic, ?i anume: foamea de dragoste, frica de mam? ?i furia fa?? de aceasta. �n 1950, Alexander face un important pas �nainte �n studiul alergiilor, postul�nd c? sistemul nervos parasimpatic este utilizat pentru producerea energiei de blocaj a emo?iilor care sunt astfel reprimate. �nc? de multe vreme, psihiatria clasic? observase leg?turi esen?iale �ntre boala alergic? ?i cea mintal?, descriind neuropsihoze de origine alergic?, st?ri nevrotice la alergici ?i chiar psihoze. Un singur exemplu: Metzger vorbe?te despre un pacient alergic la trandafiri care prezenta boala f�nului atunci c�nd vedea trandafiri artificiali, dovad? irefutabil? a faptului c? o criz? de alergie poate fi declan?at? de o imagine psihic?, �n lipsa stimulului alergic veritabil, �n cazul acesta, trandafirii reali. Un alt studiu realizat pe un e?antion de 90 de copii alergici ?i un altul de 53 nealergici eviden?iaz? faptul c? modul de exprimare al copiilor nealergici este ostilitatea exteriorizat? �n anumite condi?ii, �n timp ce modul de manifestare a copiilor alergici, �n acelea?i condi?ii, este luarea drept ?int? pe ei �n?i?i. Altefl spus, atunci c�nd echilibrul emo?ional este perturbat, �n loc s? facem ?r?u? celorlal?i, arunc�nd r?ul din noi �n?ine, devenind ostili sau chiar agresivi, ne facem r?u chiar nou?, ne alegem, incon?tient, drept ?int?. Din aceast? categoriile a bolilor cauzate de psihicul perturbat fac parte foarte multe alergii, cum ar fi cele alimentare, cele ale aparatului respirator, sexuale, boli ale pancreasului ?amd. Inclusiv p?rin?ii copiilor alergici au fost studia?i, ajung�ndu-se la concluzia c? nu doar mamele pot provoca alergii copiilor, ci ?i ta?ii. Mohr, G�rard ?i Ross semnaleaz? urm?toarele: ?Mamele copiilor astmatici sunt foarte narcisice, ambi?ioase pentru ele �nsele ?i pentru copii lor. Nu sunt femei deosebit de materne ?i au atitudini ambivalente sau de respingere fa?? de copil. Atitudinile lor pozi?ive fa?? de copii nu apar dec�t �n slujba gratifica?iilor narcisice. Ta?ii sunt pasivi ?i nu se intereseaz? de activit??ile copiilor lor.? ( Jacques Ca�n, Psihanaliz? ?i psihosomatic?, ed. TREI, 1998, traducere de Rodica Matei) Concluzia acestui scurt periplu prin isoria bolilor alergice cu component? psihic? nu poate fi dec�t una singur?: ave?i grij? nu doar de tratarea medicamentoas? a acestor boli, din ce �n ce mai frecvente �n ultimii ani, ci ?i de s?n?tatea mental? a voastr? ?i a copiilor vo?tri. Ave?i grij? ce comportament adopta?i fa?? de copii vo?tri, loc �n care echilibrul optim este at�t de greu de g?sit. ?i nu uita?i c? exist? suficient de mul?i psihoterapeu?i care s-au preg?tit ani de zile tocmai pentru a fi capabili s? v? ofere ajutor. ?i ce ajutor mai minunat a?i putea dori dec�t unul prin cuv�nt? Nu ezita?i s? cere?i ajutor de specialit?te atunci c�nd problemele de suflet v? dep??esc ?i �ncerca?i s? l?sa?i la o parte prejudec??ile, at�t de ad�nc �nr?d?cinate la noi, conform c?rora doar nebunii se duc la psiholog. Dac? acest argument v-ar putea ajuta �n a �ndr?zni s? face?i acest pas, atunci trebuie s? ?ti?i c? peste tot �n lumea civilizat?, acolo unde ?i Rom�nia �ncearc? s? ajung?, psihologul �nso?e?te dezvoltarea copilului �nc? de la patru ani, odat? cu debutul �n via?a social?: gr?dini?a. Uneori, chiar ?i mai devreme. Dar ave?i grij? c?rui specialist v? adresa?i, deoarece nu to?i cei care se declar? a fi astfel, chiar sunt. Dar despre acest aspect, �ntr-un articol viitor. Psih. psihoterapeut Ioana Scorus

Ce parere au psihanalistii americani

2009-08-14T06:43:31+00:00

Psychoanalysts Censure California?s Vote to Ban Same-Sex Marriage New York -- The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) denounces the election results in California that supported Proposition 8, a ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage in the state. In keeping with its overall support of social justice, APsaA issued a position statement earlier this year supporting the legal recognition of same-sex civil marriage while opposing discrimination against same-sex couples. For the full text of the APsaA Marriage Resolution, click here. APsaA President-elect and Pasadena, CA resident Warren Procci, M.D. remarks: "These ballot propositions such as California's Proposition 8, deny to gay individuals the rights to freedom of choice of partner in marriage as well as access to equal protection which is granted to all of us by our constitution. These denials are based solely on an individual?s sexual orientation." ?We want people to think about the broad impact the denial of same-sex marriage has on Americans today,? says psychoanalyst Ethan Grumbach, Ph.D., a Los Angeles resident and chair of APsaA's Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. ?Families exist in many different ways and it is important for same-sex couples to have legal and societal recognition of their unions for themselves, their children, and their extended families. Research continues to demonstrate the stigmatization and discrimination to which same sex couples and families are subjected is traumatizing and damaging to their health." APsaA's Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues has reviewed extensive research on homosexual relationships and gay and lesbian parents and their children prior to issuing its Same-Sex Marriage Resolution. Some relevant statistics and research results are: ? The Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of 2001 found that 68 percent of lesbians and gays considered lesbian and gay marriage to be very important and 25 percent considered it to be somewhat important. ? According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 34 percent of cohabitating female couples and 22 percent of male couples were raising children under the age of 18. ? In a 2006 paper, Charlotte Patterson, Ph.D., renowned researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, concluded, "Results of the research (of various population samples of lesbian and gay families) suggest that qualities of family relationships are more tightly linked with child (development) outcomes than is parental sexual orientation." In addition, APsaA's Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues is currently developing a proposed position statement on the United States' military policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." sursa: http://www.apsa.org/Portals/1/docs/NEWS/Prop%208%20Release.htm

„Ca un mărăcine într-o cetină de puf”

2009-07-19T06:14:12+00:00

articol aparut in revista Dilema veche in nr. 16 - 23 iulie 2008 Client vs pacient ?i apari?ia omului nou Am avut, p�n? azi, ?ansa de a nu fi fost nevoit? se fiu pacient? �ntr-un spital din ?ara mea. Nu e nevoie s? explic de ce vorbesc despr? ?ans?, toat? lumea ?tie cam ce �nseamn? a fi pacient �n profunda noastr? Rom�nie. Mi-am croit, �n acela?i timp, ?i ne?ansa de a deveni medic, vis al copil?riei, praf ?i pulbere azi. Am compensat, �n schimb, prin a deveni ?medic de suflete?, adic? psihoterapeut. Un domeniu neluat �n serios la noi, uneori nici m?car de �n?i?i practican?ii. Un domeniu legiferat, totu?i, ceea ce e minunat. Minunat dar inutil pentru marea majoritate a celor care au nevoie de o psihoterapie ?i habar nu au c? a?a ceva exist?. Nu folosesc niciodat? denumirea de ?clien?i? atunci c�nd m? refer la cei ce caut? ajutor la terapeut. Nu doar pentru c? a?a am fost educat? o folosesc pe aceea de pacient. F?r? ghilimele. Chiar cu riscul de a crea o mic? ran? narcisic?, ?in ca cei care apeleaz? la serviciile mele s? con?tientizeze ?i s? accepte faptul c?, odat? ini?iat procesul terapeutic, ei devin pacien?i. A?a cum devin pacien?i atunci c�nd merg la medic s?-?i vindece inima, stomacul, ochii, etc, a?a devin pacien?i ?i c�nd vin s?-?i vindece sufletul, cerin?a primordial? fiind, �n ambele cazuri, aceea?i: eliminarea suferin?ei. Numai c? aceast? cerin?? aduce �n scen? un nou specimen de pacient, cel al epocii post-?89. Aflat sub tirul stresului de zi cu zi ?i sub cel al dorin?ei de nest?vilit de a c�?tiga (deseori rapid) ?i de a cheltui, pacientul erei noi nu mai seam?n? cu cel �nt�lnit prin tratate. Boala psihic? se rafineaz?! Omul modern este un generic narcisist lipsit de remu?c?ri. Reprezentarea ac?iunilor sale se scurtcircuitez?, trimi?�nd experien?a direct �n soma. Adic? somatizeaz?, �?i ?pune? problema psihic? �n corp, sub form? de simptom. �ncep mersul la medici ?i analizele cu invariabil rezultat negativ dar, cu toate astea, urmate de lungi re?ete de tratamente medicamentoase. Desigur, f?r? ameliorare. Dac? nu e depresiv, omul modern face exces de entuziasm �n fa?a irelevantului, minorului, numai c? pl?cerea cu care �?i cheltuie?te excesul nu-i aduce satisfac?ia incon?tient c?utat?. Nici nu e de mirare, ea nu se afl?, nu se poate afla acolo unde este c?utat?. Deseori, omul post-?89 nu are identitate moral?, dar nici sexual?. El tr?ie?te la limita frontierei, devenind el �nsu?i de limit?. Un ?sine fals? c?ut�ndu-se acolo unde nu e chip s? se (re-)g?seasc?. Cu sufletul r?t?cit, dac? nu pierdut, el �ncepe s? orbec?ie �n vastele �nc?peri ale sufletului. Are la �ndem�n? insomniile, depresiile, crizele ?de nervi?, ba chiar, �n ultim? instan?? (!!!) ?i crima, dar ?i chimicalele care niciodat?, ele singure, nu rezolv? cauzele suferin?ei. Cei care au bafta de a fi �ndruma?i ?i mijloacele materiale disponibile, au la �ndem�n? psihoterapia. Casa de asigur?ri nu suport?, �ns?, ca peste tot �n lumea civilizat?, cheltuielile cu psihoterapia. �ncepe, astfel, al?turi de terapeut, un drum lung, mereu ocolit, greu, obositor, disconfortant ?i deseori descurajant, spre taini?ele incon?tiente ale sufletului bolnav. Acolo, �n ad�ncuri, sub miile de falduri ale mecanismelor psihice de ap?rare, se afl? rezolvarea. Acolo se afl? s?n?tatea. Cine are curajul ?i tenacitatea s? o g?seasc?, o va afla. Mai devreme sau mai t�rziu. Dar o va afla. Doamna M. st? �n fotoliu ?i pl�nge de un sfert de or?. Lucru absolut obi?nuit �ntr-un cabinet de psihoterapie. M? bucur c? pl�nge pentru c? p�n? acum, vreme de un an ?i ceva, nu ?i-a dat voie. S-a mai �nt�mplat ca ochii s?-i str?luceasc? de lacrimi aprig cenzurate, dar de pl�ns, pl�nge pentru prima oar?. Pentru prima oar? dup? 20 de ani. S�nt fericit? pentru ea, consider�ndu-i pl�nsul un mare favor pe care ?i-l face nu doar sie?i. Eu sunt cea c?reia �i ofer? aceste lacrimi str�nse �n ani de suferin?? cu fruntea sus, merg�nd neobosit mai departe, acolo unde credea c? trebuie s? mearg?. Era un ?trebuie? str?in, pe care ?i-l asumase ca ?i cum s-ar fi n?scut dintr-o mare dorin?? personal?. Azi, doamna M. a aflat c? nu exist? nici un ?trebuie? �n via?a asta ?i-?i pl�nge nu doar anii irosi?i �ntr-o fals? realitate ?i mistificare a propriei existen?e, ci ?i bucuria eliber?rii pentru care a muncit �n terapie vreme de un an. �?i face, de fapt, doliul anilor pierdu?i �n acela?i timp �n care �?i celebreaz? intrarea �n noua ei via??. Descoper?, brusc, printr-un puternic insight, c? este... singur?. Singur? pe lume, chiar dac? are al?turi o familie. Iar asta o face s? se simt? ?ca un m?r?cine?. Rareori pacien?ii g?sesc figuri de stil at�t de sugestive, prin care �?i reprezint? ?i mai acut situa?ia, lucru care deseori creeaz? leg?tura dintre psych? ?i soma. Un fel de intrare �n posesie a propriului corp, �nstr?inat �ntre timp, loc al simptomelor, al metamorfozelor ?i al unor suferin?e f?r? ?obiect?. ?M? simt ca un m?r?cine �ntr-o cetin? de puf...?, ?opte?te doamna M., gratific�ndu-mi astfel munca al?turi de ea. I-am fost con?in?tor, i-am fost sus?in?tor, i-am fost mama pe care a iubit-o ?i a ur�t-o �n mod perfect ambivalent, i-am fost spa?iu de relaxare, de reculegere, de ?legare?, spa?iu tranzi?ional ?i oglind? �n care s? se priveasc? p�n? la re-cunoa?tere. I-am fost terapeut. Cetin? de puf. Asta valoreaz? mai mult dec�t orice plat? �n bani... Doamna M. s-a ?salvat?, dar restul? Prins �n realitatea creat? de modul de via?? post-decembrist, omul nou se afl?, �nainte de toate, la v?mile limbajului. Ale limbii. O limb? golit? de sens ?i de con?inut, o ?limb? a p?s?rilor? �n care fiecare vorbe?te f?r? s? ?tie c? cel?lalt percepe cu totul altceva dec�t i-a fost �ncredin?at. O limb? care �nstr?ineaz?, care aduce gustul falsului, vidului, artificialului, care nu-?i mai atinge menirea de a aduce laolalt?. O ne-limb? �n care nimeni nu se �n?elege cu nimeni. De aici, recursul la mijloace alternative: sms-ul, e-mail-ul, jargonul, grafitti-ul, diferite forme de art?. Limbaje care cad �n sarcina psihanalistului de a fi descifrate pentru c? ele sunt calea, mijlocul spre bolile sufletului. Limbi alternative de reprezentare a suferin?elor suflete?ti, limbi str?ine oric?rei form?ri terapeutice, simboluri a ceva din ad�ncurile fiec?ruia, �n uria?a singularitate ?i unicitate a fiec?rui pacient. Ce medicamente din lumea asta ar putea realiza uria?ul travaliu de descifrare a acestor limbaje �n care st? zidit? suferin?a unui psych? nesf�r?it? Acel fel special de empatie a psihanalistului, care vine din a?ezarea sa l?untric? �n proximitatea bolii sau chiar �n miezul fierbinte al bolii, este calea prin care se traverseaz? psihicul uman transferat �n limbaj. �n orice fel de limbaj, pe care psihanalistul trebuie s?-l descifreze. Atunci c�nd dezastrul interior nu mai g?se?te c?i s?n?toase de echilbrare, psihanalistul poate fi, uneori, ultima solu?ie. Dar doar pentru aceia care vor, care pot, care sunt �n stare, care au de ce ?i pentru ce.

Adio, Magdalena Boiangiu

2009-07-06T08:10:22+00:00

O citeam �ntotdeauna cu pl?cere ?i curiozitate pentru c? ?tiam c? informa?iile aduse de ea erau mereu corecte, netrucate ?i niciodat? banale iar scriitura proba talentul unui jurnalist model. A ?inut p�n? �n ultima clip? rubrica sa din Dilema veche, cu o vivacitate dublat? de o privire limpede de admirat ?i, eventual, de invidiat. De?inea acea modestie, acea cumin?enie caracteristic? oamenilor care-?i cunosc valoarea, pe care o �ntrebuin?eaz? ca pe un bun personal ?i nu ca pe unul de expus cu surle pe tarabele publice. F?r? poze ?i tr�mbi?e, �?i f?cea meseria �n cel mai pur stil. Egal? cu ea �ns??i, men?in�nd distan?a corect? �ntre subiectivitate ?i obiectivitate, doamna Magdalena Boiangiu putea oric�nd s? dea lec?ii veritabile de jurnalism. Din p?cate, oamenii ca ea nu sunt solicita?i. Probabil c?, �nainte de orice, va r?m�ne un model demn de urmat pentru cei care se mai �nc?p??�neaz? s? fac? jurnalism de calitate, �ntr-o ?ar? �n care jurnalismul este de v�nzare. S-a stins una dintre doamnele incoruptibile ale scrisului rom�nesc iar locul ei va r?m�ne vacant mult? vreme. Adio, Magdalena Boiangiu. Vei r?m�ne cu noi, cei care te iubim!

See a psychiatrist? Are you mad?

2009-06-27T07:36:28+00:00

by Sally Vickers Richard Bentall, a clinical psychologist, is a controversial figure in the field of mental health. An example of the hostility that his conclusions provoke among those practising conventional (that is, drug-based) psychiatry is given in the preface to this book, which raises serious questions about the treatment of mental illness. Bentall describes an encounter with an amiable-seeming psychiatrist who responds to a talk he has given as follows: "Professor Bentall has told us he is a scientist. But he is not! Nothing that Professor Bentall has said - not one single word - is true." Doctoring the Mind: Why Psychiatric Treatments Fail by Richard Bentall pp364, Allen Lane, �25 The unlikelihood of a professor of psychology delivering, in the sober environment of an NHS conference, a talk in which every word is fictitious and every opinion fallacious gives a flavour of the threat that Bentall's theories pose. The response, as reported, sounds deranged and it is interesting to observe how debate among professionals over the causes of mental illness appears to induce its own version of madness, as if the topic itself were contagious. One sign of sanity, both in the individual and society, is the ability to deal with dissent. In an earlier book, Madness Explained, Bentall was at pains to distinguish his approach from other anti-psychiatrists - for example, RD Laing, whose radical views were discredited because of his flamboyant lack of rigour and attendant inability to accept criticism. Bentall, as this book attests, is a different kettle of fish. With patient persistence and without recourse to rancorous diatribes, he has appraised the scientific evidence for the success of contemporary psychiatric treatments and come up with a dismal report. It is probably the very balance of his approach that drives his opponents crazy. Doctoring the Mind is an attempt to clarify the dense array of evidence offered in Bentall's earlier work. The result is a much easier read. It is also, for that reason, more disturbing. Other recent books (Lisa Appignanesi's Mad, Bad and Sad, for example) have also traced the dark strains of misperception, mismanagement and downright cruelty in psychiatry's chequered history, but Bentall's achievement is to focus on contemporary psychiatric practices, especially those dedicated to treating serious psychoses (his own area of expertise). Bentall's thesis is that, for all the apparent advances in understanding psychiatric disorders, psychiatric treatment has done little to improve human welfare, because the scientific research which has led to the favouring of mind-altering drugs is, as he puts it, "fatally flawed". He cites some startling evidence from the World Health Organisation that suggests patients suffering psychotic episodes in developing countries recover "better" than those from the industrialised world and the aim of the book is broadly to suggest why this might be so. The first part describes the historical evolution of different kinds of treatment, moving on to dismantle some myths about the nature of severe mental illness. On the way, Bentall addresses the problem of diagnostic categories, suggesting that what are conventionally called psychiatric "symptoms" are more accurately termed "complaints". A particular focus of his critique is the notion of heritability, the theory that mental illness has a genetic basis. According to Bentall, there exist grave flaws in the research methods adopted and the stigma of an inescapable genetic stamp baselessly fuels discrimination against those suffering mental disarray. In addition, the dangers of long-term exposure to many psychotropic drugs appears to outweigh their usefulness. Here it is important to explain something that is not always understood, which is that mental "illness" is not strictly comparable with physical illness. There are several reasons for this, one being that the aetiology (causation) of so-called mental disease is not yet identifiable in the way that, say, measles is. The precise causal relationship between or mind and body remains misty, but that strong emotional states have an impact on physical states is recognisable in everyday life. We do not feel fear because we have paled or experience anxiety because we sweat. We blush or, if we have penises, have erections because strong emotions trigger these normal physical responses. The question then becomes this: are distressing mental states the result of impaired brain chemistry or is it the other way round? Does trauma, whether singular or chronic, as in the long misery of an abandoned child or the recurring anxiety of an assaulted one, alter the subtle chemistry of the brain to affect subsequent states of mind? This debate, as Bentall demonstrates, is not only still on, but is heated. The second reason for distinguishing between physical and mental illness is that diagnostic concepts defining "mental disease" are, in Bentall's words, "invented, not discovered". They arise out of a collective decision, rather than scientific discovery (you can't test for schizophrenia in the way you can for diabetes). Schizophrenia and bipolar disease (once called "manic depression") are merely the names given to a loose collection of "symptoms" and the decision to plump for one diagnosis over another will be influenced by the doctor's interpretation of the current psychiatric scoreboard. Perhaps significantly, psychiatrists in the US and Russia are more likely to diagnose schizophrenia than their warier European colleagues. I was amused to find that, according to one of the quoted tests, I would be labelled psychotic, while no test (at least in my current state of health) could show that I have, for example, TB. In this context, it is relevant that, in the old USSR, dissidents were commonly labelled "schizophrenic". It would have been simpler to be rid of them by calling them "lepers", but leprosy can be disproved through laboratory testing, while schizophrenia cannot. That physical and mental illness are incommensurate is significant, as it has a profound bearing on treatment. While advances in the realm of physical illness have been spectacular, in the shadowy province of mental health the news is at best disappointing. And some of it is dire. Bentall is not the first to call attention to a drugs industry whose success is based on the efficacy of its marketing techniques rather than of its medications. But it is useful to be reminded of the massive financial forces behind the enthusiasm for drugs. It has become standard practice among psychiatrists to medicate for life those diagnosed with serious psychoses when, demonstrably, more is not better, either in dosage or time scale. In the US, children are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs for "disruptive" behaviour. Grief, disappointment and old age are nowadays routinely met with serotonin-reuptake inhibitors. In the course of his inquiry, Bentall is at pains not to fling out the baby with the bath water. He makes an all-important distinction between being "anti-psychiatrist" and "anti-psychiatry", a common category error, and is careful to say that "most people drawn to work in psychiatry are kind and caring". He recognises that there are occasions where drugs are necessary and some when nothing else will do. He is not in favour of half-baked "alternative" remedies. He believes that it is true that some behavioural disorders are the result of a complex malfunctioning of neural chemistry, and also - not at all the same thing - that states of emotional anguish will have a somatic counterpart that can be eased by medication. In other words, he is open-minded about drug therapy, provided it is not used as a panacea or a substitute for treatments that may produce happier outcomes. What's to be done? Abandoning his distinctive note of moderation, Bentall finally becomes passionate. The first answer, he suggests, is a greater regard for the role of adverse circumstances in provoking mental illness. If bad things happen to people, this is registered in their bodies' chemistry ("a troubled brain cannot be considered in isolation from the social universe"). The second answer is a concomitant respect for the power of interpersonal relationships to ameliorate these effects. One of the concluding chapters, entitled "The Virtue of Kindness" (the subject of the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips' latest book), asks if psychotherapy can help. The short answer is yes, because a person, unlike a drug, can learn to listen to another's story. Psychoanalysis was popularly called the talking cure, but a better name is the listening one, because to be listened to properly inspires, or can inspire, hope. As Bentall starkly says: "Without hope, the struggle for survival seems pointless." At a time when dialogue in the presence of other human beings is becoming less and less available, this brave book gives a sense of why this could be disastrous. ? Salley Vickers is a novelist and former psychotherapist. Her latest book, Dancing Backwards, will be published next week by Fourth Estate http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/21/doctoring-the-mind-richard-bentall

Somniferele şi riscul suicidar

2009-06-23T08:23:15+00:00

Un recent studiu suedez indic? faptul c? persoanele �n v�rst? care apeleaz? la sedative ?i la medica?ie care s? favorizeze somnul prezint? un risc crescut de suicid fa?? de popula?ia general?, atr?g�nd aten?ia medicilor care prescriu astfel de tratamente c? trebuie s? chestioneze serios fiecare pacient de v�rsta a treia �nainte de a prescrie astfel de pilule. Sedativele ?i hipnoticele sunt recomandate �n general pe perioade scurte de timp persoanelor anxioase, depresive ?i cu probleme de tulburare de somn. Diazepamul, alprazolamul, nitrazepamul, flurazepamul sunt medicamente care se g?sesc ?i pe pia?a rom�neasc? ?i care deseori sunt recomandate ca adjuvante bune la orice. De la indica?ia medicului de a fi luate o perioad? strict? de timp, acestea ajung a fi consumate dup? bunul plac al pacientului, care observ? efectul benefic de moment. Studiul suedez a fost focusat pe persoane de minim 65 de ani, a c?ror rat? de suicid este cu mult mai mare dec�t �n popula?ia general?. Nu acela?i lucru se poate spune despre medica?ia antipsihotic? sau antidepresiv?, care nu cre?te riscul suicidar. Cercet?torii atrag aten?ia c? medicamentele trebuie luate exact �n doza recomandat? ?i c? �ncheierea tratamentului se face doar prin reducerea gradat? a dozei, niciodat? brusc. Aviz amatorilor! psiholog Ioana Scoru?

Succesul în carieră şi infertilitatea

2009-06-23T08:22:08+00:00

Pentru a fi fericite, multe dintre femei cred c? este suficient s? aib? un job bine pl?tit cu �nalt? recunoa?tere social?. Iat? c? lucrurile nu stau tocmai a?a, aceasta este concluzia la care ajung majoritatea dintre ele, atunci c�nd, realizate profesional fiind, se g�ndesc c? e timpul s? aib? ?i un copil. De multe ori, �ncerc?rile r?m�n f?r? succes. Un studiu recent arat? rela?ia existent? �ntre fertilitate ?i stress, aceasta fiind net �n defavoarea fertilit??ii odat? cu cre?terea cantit??ii de stress. Profesor Elisabeth Cashdan, antropolog la Universitatea din Utah, SUA, a realizat un studiu ale c?rui rezultate au fost publicate �n revista Current Anthropology. Ele dovedesc faptul c? stressul datorat realiz?rii unei cariere de succes duce la dezechilibre hormonale care influen?eaz? negativ rata fertilit??ii. Femeile aflate �ntr-o astfel de situa?ie produc o cantitate mai mare de hormoni masculini, cum ar fi testosteronul, asociat cu dorin?a de putere ?i cu competitivitatea, lucru ce le mic?oreaz? de trei ori ?ansele de a r?m�ne �ns?rcinate, �n afara faptului c? le face cu mult mai pu?in atractive fa?? de sexul opus, conform studiului. De aici p�n? la depresie, nu este dec�t un pas. Cum ?i �n Rom�nia modelul femeii de succes a devenit un trend, poate ar fi bine s? st?m pu?in s? ne g�ndim: oare se merit?? psiholog Ioana Scoru?

Thinking Differently

2009-06-19T07:32:02+00:00

We, the Analyst:Thinking Differently about the Current Crisis by Michael Pariser, Psy.D. By now, the economic crisis sweeping the globe needs little introduction - the pain is everywhere. If you're not suffering yourself, you no doubt know someone who is. Let's face it: if this is not another Great Depression, it's already a Pretty Damn Good Depression. Clearly, our own field is not immune from the fallout; many therapists have experienced significant drops in their caseloads. At one time, for instance, I had a thriving practice of 30 or 35 client hours; in the space of a month, I was down to 15. I was shell shocked. A senior analyst to whom I spoke used the analogy of hanging onto a tree in the midst of a torrential downpour. She depicted those who have been in practice many years as high up in the tree and therefore relatively safe. On the other hand, I and others with less established practices she saw as clinging to the lower branches and in danger of being swept away by the raging floodwaters. There is no shortage of public need for help, of course; unresolved emotional issues are only exacerbated by today's dire economic stressors. Unfortunately, not many people can easily allocate funds to pay for psychotherapy. Fewer still can make the financial commitment to high-frequency psychoanalytic treatment; while almost none can afford the kind of fees many of us took for granted in recent, more affluent times. The situation is by no means hopeless, however, and in fact, there may be a silver lining to the current devastation. Throughout recent American history, there has been a tension between collective consciousness and individual goals. During World War II and the subsequent years of prosperity, Americans identified as a larger community, as members of a more unified sense of "We the People". Likewise, the empowerment movements that began in the 1960's were conceived as efforts to promote a common good. In the late 70's and 1980's however, the broad movements splintered and shared social goals gave way to individual self interest. This trend, as we have seen, culminated in economic disaster of worldwide proportions. It has also, however, revealed the fundamental limitations of rampant consumerism and solipsistic I-think. Hopefully this new awareness will trigger a fundamental shift away from greed and back towards a compassionate connection between all Americans, away from "I" and back towards a more deeply felt connection to the larger "We." The signs are already there, in the election of Barack Obama and the stirrings of a genuine bipartisan response to the economic crisis in this country, but there is much more that needs to be done. As therapists and analysts, we have an opportunity to place ourselves at the forefront of this movement towards shared goals, common decency, and an abiding human connection. We already do so every day by helping our patients lower their barriers to emotional engagement. Nonetheless, there are other means at our disposal for expanding the connection amongst ourselves as analysts and facilitating greater contact between the analytic community and the population at large. Though some of these approaches are practical (and I will have some suggestions at the end of this article) the most important thing is for us as analysts to change our fundamentally individualistic mode of identifying ourselves. We must move from the conception of ourselves only as "solo practitioners," beholden to no one else, and realize our embeddedness in the larger community of strong and struggling souls. We must allow ourselves to reach for help when we need it, and to reach out to those who are threatened professionally and personally, so that none of those clinging to fragile, low-hanging branches is needlessly washed away in the flood. The following are some practical ideas: When you can't take a prospective patient into your practice, don't just give three names and move on, take a half hour or an hour to see the patient, even if you decide not to charge for your time. Use it to establish rapport, so that the prospective patient trusts that your recommendation is made with him or her in mind. Then follow up to make sure the fit is good. Go back to the beginning. Think about the time when you had just begun, maybe as an intern, when you may have had to depend on the kindness of many others in order to establish your practice. Remember what you did then in order to build strong connections and a broad referral base. Recognize that a good portion of the public is still unaware or has a negative impression of psychoanalysis. Think about writing or speaking directly for the lay community in newspapers, newsletters, and magazines, radio shows, and internet blogs. In addition, knowing that many Americans are in the same leaky boat, offer lectures and workshops that address the emotional concerns of people suffering under the same conditions as we are. Consider volunteering in the community; although it might not bring in money immediately, it might lead to new referrals in the future. What is more, it will put you in contact with people who are also struggling and may be in need of your help. One such effort already in place is The Soldiers' Project, in which therapists offer free or low-cost therapy for troops from combat areas returning with deep psychological wounds. Form peer groups with like-minded therapists to discuss the emotional issues we're all facing in both our professional and our personal lives, and to provide encouragement and support when difficulties threaten safety and stability. Reevaluate reluctance to do certain kinds of work (like testing, for example, or couples counseling) or to become a provider on one or more insurance panels (those which are still accepting new members). Step up your networking, by taking others to lunch. And don't limit it to other psychoanalysts, take everyone. You can't know in advance just who will be the person who will help you the most. Finally, don't be shy about sharing your experiences and your abilities with everyone you can. Someone may turn into a patient; a second person may refer to you; yet another might turn out to be a friend, a fellow in the increasingly connected community of We. Dr. Michael Pariser is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Westwood. He teaches psychoanalytic theory and practice at the California Graduate Institute of the Chicago School in Westwood and supervises at the school's counseling center. Dr. Pariser can be reached at (310) 926-8450 or by email at: mail("info","drpariser",0,"") info@drpariser.com sursa: http://www.iapsp.org/eforum/09_pariser_01.php

Prematurii – o revoluţie în lupta pentru viaţă

2009-06-12T07:59:12+00:00

Un nou program de �ngrijire, individualizat, pentru n?scu?ii prematuri a fost pus la punct �n Fran?a, la clinica de la Port Royal, anun?? revista Paris Match din februarie anul trecut. Respectarea necesit??ilor vitale ale prematurilor, dup? o observa?ie precis? a ritmurilor naturale de via??, a nivelului de stress, a reac?iilor lor au necesitat o adev?rat? reorganizare a medicinei neonatale. Dac? azi pot fi ?inu?i �n via?? noun?scu?i de minim 500 grame dup? 24 de s?pt?m�ni de sarcin?, �n anii ?80 lucrul acesta se putea �nt�mpla doar pentru noun?scu?ii de minim 700 grame dup? minim 28 de s?pt?m�ni de sarcin?, lucru ce a dus la sc?derea mortalit??ii neonatale, care nu dep??e?te azi 5%, fa?? de 15% �n anii ?80. Dup? p?rerea profesorului Guy Moriette, acest considerabil pas �nainte a fost posibil datorit? generaliz?rii corticoterapiei maternale, care a dus la maturizarea mai rapid? a f?tului �n p�ntecul mamei. Un alt factor de succes se datoreaz? implement?rii unui nou tratament oferit direct prematurului. Este vorba despre administrarea, prin intermediul unei sonde traheale, de surfactan?i de origine animal?, lucru ce a redus mult mortalitatea de origine respiratorie. Al treilea factor de succes este datorat reorganiz?rii sec?iilor unde se nasc prematurii, facilit�nd la maxim at�t interven?ia cadrelor medicale, c�t mai ales contactul nou n?scutului prtematur cu mama sa, ?tiut fiind ce importan?? major? are pentru micu? faptul de a ajunge c�t mai rapid, dup? na?tere, �n contact cu mama sa, pe care o poate recunoa?te prin intermediul mirosului. Dpdv chirurgical, cucerirea cea mai important? se refer? la faptul c? prematurul poate fi anesteziat ?i reanimat chiar din prima sa zi de via??. ?O mare parte dintre prematuri prezint? majoritar dou? tipuri de anomalii, spune dr. Sylvie Beaudoin, care impun o interven?ie chirurgical?. Se pot na?te cu o persisten?? a circula?iei sanguine �ntre aort? ?i artera pulmonar? (...) sau cu o malforma?ie la nivelul esofagului, diafragmei, pl?m�nilor... sau chiar anusului.? Reu?ita chirurgical? este uimitoare, procentul fiind asem?n?tor celui practicat �n chirurgia neonatal? la termen ?i se datoreaz? progresului tehnicilor de anestezie ?i reanimare, conform p?rerii speciali?tilor. Cu toate c? num?rul copiilor ce pot fi salva?i a crescut impresionant, totu?i, r?m�ne un num?r de copii care risc? s? r?m�n? toat? via?a fragili ?i care necesit? supraveghere regulat?. Pentru astfel de copii, o echip? pluridisciplinar? format? dintr-un psiholog, doi ortofoni?ti, o puericultoare ?i un medic neonatolog este gata oric�nd s? intervin?.aceste echipe sunt la dispozi?ia necesit??ilor celor afecta?i p�n? la v�rsta de 7 ani. Medicii de la Port Royal sunt foarte m�ndri de realiz?rile lor, chiar dac? se pl�ng de num?rul total insuficient de infirmiere care deservesc serviciul de neonatologie. psih. Ioana Scoru?

Inimi reînviate

2009-06-12T07:55:00+00:00

Surse Reuters din Chicago au anun?at c? un grup de cercet?tori americani au reanimat �n laborator inimi moarte de ?oareci, f?c�ndu-le s? bat? din nou, spun�nd c? descoperirea poate �nlocui �ntr-o zi transplantul de organe. ?Speran?a noastr? este c? vom putea genera un organ compatibil cu corpul nostru?, a declarat Doris Taylor de la Centrul de Medicin? Cardiovascular? al Universit??ii Minnesota. Studiul, ap?rut �n celebra revist? Nature, Hymalaia revistelor de profil ?tiin?ific care prin ea �ns??i garanteaz? �nalta calitate a studiilor publicate, ofer? o cale de �mplinire a promisiunilor de utilizare a celulelor stem pentru fabricarea de organe pentru transplant. Taylor si echipa lui au folosit un proces numit decelulare care are avantajul c? p?streaz? intact? structura de colagen a inimii. Apoi, �n matricea de baz? au injectat celule progenitoare ?i au plasat �ntr-un preparat steril noua structur? creat?, l?s�nd-o �n laborator s? creasc?. Dup? 4 zile, inima a �nceput s? se contracte iar dup? 8 zile func?ia sa de pompare echivala cu 2% din cea a unei inimi adulte. Fa?? de alte echipe de cercet?tori, cea condus? de Taylor a ales o alta cale pentru studiul ei. ?Am recunoscut c? natura a creat cel mai perfect e?afodaj ?i ne-am �ntrebat dac? �n laborator e posibil s? d?m naturii instrumentele prin care s? rezolve problema.?, a spus Taylor. Experimentul a mai fost �ncercat ?i pe inimi dar porc, dar doar cel cu inimi de ?oarece a reu?it. Doar �n SUA aproximativ 50 de mii de oameni mor anual �n a?teptarea unui donator de inim?. Vestea cea bun? este c? procedel utilizat de Taylor ?i de echipa sa poate fi aplicat ?i pe alte organe, oferind o poten?ial? surs? uriasa de organe. psih. Ioana Scoru?

Sex-terapia – tehnică psihologică sau şarlatanie?

2009-06-12T07:38:40+00:00

Cum vi s-ar p?rea s? merge?i la o sesiune de workshop-uri de sex-terapie de grup �n care s? trebuiasc? s? alege?i o persoan? necunoscut? c?reia s?-i spune?i cu onestitate ?i sinceritate ce anume crede?i despre ea la prima vedere? Mai mult dec�t at�t, cum vi s-ar p?rea ca respectiva pesoan? s? v? spun?, la r�ndul ei, ce crede despre dumneavoastr? tot la prima vedere? Dar toate astea urm�nd s? se petreac? numai ?i numai dup? ce v? scoate?i am�ndoi hainele de pe voi? Speciali?tii sunt de p?rere c? mult mai mul?i oameni ar fi dispu?i s? participe la astfel de workshop-uri dec�t ei �n?i?i declar?, cu condi?ia ca din grup s? nu fac? parte persoane cunoscute. Cu alte cuvinte, modul nostru de rela?ionare, at�t social c�t ?i sexual, este condi?ionat, printre altele, de calitatea de persoane cunoscute sau necunoscute cu care ne afl?m �n contact la un moment dat. Se pare c? devenim mult mai liberi, mai noi �n?ine atunci c�nd �n preajma noastr? se afl? pesoane necunoscute ?i mult mai aten?i ?i cenzura?i cu ceea ce spunem ?i facem atunci c�nd �n anturaj se afl? cunoscu?i. A?i putea crede c? un astfel de workshop �?i desf??oar? cursurile pe undeva prin lume? Ei, bine, el exist? ?i este condus guru-ul Paul Lowe. Se pare c? este cel mai radical atelier de auto-ajutorare din lume ?i dureaz? vreme de 10 zile. Tehnicile folosite nu sunt pentru pudici, a?a ca mai bine citi?i despre ele aici �nainte de a decide dac? s? le experimenta?i sau nu pe propria piele. Workshop-ul lui Lowe nu este un loc �n care s? vin? cei ce se ru?ineaz? u?or pentru c? nu se ?tie cum ar reac?iona dac? cineva din grup le-ar spune ?�mi produci frunic?turi vaginale? sau dac? le-ar cere s? le fac? un masaj erotic pe care, desigur, nu ar avea dreptul s?-l refuze. Scopul este ca fiecare s?-?i exploreze propria sexualitate cu c�t mai mul?i parteneri, participan?i ?i ei la curs. �n ochii lui Lowe, monogamia este unul dintre cele mai mari rele ale lumii moderne, una dintre cele mai nenaturale conven?ii sociale care stau ca obstacol �ntre om ?i iluminarea spiritual?. Cu toate astea, singur spune c? nu predic? antimonogamia. Dar oare ce predic?, atunci, Lowe? Dac? �n anii ?80 exista a?a numita tehnic? EST (The Ehard Seminars Training), unde trebuia s? stai �n fa?a a sute de oameni pentru a ar?ta p?r?ile corpului pe care ?i le ur??ti cel mai mult, aduc�ndu-le la vedere, se pare c? workshop-urile lui Lowe ca, de altfel, ?i cursurile Landmark sau tehnicile ap?rute sub denumire Hoffman Process sau Secret Science sunt echivalentul EST pentru secolul XXI. Ce se �nt�mpl? �n mod real �n acest gen de ateliere de lucru este ascuns ochilor publicului, �ns? exist? suficiente m?rturii, cum ar fi lucrurile povestite de unii dintre participan?i dar ?i film?ri realizate cu camera ascuns?. ?Multe dintre nevrozele noastre sunt legate de sexualitate. Odat? ce ajungem s? ne sim?im confortabil �n propria sexualitate, nevroza dispare ?i ne putem conecta la fluxul nostru spiritual?, explic? Lowe c�te ceva legat de credin?ele sale. Ceea ce reu?e?te el s? induc? �n cursan?ii s?i este acceptul rela?iilor multiple �n cadrul cuplului ?i �mp?carea de sine, chiar dac? gelozia r?m�ne de multe ori prezent?. Cu alte cuvinte, cursan?ii ajung s? �l identifice pe Lowe cu un supra-eu moral care le d? libertatea, dezlegarea de a avea rela?ii sexuale �n afara cuplului. Fa?? de aceast? metod?, celelalte metode terapeutice folosite azi, din categoria celor validate ?tiin?ific, urm?resc tocmai inversul a ceea ce urm?re?te Lowe, ?i anume s? fac? din instan?a psihic? denumit? supra-eu, pe care to?i o de?inem, una mai pu?in rigid?, mai flexibil?, mai pu?in tiranic? dar nu prin a o �nlocui cu o alta, aceasta neduc�nd la altceva dec�t cu claustrarea unui om �ntr-o alt? �nchisoare psihic? dec�t cea personal?. �n termeni de specialitate, ceea ce face Lowe este o simpl? deplasare a supra-eu-ului, din interior spre exterior. Astfel, el devine un soi de instan?? suprem?, un fel de eu auxiliar, o autoritate care d? voie la sexul cu parteneri multipli, ?copiii? lui, recte cursan?ii, fiind mul?umi?i c? au reu?it s? ob?in?, astfel, acceptul din partea unui tat? simbolic. Necazul este c?, �n aceste condi?i, ei r?m�n infantiliza?i, cursul neav�nd scopul de a-i ajuta s? se maturizeze, a?a cum �ncearc? psihoterapiile validate. Libertatea astfel c?p?tat? d? senza?ia de eliberare spiritual? c�nd, de fapt, nu este vorba dec�t despre o am?gire, cu repercusiuni pe termen lung dintre cele mai nepl?cute. Nu, nu seam?n? cu o nou? elierare sexual? ca cea din anii ?60, ci mai degrab? cu o manipulare spre o fals? eliberare. ?i chiar dac? cei care iau parte la astfel de ateliere ar putea s? nege lucrul acesta, speciali?tii v?d diametral opus situa?ia. ?Este o cutie a Panodrei?, spune una dintre absolventele trainingului de 10 zile a lui Lowe, ?nu te po?i �ntoarce �napoi la siguran?a unei vie?i atunci c�nd ai toate grani?ele deschise, toate limitele inexistente.? Carismaticul Lowe, la cei 72 de ani ai s?i, nu face un secret din atrac?ia c?tre tinerele frumoase, atelierul s?u oferindu-i din plin obiectele dorin?elor sale. Pe alocuri seam?n? cu unele secte �nfiin?ate tocmai �n scopul pl?cerilor sexuale, chiar dac? Lowe neag? acest lucru. �n tot cazul, workshop-ul lui merge mai departe, predic�nd utilitatea amorului liber, confundat at�t de des cu eliberarea spiritualit??ii personale. Nimic nou sub soare, nu-i a?a? Deplorabil este altceva, ?i anume uzitarea conceptelor psihologice �n scopuri �mpotriva oamenilor, ?i nu m? refer aici la amorul liber, ci la �nlocuirea unei instan?e psihice cu un surogat exterior. Ceea ce numai libertate spiritual? nu se poate numi. Psih. Ioana Scoru?

Film After Jung

2009-06-11T07:24:36+00:00

Post-Jungian Approaches to Film Theory By Greg Singh Normal Price: $28.95 Our Web Price: $26.06 Price: $28.95 $26.06 Binding: Paperback Pages: 224 Published by: Routledge Publication Date: 1st June 2009 ISBN: 978-0-415-43090-6 About the Book Popular film as a medium of communication, expression and storytelling has proved one of the most durable and fascinating cultural forms to emerge during the twentieth century, and has long been the object of debate, discussion and interpretation. Film After Jung provides the reader with an overview of the history of film theory and delves into analytical psychology to consider the reaction that popular film can evoke through emotional and empathetic engagement with its audience. This book includes: an introduction to film scholarship discussions of key Jungian concepts post-Jungian film studies beyond film. It also considers the potential for post-Jungian contributions to film studies, and the ways in which these can help to enrich the lives of those undergoing clinical analysis. Film After Jung encourages students of film and psychology to explore the insights and experiences of everyday life that film has to offer by applying post-Jungian concepts to film, image construction, narrative, and issues in cultural theory. It will enhance the film student?s knowledge of film engagement as well as introducing the Jungian analyst to previously unexplored traditions in film theory. Reviews ?You will find this book indispensable. Not only does Greg Singh share his comprehensive grasp of theorists from both sides ? but he makes more of each of them through his inter-textual discoveries which take Jungian film theorising to a brand new level.? ? Christopher Hauke, from the foreword. Table of Contents Foreword by Christopher Hauke. Introduction: 'The Image and The Material'. Part I: Film Theory: A Critical Historiography. Film Matters, But How?, And Why? Film as Film; Film as Art; Film as Authored Artefact. Film and Audience, a 'Felt' Relation: The Politics of Cine-Subjectivity. The Film as Political: Phenomenology and the Material World of the Film. Part II: Applying Key Jungian Concepts in Film Theory. Refitting the Notion of the Gaze: The 'I' That Sees and the 'Eye' That is Seen. Contrasexuality and Identification: Difference, Sameness and Gender in Film. Narrative and Myth, Heroes and Villains, Film and Television. Synchronicity and Space-Time Transgression in Film and Video: Case Studies in Time Sculpture and Capture. About the Author(s)Greg Singh is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Buckinghamshire New University. http://www.jungarena.com/books/Film-After-Jung-isbn9780415430906