The story “The Purloined Letter” by the American novelist Edgar Allan Poe is a short detective tale that tells of a minister from the royal court who comes to Auguste Dupin—the detective created by Poe—to solve the mystery of a stolen letter taken from the queen. The letter contains important information that may endanger public […]
Abstract Lacan likened himself to a “Zen master”, characterising his psychoanalytic approach as a “refusal of any system.” This article explores Lacan’s Zen-like approach and examines his provocative teachings, such as his instruction to “refuse me what I’m offering you,” and his emphasis on the limits of language in capturing truth. Additionally, in line with […]
These days, many people from all around the world are afraid of the current socio-political situation. Many educated people often express the wish to do something about it. Psychoanalysts are no exception. For instance, during Fenichel’s conference in Prague, psychoanalysts from various countries claimed they should do something about the highly emotional public discourse regarding […]
“Nature rises up against us, majestic, cruel and inexorable.” —Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion Freud’s The Future of an Illusion and Civilization and its Discontents form a duology which show an embittered Freud during the final phase of his career. By mainly relying on these two works, our aim is to show the […]
Adrienne Harris is one of the leading personalities of Relational psychoanalysis. Among other things, she is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues journal and edits the Stephen Mitchell Relational Book Series (which has published over 35 books in its series). Her professional interests are the analytic subjectivity and relation between psychoanalysis and gender, and development. […]
David Bell is a Past President of the British Psychoanalytical Society and one of the leading experts on the relation between psychoanalysis and other disciplines: literature, philosophy, culture, socio-political issues and human rights. This interview took place in Prague during the „2nd Fenichel’s conference: Psychic change“ in October 2017. In the next months we also will subsequently […]
The concept of free association is based on one-person psychology – only the analysand’s conflicts and inner dynamic are usually considered when the content of free association is mentioned in psychoanalytic papers. My perspective on psychoanalysis is closer to a two-person psychology. In my opinion, the analyst’s personality inevitably influences a psychoanalytic process and all […]
This article is the last of our three part series about Underground psychoanalysis in Prague (part one and part two). In the traumatizing conditions of political violence, the importance of the „everyday narcissism“ of the analysts often overpowered their „analytic narcissism“ (Puget, 2002); associated mainly with their work on uncovering the unconscious. It is possible that […]
This is a follow-up of the article Underground psychoanalysis in Prague – part I. Now, I would like to cover several themes which I consider to be most significant in the formation of Prague psychoanalysis. The Hungarian writer, György Konrád, once wrote (2009): Some time ago, a butcher lived in our village. He had a house […]
It is impossible to cover half a century of Prague underground psychoanalysis without mentioning several key moments in its development. We are a society with a history of many new beginnings and traumatic endings and with a persistent striving to build a stable external environment necessary for a prospering psychoanalysis. My paper is by generational experience: I am […]
