Mario Rendon

Karen Horney's biocultural dialectic.

The function of these [neurotic] trends can be better understood if we take a look at their genesis. They develop early in life through the combined effect of given temperamental and environmental influences. Whether a child becomes submissive or rebellious under the pressure of parental coercion depends not only on the nature of the coercion but also on given qualities, such as the degree of his vitality, the relative softness or hardness of his nature.Since we we know less of the constitutional factors than of the environmental ones, and since the latter are the only ones susceptible of change, I shall comment only on these. (Karen Horney,Self-Analysis. New York: Norton, 1942. Emphasis added)

Narcissus revisited: A venture outside of the intrapsychic

The different psychoanalytic views on narcissism can be grouped around one polar issue-whether self-esteem is linked to narcissistic libido or primarily derivative of the complex interactions of the child with significant others. Curiously, Freuds earliest formulation, with his theory of seduction, stressed the second alternative. Unfortunately, he took seduction in a very concrete way and therefore had to shift radically to a theory based on the first alternative, the preeminence of inner drive states. I believe that the seduction stories of Freuds patients could have been understood as metaphors describing subject-object relationships. Freuds shift to a theory of narcissistic libido was unfortunate in its effects, although intelligible in the light of ideological pressures which would give prominence to the individual over relationships. The text that follows will present a view which stresses, perhaps, the second of the two alternatives but goes beyond dyad and family. In brief, it shows that narcissism is determined by the larger, molar-as opposed to molecular-social relationships. They are basically the types of relationships inherent in a socioeconomic formation, capitalism, and its predominant ideology of individualism. Only a dialectical view of the inside-outside relationship, or the subject-object relationship, can overcome the simplistic views which have plagued not only analysts now, but philosophers for centuries. In his book

István Mészáros, The Unconscious, and False Consciousness

Hungarian philosopher István Mészáros’ more recent work expands our understanding of consciousness in a way that is particularly relevant to psychoanalysis. He underscores the tragedy of consciousness, increasingly alienated from the totality of our social and individual being, and replaced by its false analog. To make sustainable an anachronistic type of vertical social structure, ideologists of false consciousness join arms with those who control societys historically developed means to reproduce itself and its members. This results in the social phenomenon of alienation, whereby actively produced false consciousness creates a correlate individual unconscious. Mészáros’ theory seems compatible with the psychoanalytic paradigms developed by Karen Horney and the Neo-Freudians.

Psychoanalysis, a Bridge Between Attachment Research and Neurobiology

Attachment theory and neurobiology are at the forefront of scientific research, particularly in the area of child psychiatry. Several authors have encountered a surprising isomorphism between findings in these areas and concepts central in psychoanalysis. The author postulates that attachment theory is an outcome of the history of the transformation of the old concept of libido now applied interpersonally. The author also postulates that the neurobiology of attachment mediates but does not substitute psychoanalysis for the final understanding of the human bond. Findings in both fields, attachment theory and psychobiology, often compellingly lead to psychoanalytic concepts; on the other hand, the neurobiology of the psyche does not make full sense without the wealth of research conducted by psychoanalysts during the 20th century. The concept of seduction in particular, in its broad sense, is akin to mirroring and attachment and a useful tool in this regard. Although some cling to the idea of the purity of psychoanalysis and see these kin areas as a threat to its integrity, the author believes that psychoanalysis, serving as a bridge between them, can only be enriched by their empirical and experimental outcomes.

The language of psychoanalysis.

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