r/psychoanalysis

Hiya, psa friends!

I've been out of the psychoanalytic field since roughly 2013, and I'm heading back in, knowing I'm out of the loop when it comes to current writing on a various topics I'm interested in. I'm wondering if folks have recommendations for authors and/or articles/books to check out on the areas listed above.

I'd love a mix of writing by clinicians and those in the humanities, if possible. (My dissertation was about feminist queer theories of utopia and everyday activism and their promise for informing clinical practice. In other words, I'm a big fan of interdisciplinarity in psa.) It's ok, though, if the sources come from one or the other area of study only.

In case it's helpful, I'm particularly interested in what psychoanalytic writers are saying these days about Freud's work on the death drive and lay/wild analysis, as well as the status of drive theory in general, as it relates to the role of psa in alleviating individual suffering and making the wider world a freer, more capacious place to live.

Any suggestions at all - or just ideas about where to start looking - would be deeply appreciated. Either way, thanks for reading this!

p.s. I do have a copy of On Freud's The Question of Lay Analysis, edited by Sandler and Costa back in 2019.

I keep noticing something strange.

People can describe the same internal process using completely different languages.

One person says:

> “I’m overthinking.”

Another says:

> “My intuition is telling me something is wrong.”

Another:

> “I’m protecting myself.”

Another:

> “I’m just being realistic.”

Another:

> “I don’t care anymore.”

And someone else might call it a spiritual lesson, an ego problem, anxiety, self-sabotage, or simply “knowing when to walk away.”

Different language.

Sometimes the underlying mechanism is almost identical.

Here’s a stupidly simple example.

Someone doesn't reply to your message.

SIGNAL:
No reply.

PREDICTION:
“They're ignoring me.”

MEANING:
“I did something wrong.”

IDENTITY:
“People always lose interest in me.”

EMOTION:
Tension.

ACTION:
You withdraw, send another message, become cold, or decide you don't care.

FEEDBACK:
The other person notices the change.

Now they actually become more distant.

And suddenly:

> “See? I knew it.”

The original prediction just received new evidence.

But notice what happened.

The event itself was tiny.

The system built most of the experience around it.

And this is where I think language can become misleading.

We often argue about whether the correct explanation is:

psychological
spiritual
emotional
neurological
social
philosophical

But maybe we're sometimes looking at different descriptions of the same runtime.

Different words.

Different stories.

Different cultural models.

Same underlying loop.

The interesting question isn't:

> “Which vocabulary is the true one?”

It's:

> “What is the mechanism underneath all of them?”

Because if changing the language changes the story but doesn't change the mechanism, then changing the story alone may not actually change the system.

And maybe that's why people can spend years finding better words for what they're experiencing without actually becoming any less trapped inside it.

Different language.
Same mechanism.

Original post from different sub. Ejo

If anyone wants to talk about psychoanalysis, I’m up for a chat.

I consider myself an amateur because I’m not a professional who works in this field, nor have I formally completed any training in it.

Although I don’t consider myself a newbie to psychoanalysis.

I did two years of a psychology degree in Argentina, at a university with a very clear psychoanalytic orientation. I learned the basics of Freud, Kleinian and post-Kleinian object relations, Winnicott, Piaget, Lacan, and other authors I don’t remember right now. As a side note, I didn’t love such a strong focus on Lacan for such a career, because they taught Lacan over biological or Piagetian approaches. It’s a valuable approach to me, but I wouldn’t consider it my main theoretical orientation. Then I read on my own, and I attended some extracurricular talks.

I’m looking for someone who isn’t too new to psychoanalysis. I attended university several years ago, so I’m a bit rusty on some things, but I think I have a pretty good overall map of the field.

I think replies to posts are sometimes quite short, for different reasons, of course, so I thought maybe others might be interested in having longer conversations and exchanging perspectives.

Open to DMs.

Hello,

What are some treatment considerations with someone who has an obsessive compulsive personality style (as defined by Nancy McWilliams)? Do you help them to get more in touch with emotions to move away from intellectualizing, and if so, how do you do that? How do you help with the issue of wanting to control everything around them?

Thanks in advance. I look forward to engaging in conversation around this topic.

Layman here, I've been thinking of the rise of idiosyncratic identities and outward appearances, and how they could potentially be a mechanism for the victim of repeated abuse in multiple domains of life to give meaning to and gain a sense of control over the abuse and/or undesirable attention being experienced by the individual.

An example: Individual experiences abuse on behalf of family members, peers (school/work), romantic relationships, etc. → The person doesn't understand the cause of what seems to be an unescapable pattern of repeated maltreatment → The person adopts an idiosyncratic identity or outward appearance on which they can pinpoint the cause for the abuse or unwanted attention- "They hate me because I'm (X idiosyncratic identity), I stand out because of my outward appearance", subconsciously they gain a feeling of agency by choosing to enact this identity- "I caused their misbehavior by a voluntary decision that I made and am in control of"

Any thoughts?

I heard that there are some psychoanalysts that mixed Marx and Psychoanalysis. Are any of these writings insightful in any way? If yes, then who are these people?

Looking for perspectives on the Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis as a training institute

Thanks in advance

Hello!

BPF (UK) is interviewing me for their foundation course entry.

What can I expect? I am fairly new to this world, what can I do to prepare and succeed!!??

Very nervous!!!

TIA!!!!

Hi everyone, hope you're all doing well! I'm reaching out with a question: I'd love to read or listen to some new or contemporary authors in psychoanalysis who you think are worth checking out from recent years.

I'd really appreciate your suggestions and recommendations—whether it's books, articles, or papers—along with your thoughts on why they are relevant today. Thanks!

Hi all, apologies if this post is not considered on-topic for this sub, as it is more of a processing question than a theoretical one.

I am about 2 years into my career as a psychodynamic therapist, and have been reading more about psychoanalysis/psychoanalytic therapy. I see a therapist who describes themselves as psychodynamic, where I am also about 2 years into treatment (I saw a non-analytic, Rogerian therapist for about 4 years prior).

With regard to both my own treatment (which has been at a troubling low) and the treatment I provide my patients/clients, I am finding myself feeling overwhelmed by the tremendous breadth and depth of material within the realm of psychoanalytic thinking and treatment (which is to say nothing of the material related to other therapies, many of which I think have value as well). It feels like there is an infinity of ways to consider any one thing, and the more I learn about different possibilities of diagnosis, defense, transference+countertransference, co-creation and intersubjectivity, and so on, I find myself feeling overwhelmed and lost. When I first started working with people. I actually felt like I had a decent sense of clinical intuition built from my previous career, but now it is feeling muddied and I find myself having a hard time feeling confident or anything close to certain about any of my patients or myself.

Analysis is obviously ripe material for intellectuals, and I know excessive intellectualization can interfere with one's own treatment. But how do you draw the line between useful consideration and excessive overthinking? When does study and theorizing and pontification cross the boundary from helpful to unhelpful? And if you are an analyst/analytic therapist IN analysis/therapy of your own, how do you discern between valuable self-reflection and intellectualizing in the impediment of growth?

I know it is somewhat infantile for me to be seeking guidance from others on this topic rather than figuring it out for myself, but I would still appreciate if anyone can relate to this experience. Especially if they can convey anything that has felt helpful for them.

What should be the reading order for Freud's books for a beginner? I don't have his complete works but I do have the following: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Interpretation of Dreams, Civilization and Its Discontents and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. An AI suggests the following order:

[1] The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

[2] Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

[3] The Interpretation of Dreams

[4] Civilization and Its Discontents

Another AI indicates that the correct order should be:

[1] The Psychopathology of Everyday Life

[2] Civilization and Its Discontents

[3] Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious

[4] The Interpretation of Dreams

Which one is more accurate? Or should I add another book to this sequence?

Looking for references of psychoanalytic cases where the patient is highly relationship avoidant, asexual (in some way that presents as a symptom that the patient is not happy with), unable to get into relationships despite seemingly being interested in one, or otherwise romantically deprived.

I'm not too particular about the exact formulation but quite interested in studies in this general vein. Have been reading Betty Joseph's papers but haven't come across a case like this.

Longtime lurker first time poster, writing my personal statement right now for Oxford PPL, I want to write about trauma and repetition compulsion in my statement because I read Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and I found it very interesting. I want to write about a more modern psychoanalytic view in comparison to Freud's, so would anyone here know what could be an interesting (and at least somewhat accessible) essay/article/study to read and study, and additionally if there's any interesting work in other traditions in psychology on the same topic. I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on this, thanks!!

Has anyone heard of WILA? Curious if you have attended a training program there or have heard something about it. Thanks.

Hi all, I am a relatively new psychodynamic therapist interested in learning more about Lacanian theory. I am especially interested in how he equates the unconscious with language and how his conceptualization of the unconscious differs from Freud and other theorists.

I know this is a bit of an oxymoron, but is there a digestible introductory text that isn't too jargon-y you could recommend to an interested reader?

I'm trying to get more serious about writing and want to write an article about Sigmund Freud, particularly his ideas, work, influence, and the criticisms surrounding him.

My biggest problem isn't finding information. There's almost too much information, and I'm not sure how to turn it into an article that actually feels interesting rather than just becoming a biography or a collection of facts.

For writers who have experience with essays, long-form articles, or writing about historical/intellectual figures:

How do you decide where to begin? How do you structure the middle so that the reader stays interested? And how do you end an article in a way that feels meaningful rather than simply saying "this was his contribution and this is what happened afterward"?

I'd especially appreciate advice on research, storytelling, structure, and creating a strong opening and ending. I want to develop the skill myself rather than have AI write the article for me.

Are there any scholarly articles relating these two concepts?

The common theme in therapy is that what happens in the "real world" is played out in the therapy room.

However the opposite could also happen - that the patient behaves opposite to how they would in the real world in the therapy room. Eg, the patient who never cries except in front of the therapist.

One could definitely use this as the basis for an interesting analysis but my question is how does the therapist distinguish behaviors that are occurring due to transference vs behaviors that are in some sense the opposite (never play out except in the therapy setting, due to the very unique strange nature of therapy)?

I’m interested in psychoanalytic theories that deal with the relationship between love and narcissism in a systematic way. Kohut obviously comes to mind, but I’m wondering which other psychoanalysts have developed a substantial theory around these concepts. I’d especially appreciate recommendations that go beyond just discussing narcissism as a clinical diagnosis and instead explore the dynamics of love, object relations, self-love, and the relationship between the self and the other.