Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind,and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud,whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article,he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes,the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance,the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung),although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers,such as Erich Fromm,Karen Horney,and Harry Stack Sullivan. Jacques Lacan's theory essentially represents a return to Freud. He described Freudian metapsychology as a technical elaboration of the three-instance model of the psyche and primarily examined the logical structure of the unconscious.
Sándor Ferenczi was a Hungarian psychoanalyst,a key theorist of the psychoanalytic school and a close associate of Sigmund Freud.
Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst,writer,and philosopher. Born in Vienna,he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years,a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes,editor of the two leading analytic journals of the era,including Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse,managing director of Freud's publishing house,and a creative theorist and therapist. In 1926,Rank left Vienna for Paris and,for the remainder of his life,led a successful career as a lecturer,writer,and therapist in France and the United States.
Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development relating to the practice of psychoanalysis,a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century,psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work. The psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments after the 1960s,long after Freud's death in 1939. Freud had ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies and shifted his focus to the study of the psyche,and on treatment using free association and the phenomena of transference. His study emphasized the recognition of childhood events that could influence the mental functioning of adults. His examination of the genetic and then the developmental aspects gave the psychoanalytic theory its characteristics.
Nancy Julia Chodorow,is an American sociologist and professor. She began teaching at Wellesley College in 1973,then moved to the University of California,Santa Cruz,where she taught from 1974 until 1986. She was a Sociology and Clinical Psychology professor at the University of California,Berkeley until 1986. Subsequently,she taught psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance.
In philosophy,psychology,sociology,and anthropology,intersubjectivity is the relation or intersection between people's cognitive perspectives.
Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought considered by its founders to represent a "paradigm shift" in psychoanalysis'.
Karl Abraham was an influential German psychoanalyst,and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud,who called him his 'best pupil'.
Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein was a Russian physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts. She was in succession the patient,then student,then colleague of Carl Gustav Jung,with whom she had an intimate relationship during 1908–1910,as is documented in their correspondence from the time and her diaries. She also met,corresponded,and had a collegial relationship with Sigmund Freud. She worked with and psychoanalysed Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. She worked as a psychiatrist,psychoanalyst,teacher and paediatrician in Switzerland and Russia. In a thirty-year professional career,she published over 35 papers in three languages,covering psychoanalysis,developmental psychology,psycholinguistics and educational psychology. Among her works in the field of psychoanalysis is the essay titled "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being",written in German in 1912.
Stephen A. Mitchell was an American clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. His book with Jay Greenberg,Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (1983),became a classic textbook in graduate schools and post-graduate institutions,providing a general overview and comparison of several psychoanalytic theories. He was considered a leader of relational psychoanalysis. Mitchell helped to create the Relational Track of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.
In psychoanalytic literature,a Madonna–whore complex is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed and loving relationship. First identified by Sigmund Freud,who called it psychic impotence,it is a psychological complex that is said to develop in men who see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores. Men with this complex desire a sexual partner who has been degraded (whore) while they cannot desire the respected partner (Madonna). Freud wrote,"Where such men love they have no desire,and where they desire they cannot love." Clinical psychologist Uwe Hartmann wrote in 2009 that the complex "is still highly prevalent in today's patients".
Feminists have long struggled with Sigmund Freud's classical model of gender and identity development,which centers on the Oedipus complex. Freud's model,which became integral to orthodox psychoanalysis,suggests that because women lack the visible genitals of the male,they feel they are "missing" the most central characteristic necessary for gaining narcissistic value—therefore developing feelings of gender inequality and penis envy. In his late theory on the feminine,Freud recognized the early and long lasting libidinal attachment of the daughter to the mother during the pre-oedipal stages. Feminist psychoanalysts have confronted these ideas and reached different conclusions. Some generally agree with Freud's major outlines,modifying it through observations of the pre-Oedipal phase. Others reformulate Freud's theories more completely.
Karen Horney was a German psychoanalyst who practiced in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her theories of sexuality and of the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis. She is credited with founding feminist psychology in response to Freud's theory of penis envy. She disagreed with Freud about inherent differences in the psychology of men and women,and like Adler,she traced such differences to society and culture rather than biology.
The term "intersubjectivity" was introduced to psychoanalysis by George E. Atwood and Robert Stolorow (1984),who consider it a "meta-theory" of psychoanalysis. Intersubjective psychoanalysis suggests that all interactions must be considered contextually;interactions between the patient/analyst or child/parent cannot be seen as separate from each other,but rather must be considered always as mutually influencing each other. This philosophical concept dates back to "German Idealism" and phenomenology.
In classical psychoanalytic theory,the Oedipus complex refers to a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father,first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire for her father and hostility toward her mother is referred to as the feminine Oedipus complex. The general concept was considered by Sigmund Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899),although the term itself was introduced in his paper A Special Type of Choice of Object made by Men (1910).
Silvia Montefoschi was an Italian Jungian psychoanalyst.
Psychoanalytic sociology is the research field that analyzes society using the same methods that psychoanalysis applies to analyze an individual.
Poststructural feminism is a branch of feminism that engages with insights from post-structuralist thought. Poststructural feminism emphasizes "the contingent and discursive nature of all identities",and in particular the social construction of gendered subjectivities.
Henry Zvi Lothane is a Polish-born American psychiatrist,psychoanalyst,educator and author. Lothane is currently Clinical Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,New York City,specializing in the area of psychotherapy. He is the author of some eighty scholarly articles and reviews on various topics in psychiatry,psychoanalysis and the history of psychotherapy,as well as the author of a book on the famous Schreber case,entitled In Defense of Schreber:Soul Murder and Psychiatry. In Defense of Schreber examines the life and work of Daniel Paul Schreber against the background of 19th and early 20th century psychiatry and psychoanalysis.
Johanna Meehan was an American philosopher,academic and author. She was McCay-Casady Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at Grinnell College.
