Susann Heenen-Wolff

The destiny of an unacknowledged trauma : the deferred retroactive effect of apres-coup in the hidden Jewish children of wartime Belgium

For almost 45 years, the experience of Jewish children who were hidden during World War II was considered to be of little importance, particularly with respect to what had taken place in the concentration camps. Their very history was ignored in the many accounts of the Holocaust. It was only at the end of the 1980s that their experience began to be thought of as potentially traumatic. In this paper, the authors report on their psychoanalytical research project concerning the psychological outcomes of those experiences that had remained concealed for such an extraordinarily long latency period. The results are based on the analysis of 60 accounts and on psychoanalytically‐oriented group work. The authors show that the trauma experienced by those hidden children was triggered by the retroactive effect of a deferred action [après‐coup].

The countertransference dream.

Can the analysts night‐dream about his patient be considered as a manifestation of countertransference‐and, if so, under what conditions? In what way can such a dream represent more than just the disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish of the analyst? Is there not a risk of the analyst unconsciously taking up and ‘using’ the content of a session or other elements coming from the analytic situation for his own psychic reasons? The author, closely following Freuds dream theory, shows the mechanisms which can allow us to use the dream content in the analytical situation: preserved from the secondary processes of conscious thinking, other fantasies and affects than in the waking state can emerge in dream thought, following an ‘unconscious perception’. After examining the countertransference elements of Freuds dream, ‘Irmas injection’, which leads off The interpretation of dreams, the author presents a dream of her own about a patient and its value for understanding affects and representations which had hitherto remained unrepresented.

From symbolic law to narrative capacity: A paradigm shift in psychoanalysis?

In the Freudian perspective, the primal phantasies, a refl ection of prehistory, oblige us through our phylogenetic heritage and its repetition in the ontogenetic to recognize the limits of generation and sex, to submit to the symbolic law represented by the father of the primal horde and to fi nd‐as is sought in the treatment‐ones ‘right’ place in the primal scene (Oedipus complex). Clinical experience with patients suffering from narcissistic disorders soon led certain analysts to propose a paradigm change, which has brought about important modifi cations to technique, but also, more recently, modifi cations at the level of metapsychology. Certain contemporary analysts have a conception of the subject focused on processes of interaction and communication between ‘thinking apparatuses’ in the here and now. The author shows that this current development is taking place in parallel with major trends in our postmodern era in which communication and negotiation replace former religious, mythical, philosophical, moral or political beliefs.

The interplay between collective memory and the erosion of nation states – the paradigmatic case of Belgium: Introduction to the special issue

The main goal of the special issue on ‘the interplay between collective memory and the erosion of nation states: The paradigmatic case of Belgium’ is to examine the erosion of the Belgian State as an exemplary illustration of the way memories of past events can influence current attitudes, emotions, representations and behaviours. We believe that the recent political crisis in Belgium, with no government for more than one year after the 2010 general elections, could be partly illuminated by the diverging and sometimes contradictory memories each linguistic group (Dutch- vs. French-speakers) in Belgium holds about the past. These issues will be examined through different disciplines from the social sciences and humanities: social psychology, history, psychoanalysis, political sciences, and literature.

The Belgo-Belgian conflict in individual narratives: Psychodynamics of trauma in the history of Belgium

On the basis of interviews, we highlight important historical elements with potential traumatic implications in order to understand some of the psychological roots of the current conflict-ridden relationship between French-speaking and Flemish Belgian citizens. We suggest that this conflict has a complex psychodynamic structure. Due to former experiences of shame, humiliation, disdain and contempt, two concomitant but asymmetrical defensive processes can be observed: repression in the French-language group, dissociation or rejection in the Flemish group. In particular, we hypothesize that the war experiences traumatized the Flemish identity in a complex way, generating an internal defensive pressure characterized by dissociation. The impact of these psychological processes on the current political situation is explored.

The question of "representation" in the psychoanalytical and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Some theoretical aspects and therapy considerations

This paper compares the cognitive-behavioral and psychoanalytical approaches with respect to the way in which each of them conceives of representation and deals with the issues that this involves. In both of them conscious and latent (unconscious) representations play a crucial role. Highlighting similarities and differences facilitate communication on a theoretical level but also prove helpful to the clinical practitioners involved. We try to put forward an attempt at comparison, with the idea of going beyond the – obviously important – differences in vocabulary. In this attempt at comparison, we have successively compared the definitions of representation and the respective therapeutic interventions proposed by each approach. There are no doubt many overlapping elements in the way in which the workings of the mind are conceived of in these approaches, particularly as regards their links with affects. We next developed the implications of representation deficits in pathology, suggesting the important role played by elements that are avoided, suppressed from memory or repressed, and with respect to the need to treat such material in a specific manner so as to ensure some progress as to the symptoms presented. We finally summarized common and distinct aspects of the two perspectives. The very fact that two approaches that follow very distinct methodologies reach the same conclusion concerning the importance of distortions and failures of representation in generating mental distress strengthens, in our view, the epistemological reliability of the role of representation in psychopathology.

Translation and "transformation" in the analytic situation : Freud – Bion – Laplanche

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche’s theory of a ‘general seduction’ the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends ‘enigmatic messages’ to the child, it is the analyst’s task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new ‘translations’ for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame – which represents and supports attachment – and the ‘sexual’– which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of ‘incorrect’ translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction – this is a self‐construction of the patient – but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud’s notions and the ‘transformation processes’ through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche’s model and the interpretation strategy with case material.

Infantile bisexuality and the ‘complete oedipal complex’: Freudian views on heterosexuality and homosexuality

In the psychoanalytical discussion of what is ’mature’ sexuality we speak of the ‘genital’ stage and the ‘resolution’ of the oedipal complex in the form of identification with the parent of the same sex and a heterosexually‐directed object choice. A close reading of Freud’s texts about sexuality shows that such a normative view cannot be corroborated by his viewpoint. He suggests that infantile sexuality is bisexually orientated, the final object choice due to repression of either homosexual or heterosexual desires. As Freud puts it, genital heterosexuality occurs out of necessity for procreation. In order to enrich the present psychoanalytical discussion about homosexuality and bisexuality the author returns to Freud’s theories in this context.

Change of culture as an opportunity for reorganizing psychological conflicts. A group-analytic experience with immigrants

The authors describe a sensitivity-type group-analytic group with participants from different national and cultural backgrounds. They demonstrate specific conflicts which can unconsciously arise during immigration and indicate the role a group-psychoanalytic approach can play in this context.

Psychoanalyse und Freiheit

Psychanalyse et liberte. – Selon Freud, le Moi n’est pas maitre dans sa propre maison. Le premier, il a considere le sujet comme surdetermine tant du point de vue de l’inconscient que des exigences du Surmoi, le Moi etant sans cesse oblige de trouver des compromis entre les differentes instances et le monde exterieur. Mais le Moi fonctionne aussi en grande partie de maniere inconsciente. Au-dela de cette theorie, Freud a considere l’essence de l’Homme, de la civilisation en generale, comme le resultat de l’interiorisation de la violence structurelle exterieure. Avec la psychanalyse, il a en meme temps creee un procede pouvant contribuer a degager une certaine liberte a l’egard de ces contraintes: la parole associative »libre« de l’analyse, le concept d’apres-coup selon lequel on peut retroactivement exercer une influence sur les evenements vecus dans le passe, ainsi qu’un accroissement de libre circulation de la pensee entre le Moi de plaisir et le Moi de realite font partie de ce procede.