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Psycho-analytic Psychotherapy in South Africa

The journal is an independant publication for papers on psychoanalytic theory, clinically oriented material covering psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapeutic work in all the spectrums - individual, couple, family group or organizational interventions and clinical or theoretical papers on community interventions. Papers that have bearing on the South African context, the history and transformation in SA are especially welcome.
Publisher | Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in South Africa (PPSA) |
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Frequency | Bi-annually |
Coverage | Volume 1 Spring 1992 - current |
Accreditation(s) |
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) |
Language | English |
Journal Status | Active |
Collection(s) |
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Field theory in child and adolescent psychoanalysis : Understanding and reacting to unexpected developments, Elena Molinari
The room had its passions and rages and envies and sorrows coming over it and clouding it, like a human being
(Virginia Woolf, 1944, p. 77).As part of the Routledge Psychoanalytic Field Theory Book Series, this offering from Elena Molinari, an Italian psychoanalyst, focuses on the intersection of field theory and child and adolescent psychoanalysis. A former paediatrician turned analyst, who teaches child neuropsychiatry for the postgraduate course in art therapy at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan, with a clearly immense knowledge of literature and art, Molinari’s style (both as a writer and an analyst) offers a unique combination of scientific and literary metaphor.
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On being human : the power of specificity in psychotherapy in the South African context
In this paper, we are concerned with the relevance of psychodynamic therapy in the South African context, where treatment is often brief, interrupted and conducted in compromised conditions. We present the case of Lana, a 25 year old South African coloured woman, who was diagnosed with depression and who sought psychotherapy at a university clinic. We aim to illustrate how focusing on the specificity of the case (the dynamics of the patient and therapist and their particular process) over and above the psychiatric diagnosis of the patient, was helpful therapeutically. It is our contention that understanding one’s patient from a psychodynamic perspective can have value in the South African public sector. After introducing the case, we present the psychodynamic formulation which draws on McWilliams’s notion of psychodynamic diagnosis and Fairbairn’s object relations theory. We then discuss the ways in which the formulation facilitated an idiosyncratic approach to understanding and working with Lana over the course of therapy, and how this led to positive therapeutic outcomes. We argue that focusing on the specificity of cases is important in facilitating effective therapeutic interventions, and that this may be particularly true in contexts where a compromised treatment structure and power differentials can lead to therapist paralysis or other enactments.
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When a therapist’s therapy implodes : relational reflections on a case of terminal impasse
Terminal impasse in psychotherapy is an uncomfortable topic, yet broken therapeutic relationships may be more common than is acknowledged (Elkind, 1992). Impasse is potentially more disconcerting when the patient is herself a therapist. This paper presents a case, in which a therapist’s own long-term therapy broke down irreparably, from the standpoint of the patient and of her subsequent therapist. A relational perspective, combined with the insights of an impasse consultant working with troubled therapeutic dyads, is used to illuminate the material. Strategies are suggested for arresting the process when impasse threatens. The paper considers the relevance of the patient’s identity as therapist, the position of the second therapist in taking on such a case, and the implications for the therapeutic community.
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A bionian formulation of shame : the terror of becoming one’s self
In keeping with much of the psychoanalytic literature of his time, Bion did not write about the shame affects, at least, not by name. After a brief review of some of the central issues that shame dynamics raise, some key theoretical ideas put forward by Bion are developed towards an understanding of shame as linked to a terror of emergence in ‘becoming’ one’s self. The formulation rests on three main ideas. Firstly, shame is understood to be an emergent emotion existing in a ‘shame-space’ between Bion’s bi-polar formulation of narcissistic and socialistic tendencies. Secondly, pathological shame is understood to develop from repeated denial of normal projective identifications and the painful rejection of the infant’s curiosity, vitality and capacity for communication in the eyes of the other. This leads to an acute sense of disorientation caused by the breakdown or loss of conception of the self. Finally, the defensive organisation linked to pathological shame is considered, with emphasis given to phantasies of ‘possessing O’ and the imitation of ideal forms. A case is used to illustrate the realisation of these ideas.
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Editorial
When writing these editorials I am fascinated by the subtle common themes that emerge in each issue, which seem to capture feelings or ideas that are emerging in the ever-changing, socially and theoretically informed currents within our community. The papers seem to help make these currents more visible, and help us to process or name the struggles that we as practitioners, and our patients face. Two of the papers in this final issue for 2017 highlight the notion of shame – the shame of our patients and the shame that we feel as therapists when things go wrong.
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© Publisher: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in South Africa (PPSA)

© Publisher: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in South Africa (PPSA)