PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS 2: PSYCHOANALYTIC FRAME/SETTING“Setting is the summation of all the details of management.” ?(D.W. Winnicott)
“ The frame, as an institution, is the receiver of the psychotic part of the personality of the analysand.” ?(J. Bleger)
“The setting is the entity through which the analyst’s container function is expressed: it will be the instrument of the container function. ” ?(D. Quinodoz)
“The setting is to organize the most appropriate conditions for the analytical process to develop.” ?(P. Israel)
“The frame is the concretion of the theory.” ?(J. L. Donnet)
“The frame is the symbolization of symbolization.” ?(R. Roussillon)
The theme of the second Psychoanalytic Views Symposium this year denotes not only the concepts of time, order, principle, and position to which the psychoanalytical process is subjected but also focuses on the concept of “Psychoanalytic Frame/Setting”, as a medium that defines the analytical situation itself. Our discussions of this comprehensive subject, about which all theorists since the beginning of psychoanalysis have thought extensively, will include presentations and workshops of competent psychoanalysts who are recognized by their work on this subject, and also presentations of the analysts and analyst candidates of our association who have been working on this subject. We hope to meet in a creative, productive, and sharing atmosphere, similar to the one last year.
PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS 2
“Psychoanalytic Frame/Setting” In collaboration with Bosphorus University Center for Psychological Research and Services (BÜPAM)
14-15 October 2006
Bosphorus University Cultural Center Albert Long Hall
Symposium Committee 2006
Scientific Committee
Bella HABİP
İrem ANLI
Refhan BALKAN
Berrak CİĞEROĞLU
Nilüfer ERDEM
Sibel MERCAN
Melis TANIK
Organizing Committee
Yavuz ERTEN
Aslı DAY KORKMAZ
Berrin GÖKSU
Yeşim KORKUT
Erhan OKŞAK
Ayşe ÖZALKUŞ ŞAHİN
Ümit Eren YURTSEVER
PSYCHOANALYTIC VIEWS 2: PSYCHOANALYTIC FRAME/SETTING Abstracts
Liliane Abensour
From One Setting to Another Within the Analytical Frame
After considering the different terms used in English (frame and setting) and in French (cadre, situation, site …), I will rather propose the more dynamic notion of “framing”, that is a frame constantly in the making. The notion of construction in relation to that of “framing” therefore will be discussed together with the idea, illustrated by clinical examples, that the different settings, such as face to face analysis or analytical psychodrama, are not mere extension of classical analysis, but are and must be in total coherence with different modes of functioning.
İrem Anlı
The Freedom of Assigning the Frame/Boundary of the Other
The literal meaning of the word frame is “the borders of a subject matter, a field of thought or the space that is within these borders” and with this connotation it means it is definitive of something. According to psychoanalytic literature, psychoanalytic frame creates a kind of holding environment in which the analysand can express his emotional confusions and conflicts that can be understood by the analyst (Bleger, 1967; Viderman, 1979; Quinodoz, 1992), and it is essential for the existence of psychoanalysis and treatment of the analysand. The existence and strength of the analytic frame, by subjecting the analysand to a kind of order, define the boundaries and the structure of the process, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the presence of this solid frame and the fact that it is being protected by the analyst provide for the analysand an area of freedom where he can tell anything and nobody gets hurt. The expansion of the area of freedom depends on the level of the strength of the frame. The purpose of this presentation is emphasizing how the analytic frame liberates the analysand in order to free associate and discover his spontaneity. This will be explained by illustrating a case who used to live without establishing any boundaries for her life and for her body before the analytic therapy, and who began to feel liberated and released herself to free associate after beginning to internalize the frame which seemed so rigid and definitive to her in the beginning. Also, it will be explained how it was understood in the process that the classical analysis is much more appropriate fo this person.
Viviane Chetrit-Vatine
The Analyst in the Frame: The Ethical Seduction of the Analytic Setting
Taking as a basis, on the one hand, Laplanche and his “generalised seduction theory” which emphasizes the asymmetrical quality of the original seduction, and, on the other hand, Levinas’s views concerning ethics as the asymmetric responsibility towards the other, I propose to consider the asymmetry of the analytic setting as essential. The analytic setting, the analytic frame, including the analyst, is seductive and ethical from the start. It is the depository of what I call “ the ethical seduction”. Due to its double asymmetry, it provokes the transferences: filled in transference, hollowed out transference, and matricial space transference. I propose that at the origin of the moving- on of the analytic process and its transformative capacity, lies this double asymmetry regardless, of the personality organizations considered, neurotic or not, and regardless of the theoretical current of reference –as long as the asymmetry of the frame is well kept by the analyst.
Nilüfer Erdem
Setting, Children and Dogs
At times through analytic treatment threatening contents of the unconscious are encountered. These contents are for the most part an be related to the concept of “infantile sexuality” and the experience of “uncanny” as revealed by Freud. Psychoanalytic frame/setting provides us with a safe space where these dangerous contents can be deposited and explored. In this presentation, based on the thoughts about childhood experiences as reflected through Aharon Appelfield’s autobiographical narrative, A Life Story, the focus will be on the function of the analytic frame/setting as “establishing a safe space”, with a particular emphasis on the aspect of “symbolization” inherent to this notion of frame/setting.
Yavuz Erten
When Psychoanalysis Gets Out of the Room. The Issue of Frame in Applied Psychoanalysis
The nature of psychoanalysis requires it to exist within a clinical frame. The concrete characteristics of this frame are arrangements in time and setting. Moreover, these characteristics determine the rules to which the relationship between the analyst and the analysand adheres. The frame also includes the abstract characteristic of the psychoanalytic relationship which enables the establishment of space. This abstract space creates the three dimensionality of the psychoanalytic work that is required for the movements between reality and fantasy, present and past, and conscious and the unconscious. These three dimensions are the knowledge of the present, the knowledge of the past, and the knowledge coming from the transference. Starting from the last period of Freud’s life, the trials of application of psychoanalysis outside clinical settings which have been described above have attracted attention and interest. In the focus of interest of applied psychoanalysis, we see works of art, creativity processes, historical personalities, group psychology, and organized behavior. In this presentation the following will be considered: The knowledge acquired by applied analysis, how psychoanalytic can it be? he main element that makes us ask this question is the issue of frame in these applications. When compared to the characteristics of the clinical setting, the joint space that the analyzing and the analyzed meet and create does not correspond to the psychoanalytic frame. The knowledge of the transference which is the most powerful element of the three dimensionality of the clinical setting is lacking. In applied psychoanalysis rather than the knowledge coming from the transference, there exists the practitioner’s countertransference towards the object.
In this presentation based on various examples of applied psychoanalysis, the possibility of a different kind of frame/setting specific to these works will be discussed. The new frame whose possibility will be discussed and therefore the “space” is based on a countertransferential platform. It is suggested that a number of analysts focus on the subject of analysis successively. In applied psychoanalysis, as much as the analyzed object, application itself as an “action” should be transformed into the object of the analysis. Every new analysis parenthesis will include the previous meeting of “the analyzing and the analyzed”. Thus, a group study which is oriented towards establishing and verifying analytic knowledge will emerge.
Bella Habip
A Difficulty to Establish the Psychoanalytical Frame/Setting
In certain situations psychoanalytic treatment does not operate in the same manner as the classical treatment which includes the armchair/couch arrangement and a constant rhythm of 3-4 sessions a week. In these types of treatments which are conducted face to face and with less session frequency, the aim is to establish a real psychoanalytic situation as defined by Melanie Klein. That is to say, the patient will be able to free associate and the psychoanalyst will be able to use his/her interpretative capacity based on his/her free-floating attention.
The aim of this presentation is to demonstrate the inability to establish the frame of the classical psychoanalysis based on an example of what Rene Roussillon calls a face to face psychoanalytic treatment, how the patient’s psychic organization forming within the transference movement prevents the analyst from making a decision towards classical psychoanalytic treatment. In this presentation the close connection between the curative frame and psychic frame of the patient will also be examined, as well as how the frame and the process follow each other so closely and how they interact with each other in order to create a “temperate” analytic situation defined by J.-L. Donnet.
Ilany Kogan
Breaking Boundaries and Craving for Oneness
This work explores the break of the analytic frame and its boundaries as a result of trauma. It is illustrated with a case study of a patient who was the only son of Holocaust survivor parents. The patient’s mother, who became ill after his birth, committed suicide at the age of fifty-four, and the patient’s son took his own life at age twenty, when the patient was in his second year of analytic treatment.
I will examine the developmental aspect of the patient’s relationship with his parents who were emotionally and physically damaged by their traumatic Holocaust past to the extent that they allowed interpersonal boundaries between generations to be destroyed by an incestuous relationship between mother and son. As a result, the patient lived his entire life under the shadow of his craving for a blissful union with his mother and his need to eliminate all obstacles to that union. The case illustrates the impact of the perverse physical and emotional closeness with the mother on the son’s cognitive and emotional development and on his psychic structure. In the transference, he broke analytic boundaries of time, place, and the absence of touch, and attempted to erase all those whose relationship with the analyst he perceived as hindering his symbiosis with her.
I will discuss the way the elaboration of my countertransference helped me to strengthen the boundaries of the analytic frame, while making my inner boundaries more flexible; this enabled me to continue to treat the patient, and help him on his long journey to mourning.
Danielle Quinodoz
The Psychoanalytic Setting as the Instrument of the Container Function
Danielle Quinodoz tries to take a fresh look at the psychoanalytic setting. She observes that the setting is very much bound up with our personal analysis and our daily work, and, for her, this is why psychoanalysts could become accustomed to living with it without particularly seeing and questioning it. In her view, the analyst’s creative container function is expressed particularly through the setting, which is not an inert vessel, a mere juxtaposition of rules, but an active container which interacts dynamically with the process. Danielle Quinodoz gives several clinical examples to show that the analysands’ pressures on the analyst to abandon aspects of the setting can sometimes be interpreted as unconscious attacks on the creative container function of the analyst and of the patient himself.
Jean-Michel Quinodoz
From Separation Anxiety to the Taming of Solitude
The working through of separation anxieties within the analyst-analysand relationship plays a central role in the course of the psychoanalytic process, as well as the psychotherapeutic process. As treatment progresses, the patient can develop a capacity to transform an anxiety provoking sense of solitude into a sense of solitude which becomes the source of development and growth, in relationship to oneself and others. I shall illustrate these changes with clinical examples.
René Roussillon
The History and Theory of the Psychoanalytic Frame
This presentation entails an overview of the history of the analytic frame theory and includes a discussion of the major debates around the frame in the history of psychoanalysis.
Melis Tanık
Frame in Mourning
In psychoanalytic psychotherapy difficulties may be experienced at times in establishing an analytic frame which responds to the needs of the patient. One of the reasons for this is that there actually exist two frames in the analytic situation as Bleger (1967) had indicated: one which is recommended and maintained by the analyst and consciously agreed upon by the analysand and one which is the unconscious frame of the analysand. The interaction between these two frames and the transference-countertransference reactions turn the process of establishing the frame into a challenging struggle. A close look at the literature reveals that different analysts focus on different functions of the frame. The aim of this presentation is to emphasize the importance of the frame in enlivening a delayed mourning process.
BIOGRAPHIES
In symposium program order.
René Roussillon is a psychoanalyst and full member of Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP) Lyon Group and the chair of the Lyon Psychoanalytic Group. A professor of clinical psychology and psychopathology, Roussillon is the chair of the clinical psychology department of Lyon 2 Lumière University. He also heads a research group on separation/differentiation processes. R. Roussillon is the author of numerous books. Among these,
Paradoxes et situations limites de la psychanalyse (Paris, PUF, 1991),
Du baquet de Mesmer au «baquet» de S. Freud (Paris, PUF, 1992) and
Logiques et archéologiques du cadre psychanalytique (Paris, PUF, 1995) tackle the issue of the psychoanalytic frame. He has published numerous articles and contributed to the edited volumes
Transfert et états limites (Paris, PUF, 2002) and
Le temps du désespoir (Paris, PUF, 2002).
Liliane Abensour is a psychoanalyst, training analyst and a full member of Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP). She works at the Evelyne and Jean Kestemberg Psychoanalysis Center of Paris 13rd District Mental Health Association. She is the co-editor in chief of the association’s journal Psychanalyse et Psychose. She has edited two books on Evelyne Kestemberg’s work entitled L’Adolescence à vif and La psychose froide (PUF). She has also published a book on E. Kestemberg in the “Psychanalystes d’Aujourd’hui” series. Liliane Abensour has published numerous articles in journals such as Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse, Revue Française de Psychanalyse, and Trans.
Jean-Michel Quinodoz is a psychoanalyst, training analyst, full member of Swiss Psychoanalytic Society (SSPsa) and an honorary member of British Psychoanalytical Society. He works in Geneva. He is a trainer of IPA’s Istanbul Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) training group. In 1979, he has founded
Bulletin de la Société Suisse de Psychanalyse and worked as the Europe editor of
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis for ten years. He is the editor in chief of The Annuals, which is a compilation of articles from
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, is published in French, Italian, German and Russian (forthcoming). Quinodoz has authored nearly 60 articles on psychoanalysis. He is also the author of
La Solitude apprivoisée: L’angoisse de séparation en psychanalyse (Paris: PUF, 1991),
Les rêves qui tournent une page (Paris: PUF, 2001), and
Lire Freud: Découverte chronologique de l’oeuvre de Freud (Paris: PUF, 2004).
Ilany Kogan is a training analyst and member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society (IPS). She is also on the Scientific Committee of Fritz-Bauer Holocaust Studies Institute in Wolfgan Goethe University, Frankfurt; a member of International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) Trauma Group; Supervisor of Bucharest Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Center, Youth and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of Eppendorf University, Hamburg and Munich Psychoanalytic Study Group. She is a trainer and supervisor of IPA’s Istanbul Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) training group. She has worked extensively with children of Holocaust survivors over the last 20 years and published a book on the subject entitled The Cry of Mute Children- A psychoanalytic perspective of the second generation of the Holocaust and has two forthcoming volumes: A Journey to Pain: Obstacles on the way to mourning and Breaking Boundaries and Craving for Oneness, from which her presentation at PPPD 2006 (İstanbul) Symposium is taken. At the 2005 IPA Congress in Rio de Janeiro, she received the Elise M. Hayman Jewish Holocaust and Holocaust Studies Award for her work with second generation Holocaust survivors and her article “Clinical Presentation: On being a dead, beloved child” (Psychoanalytic Quarterly). Born in Bucharest, Romania, Kogan has also worked with children of Nazis and on the effect of Nazi training over generations in Germany. Her subjects of interest include the adaptation of psychoanalytic technique to trauma therapy, psychic transformation, mourning, femininity and manic defense.
Bella Habip is an adult, adolescent and child psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist. She is a member of Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP) and International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). She has completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in psychology and clinical psychology at Grenoble University in France. She is a co-founder and the president the Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) and also serves as the chair of the training committee of IPA’s Istanbul Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association tranining group. She is the editor of the books Bensizbiz (2002), Kadınlık, Yeniden (2003)and Neden Psikanaliz (R. Perron) (2003) published by İthaki Publishing in the psychoanalysis series. Her articles have been published in journals including Cogito, Defter, Tarih ve Toplum. Habip has also authored Psikanalizin İçinden, published by Yapı Kredi Publishing, Cogito series in 2007.
Danielle Quinodoz, a psychologist and training analyst, is a full member of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society (SSPsa) and Chair of the Training Committee. She works in Geneva. She has worked as a consultant for University of Geneva Psychiatric Institutions and as a psychotherapy supervisor in psychiatric and geriatric services for 13 years. She is a trainer for IPA’s Istanbul Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) training group.
Quinodoz is the author of numerous articles, most of which have been published in the
International Journal of Psychoanalysis and
Revue française de psychanalyse and of two books titled
Le vertige, entre angoisse et plaisir (Paris, PUF, 1994) and
Des mots qui touchent (Paris, PUF, 2002). Her books have also been published in English as
Vertigo between Anxiety and Pleasure (Routledge, 1997) and
Words That Touch (Karnac, 2003). She also has an article published in Turkish: “İğdiş Edilme Kaygısının Kadıncası” (in
Kadınlık, Yeniden: Çağdaş Psikanalizin Bakışı, ed. Bella Habip, 2003, İstanbul: İthaki). D. Quinodoz has also contributed to two edited volumes:
Studies on Femininity (A.M. Alizade, ed., Karnac, 2003) and
Psychiatrie du sujet âgé with “Psychothérapie et personnes âgées: le point de vue d’une psychanalyste” (34. Chapter, co-authors J.M. Léger, J. Wertheimer and J.P. Clément, 1999, Paris: Flammarion).
Viviane Chetrit-Vatine, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, works in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. She is a member of Israel Psychoanalytic Society (IPS), Federation of European Psychoanalysts (FEP) and International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). A training analyst, Chetrit-Vatine, works as a trainer and supervisor at the Israel Psychoanalysis Institute, and is also a trainer IPA’s Istanbul Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) training group. She is the co-founder of “Maison Verte”, the mental health preservation center for children under 3 inspired by Françoise Dolto, established in Israel in 1991. She is the chair of SPI Scientific Committee and since 2003 serves as SPI permanent representative in the Annual Francophone Psychoanalysts Conference. She is on the international scientific board of Presse Universitaire de France (PUF) “Monographies de psychanalyse” series and the international editorial board of La Revue Française de Psychanalyse. She has published numerous articles, including most recently “Primal seduction, matricial space and asymmetry in the psychoanalytic encounter” (International Journal of Psychoanalysis 2004, part 4) and “De l’emprise à la caresse, le temps d’un moment sublimatoire” (Revue Française de Psychanalyse, 2005).
Yavuz Erten is a clinical psychologist and works at İçgörü Psychotherapy Center. He is a founding member of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) and teaches part time at Bosphorus University. He is also a member of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP) and is continuing his psychoanalytical training supervised by IPA.
Melis Tanık is a clinical psychologist working in İstanbul. She has completed her undergraduate studies a Bosphorus University Departments of Psychology and Psychological Counseling and her PhD in Clinical Psychology at California School of Professional Psychology. She is currently continuing her psychoanalytical training supervised by IPA. She is a founding member of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) and teaches part time at Bosphorus University and Bilgi University.
İrem Anlı is a clinical psychologist, working at Bilgi University and a private psychotherapy center. She is a founding member of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) and is continuing her psychoanalytical training supervised by IPA.
Nilüfer (Güngörmüş) Erdem is a member of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies Association (PPPD) and is continuing her psychoanalytical training supervised by IPA. She is also a graduate student in clinical psychology at Bilgi University.
She has published a book of short stories titled Büyük A (1999, Patika), numerous short stories, and wrote the script for the film Korkuyorum Anne (directed by R. Erdem).
