Paying careful attention to the multiple meanings the word ‘institution’ has in French, this article traces the development of institutional psychotherapy’s clinical practice. Through a close reading of Jean Oury’s seminars and clinical writing alongside other key members of the GTPSI (Groupe de travail de psychothérapie et de sociothérapie institutionnelles or Working Group on Institutional Psychotherapy and Socio- therapy), this article argues that institutional psychotherapy’s specificity is in the way in which the clinical and (...) the political are able to connect their praxis. (shrink)

‘Institution’ as a concept has a particular resonance in the collaborative work of Deleuze and Guattari. Looking at institutional psychotherapy and the way in which it traverses the works of Deleuze and Guattari, this article will attempt to offer some ways that the concept of institution can be put to work. To do so, it will begin with two statements about institutional psychotherapy made by the psychiatrist Jean Oury: ‘Institutional psychotherapy is perhaps the putting (...) in place of all kinds of means to struggle, each day, against all that might make the whole of the “collective” topple over towards a segregative or concentrationary structure’, and ‘The establishment is a building and a contract agreed with the State, a price per day. The institution, when it exists, is a labour, a strategy to avoid a whole load of people fermenting, like a jar of jam with a poorly closed lid.’ These statements will open the door to a deeper exploration of what an institution can do and how it was activated in Guattari’s clinical practice and in the collaborative philosophy developed with Deleuze. (shrink)

This article seeks to explore institutional psychotherapy’s politically informed practice by highlighting two key concepts: crisis and resistance. It first briefly sketches a conceptual overview of the two concepts, paying particular attention to the complicated interactions between their political and therapeutic meanings. Following each conceptual elaboration there is a discussion exploring the ways in which the concept has been used by two key members of the institutional psychotherapy movement, Frantz Fanon and Félix Guattari.

Guattari’s prescient final text, Chaosmosis, argues that the conditions of Capital responsible for the current social-psychic-ecological crisis of migration demand modes of analysis capable of grasping their complexity, ones grounded in the ethico-aesthetic. It is a text that draws directly from the therapeutic practice that he, Tosquelles, Oury, and others in the Institutional Psychotherapy (IP) movement developed in their clinics. This work entailed the inclusion of aesthetic practices that work to deterritorialise the institution, shifting from carceral sites and (...) creating therapeutic spaces of care and refuge. This article explores the centrality of an ethico-aesthetic approach to the understanding of therapeutic space within the sites and clinical practice of Institutional Psychotherapy. Looking especially at daily life and the inclusion of aesthetic practice, it examines the particular notion of asylum that emerged in these sites that so informed the clinical and critical work of Guattari and Deleuze, and draws connections to the current global crisis of migration in the necessity of such sites to the forced segregation between those deemed mad and sane. (shrink)

By analyzing session exchanges and questionnaires administered to family therapy clients, this article examines questioning as conversational practice grounded in institutional goals that are therapist-directed and therapist-conceived. In their manifestation in talk and text, therapeutic questions function to replace client accounts with the nosological accounts of institutional psychiatry. The analysis illuminates three ways in which questioning works in the session and then locates these in therapy's professional and institutional logic. A critical reflection on psychotherapy's questioning practices (...) in a social context concludes the article. (shrink)

This article examines how therapists and patients start building and managing relationships and pursue institutional goals at the same time. Based on a corpus of 6 audio-recorded therapies (client-centered therapy and psychodynamic therapy), I investigate first encounters between therapists and patients as the starting points of any therapeutical process and the place where a relationship between the interactants is established for the first time. Following a microlinguistic qualitative approach and applying methods from conversation analysis and discourse analysis, I show (...) how therapists, on the one hand, try to align with patients to build a positive working alliance and, on the other hand, work to fulfill specific interactive tasks of therapeutic discourse which demand disaligning with the patients’ communicative activity and their interactive expectations. Specific interactive “jobs” that need to be fulfilled in psychotherapy are identified, namely the performance of institutional roles by the interactants, the establishment of an interaction structure and the pursuit of helpful change in the patient. I show at which places in the interaction therapists (dis-)align with the patients’ projected communicative activity and how aligning and disaligning are related to the interactive process and the establishment and performance of these interactive jobs. The analysis shows that, at the beginning of therapy, alignment and disalignment are both important processes for the following reasons: Aligning with the patient contributes to a positive relationship, which has been shown to be vital for successful psychotherapy, while disaligning introduces the patient to the specific discursive mechanisms that characterize therapeutic discourse and constitute the basis for its effectiveness. Overall, the paper argues that reducing therapy to a dichotomy between relationship and “technique” seems overly simplistic, as both aspects need to be handled and managed at the same time. (shrink)

Institutional pedagogy is a radical educational practice that began in France in the first half of the twentieth century. It aims to transform the material context of learning in order to empower students to collectively take responsibility for their own lives. As an analysis of the effects of this practice on the work of Félix Guattari, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, it aims to describe the theoretical and practical cross-pollination that occurred between the two movements of (...) institutional pedagogy and institutional psychotherapy. Second, it argues for a new methodology for reading the published works of Félix Guattari in the context of institutional pedagogy. The article begins with a brief analysis of the work of Celéstin Freinet, followed by an account of the development of his techniques by Aïda Vasquez, Fernand Oury, Jean Oury and Guattari. After showing how these practices informed Guattari’s work as a political activist, in the final section I argue that we should treat the figure of Félix Guattari as a special kind of ‘writing machine’. (shrink)

Dans cet article, l’auteur, psychologue exerçant en Institut thérapeutique, éducatif et pédagogique (itep) et en point-rencontre, traite la question de l’articulation entre la place du secret autour des maltraitances intrafamiliales en psychothérapie de l’enfant et la distorsion du rapport à la dette symbolique chez ce dernier, au regard de son vécu. Le sujet est abordé à partir d’une réflexion théorique associée à des apports cliniques issus de rencontres thérapeutiques. L’objectif est d’amener le lecteur à porter un regard plus nuancé sur (...) les situations de révélations de maltraitances par l’enfant, en considérant avec plus d’attention la perte de la place qu’il occupe au sein de son système familial. En parallèle à la question du positionnement de l’enfant, l’auteur interroge également le positionnement du thérapeute et rappelle l’importance de l’investissement affectif dans la relation thérapeutique, aussi anxiogène qu’il puisse être parfois pour les deux partenaires du dispositif. (shrink)

Cet article décrit le développement de l’approche psychanalytique de la thérapie de couple au Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (auparavant Tavistock Marital Studies Institute). Il donne un aperçu de quelques concepts théoriques clés et de la pratique consistant à recevoir les couples en co-thérapie. La notion de « faits cliniques » est utilisée en lien avec un fragment de recherche clinique pour éclairer différentes perspectives de cette thérapie psychanalytique.

This article explores the concept of minor or general psychotherapy championed by physicians seeking to popularise psychotherapy in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Understood as a set of skills and principles meant to guide behaviour towards and around patients, this form of psychotherapy was portrayed as indispensable for physicians of all specialities as well as for all personnel of medical institutions. This article shows how, as a result of Soviet teaching on the power of suggestion to influence human (...) organisms, every interaction with patients was conceptualised as a form of psychotherapy, leading to the embrace of placebo as a legitimate form of therapy, and to the blurring of the boundary between therapy and other activities in the clinic. The principles of minor psychotherapy reveal a concept of psychotherapy that is much wider, and rooted in different priorities, than the dominant understanding of this type of treatment found in Western Europe and North America. This article addresses the ethical principles implicit in the Soviet perspective, demonstrating that despite fighting against the uncaring and dismissive attitude of other physicians, Soviet psychotherapists remained rooted in the paternalistic tradition. Finally, it traces the efforts to establish minor psychotherapy as standard practice in medical institutions, which, like many other plans and ambitions of Soviet psychotherapists, were constrained by a lack of resources in the healthcare system. (shrink)

This book explores the ethics around everything connected with setting up and running a therapy private practice. Offering a hands-on approach to realistic ethical dilemmas encountered by the private practitioner, the book examines the everyday management of practice, and the context of ethical issues in contemporary private practice. Chapters explore the fundamentals of some of the most common ethical considerations in private practice, providing space for the reader to think creatively about how they use their preferred ethical framework, and how (...) that may be translated into an individually tailored approach for each client, and for each private practice. The book provides exercises, examples, and vignettes, in addition to the author's own unique working model, to help the reader bring theoretical reflections into their own everyday practice. Relational Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counselling Private Practice will help private practitioners feel more confident and grounded in their private practice and up-to-date with developing thoughts. It will also appeal to training institutes, supervisors, and students. (shrink)

Psychotherapists in mental health institutions as a professional group are part of the medical system, and from this perspective, as representing an occupation that serves the public health interests, as well as those of the individual seeking help. Despite the different existing therapeutic approaches and diverse forms of therapy deriving from these approaches critical theories, however, consider psychotherapy as a profession with a specific jurisdictional claim and own highly specific interests. In contrast to most of the recent discussion around (...) therapy culture, in this article, I argue that sociology and social theory could benefit from an understanding of psychotherapy as a profession with a separate logic and claim for jurisdiction for mental health. Moreover, I present some general trends showing that, regarding psychotherapy, we face a concurrence of a professionalisation, and simultaneously, an already ongoing deprofessionalisation. To develop my argument, I first discuss the perspectives of sociology of the psychotherapy professions. Second, I present the potential lack of professionalism in four dimensions. Third, I discuss possible tendencies of deprofessionalisation. Finally, I conclude by pointing out the importance of theorising the psychotherapy professions for medical sociology. (shrink)

This article explores the history of ‘subordination-authority-relation’ (SAR) psychotherapy, a brand of psychotherapy largely forgotten today that was introduced and practised in inter-war Vienna by the psychiatrist Erwin Stransky (1877–1962). I situate ‘SAR’ psychotherapy in the medical, cultural and political context of the inter-war period and argue that – although Stransky’s approach had little impact on historical and present-day debates and reached only a very limited number of patients – it provides a particularly clear example for the (...) political dimensions of psychotherapy. In the early 20th century, the emerging field of psychotherapy was largely dominated by Freudian psychoanalysis and its Adlerian and Jungian offshoots. Psychotherapists’ relations with academic psychiatry were often uneasy, but the psychodynamic schools succeeded in establishing independent institutions for training and treatment. However, as this article shows, the gulf between mainstream psychiatry and psychotherapy was not as wide as many histories of the psy-disciplines in the early 20th century suggest. In inter-war Vienna, where these conflicts raged most fiercely, Stransky’s ‘SAR’ psychotherapy was intended as an academic psychiatrist’s response to the challenge posed by the emerging competitors. Moreover, Stransky also proposed a political alternative to the existing psychotherapeutic schools. Whereas psychoanalysis was a liberal project, and Adlerian individual psychology was closely affiliated with the socialist movement, ‘SAR’ psychotherapy with its focus on authority, subordination and social hierarchy tried to translate a right-wing, authoritarian understanding of society into a treatment for nervous disorders. (shrink)

This article explores how post-war documentary film-makers negotiated complex social, formal, and autobiographical issues associated with representing mental illness and its treatments, and the extent to which their respective approaches helped to challenge conventional attitudes to alternative psychotherapies – especially within the context of advances in new documentary film-making technologies, alongside a wider culture of social activism. Focussing on A Look at Madness ( Regard sur la folie; Mario Ruspoli, 1962, France) and Now Do You Get It Why I Am (...) Crying? ( Begrijpt u nu waarom ik huil?; Louis van Gasteren, 1969, Netherlands), the article discusses how the collaborative, democratic aims of cinéma direct coincided with the ethos of institutional psychotherapy, and compares this with the relations between the documentary form and the subject of LSD-assisted psychotherapeutic techniques in Van Gasteren's film. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Books ReceivedAt the Eleventh Hour: The Biography of Swami Rama. By Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Himalayan Institute Press, 2002. Pp. 427. Hardcover $18.95.Awakening and Insight: Zen Buddhism and Psychotherapy. Edited by Polly Young Eisendrath and Shoji Muramoto. Hove, England: Brunner-Routledge, 2002. Pp. xii + 275. Paper $24.95.Beyond Metaphysics Revisited: Krishnamurti and Western Philosophy. By J. Richard Wingerter. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2002. Pp. vii (...) + 391. Hardcover $71.00.Bhāmatī and Vivaraṇa Schools of Advaita Vedānta: A Critical Approach. By Pulasth Soobah Roodurmun, foreword by V. N. Jha, and edited by Kanshi Ram. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2002. Pp. xv + 297. Price not given.A Bibliography of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy. By James S. Crouch. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2002. Pp. 430. Price not given.Crisis Theory and World Order: Heideggerian Reflections. By Norman K. Swazo. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Pp. x + 289. Hardcover $78.50. Paper $26.95.Devotional Literature in South Asia: Current Research 1997-2000: Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Early Literature in New Indo-Aryan Languages, Leuven, 23-26 August 2000. Edited by Winand M. Callewaert and Dieter Taillieu. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2002. Pp. xxii + 324. Price not given.Dharma Bell and Dhāraṇī Pillar: Li Po's Buddhist Inscriptions. By Paul W. Kroll. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2001. Pp. viii + 95. Price not given.Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi. Edited, with introduction, by Xiusheng Liu and Philip J. Ivanhoe. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2002. Pp. xiv + 249. Hardcover $39.95. Paper $16.95. Professional price $12.95.Ethical Questions: East and West. Edited by Bina Gupta. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002. Pp. vi + 279. Hardcover $70.00. Paper $26.95.Ethical Relativism and Universalism. By Saral Jhingran. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2001. Pp. xiv + 385. Price not given.Genius-In Their Own Words: The Intellectual Journeys of Seven Great 20th Century [End Page 431] Thinkers. Edited and with introduction by David Ramsay Steele, foreword by Arthur C. Danto. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 2002. Pp. xxii + 366. Paper $24.95.The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The original Sanskrit by Svatmarama, an English translation by Brian Dana Akers. Woodstock, New York: YogaVidya.com, 2002. Pp. xii + 115. Hardcover $19.95. Paper $11.95.Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-Cultural Inquiry. By Stephen C. Angle. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xviii + 285. Hardcover $65.00. Paper $23.00.Indestructible Truth: The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism. By Reginald A. Ray. Boston and London: Shambhala Publications, 2002. Pp. x + 495. Paper $17.95.Introduction to Eastern Thought. By Marietta Stepaniants. Edited by James Behuniak and translated by Rommela Kohanovskaya. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press, a division of Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002. Pp. xiv + 293. Hardcover $69.00. Paper $24.95.Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life. Edited by Christopher Key Chapple. Cambridge: Harvard University Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, 2002. Pp. xliv + 252. Hardcover $32.95. Paper $22.95.Mediating the Power of Buddhas: Ritual in the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa. By Glenn Wallis. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Pp. xiii + 263. Hardcover $86.50. Paper $29.95.Methodology in Religious Studies: The Interface with Women's Studies. Edited by Arvind Sharma. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Pp. xi + 253. Hardcover $78.50. Paper $26.95.Persons and Valuable Worlds: A Global Philosophy. By Eliot Deutsch. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2002. Pp. x + 309. Hardcover $80.00. Paper $34.95.Philosophy and Art in Gurdjieff's Beelzebub: A Modern Sufi Odyssey. By Anna T. Challenger. Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., 2002. Pp. xi + 145. Paper EUR 27,00, U.S. $25.00.The Pratyabhijñā Philosophy. By G. V. Tagare. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2002. Pp. xii + 165. Price not given.Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-Natures in the Mind-Only School: Dynamic Responses to ong-ka-a's The... (shrink)

The Therapeutic Process attempts to present an informative, sequential, well-defined, and clinically rich guide to the process of psychodynamic psychotherapy. The book was specifically designed to have broad appeal and value, for the beginning clinician to more experienced clinician, or the clinician who also teaches students of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. For the beginning clinician, the book has many illustrative examples, and terms are well defined. For the long-time clinician, the book attempts to put clearly into words, what many of (...) us have thought all along. This book arose from a series of lectures that were part of a course for the psychiatric residents at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital, as well as from the instruction of many therapists from other mental health disciplines. The challenge in the initial instruction of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is always to be able to introduce fundamental concepts and convey the importance of a solid theoretical background, while concurrently addressing the clinician's pressing desire and often immediate requirement to understand the clinical process. Novel heuristic models are described and illustrated in clinical vignettes, in order to quickly bring together clinical and theoretical terms with the practice and process of psychotherapy. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Experience, Institutions, and EpistemologyRiley Paterson, MA (bio)I am grateful for these comments on my paper, “The Dilemma of Compliance,” because they illuminate the limitations of the paper’s emphasis. The paper is, above all, meant to caution or warn providers of subtle but serious harm that can occur in institutional settings. I want to attune providers to the ways in which institutional coercion and violence occur in the (...) ordinary process of following rules and filling of roles. Thus I write that the goal is “to become self-conscious observers of systems of compliance, rather than unconscious conformers.” Institutional coercion is a social process like any other and thus involves intersubjective dynamics. These dynamics do not appear as measurable, physical structures, but rather as invisible patterns in time, made visible only by being named and grasped experientially. I am offering language that can help make these invisible dynamics visible, so that providers can navigate institutions differently.My desire to caution and attune other providers can be explained partly by the conditions in which I wrote the paper: making sense of my time in forensic mental health, where I worked with clients who were mandated mental health treatment upon avoiding or exiting incarceration. I was processing my own experience of submitting monthly “compliance reports” to various agencies. I was concerned with the experiential process of navigating coercive environments. Thus my commenter is correct to try and widen our consideration, as my paper is indeed limited by its focus on the lived experience of censorship, oppression, and institutional coercion.This emphasis means that I am neglecting other dimensions, such as the positive role of rules in organizing communities, and the way in which some mental health institutions are working on creating safe and healing formal environments. I also believe, however, that the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and mental health broadly need to be careful about institutions, rules, and roles. We are not, in my estimation, in danger of providing too many safe spaces in which healing can occur. Quite the opposite, psychiatry and psychotherapy have, since their outset, been intertwined with troubling political motivations, and we continue to struggle with the manipulative tendencies of the field (Carr, 2018; Cabanas & Illouz, 2021).I, therefore, would like to take this opportunity to restate the core argument of my paper, and to situate this argument within the context of my other publications and the overall project they belong to. There is likely some ambiguity about [End Page 385] the central thrust of my paper. When commenting on my discussion of schizophrenia, my commenter refers to it as “the seeming central topic of the paper.” This is understandable. Schizophrenia is the topic I discuss that has the most obvious clinical implications. Indeed, I am making an argument about the phenomenological intelligibility of schizophrenia. With both my discussions of schizophrenia and censorship, however, I am making both immanent arguments and transcendent arguments. In other words, although I am making arguments about both schizophrenia and censorship, those arguments need to be understood as an example of a broader problem of coercion within human relationships. My intent is to highlight general dynamics present within human relationships and communities that contribute to institutional violence and the excessive regulation of individuals. My concern is with rules, roles, and coercion in general; schizophrenia and censorship provide exaggerated examples of what is fundamentally an ordinary, daily experience. Mental health institutions are uniquely involved in coercive institutional processes, but almost all human environments carry some danger of coercion and oppression in terms of fitting, belonging, or conforming with rules and roles. My exploration of schizophrenia and censorship is certainly meant to illuminate those particular topics, but the broader point concerns all human experience.The phenomenological or experiential thrust of the paper must be situated within my broader analysis that also includes institutional and epistemological dimensions. My reviewer is correct to point out that with schizophrenia, censorship, or trauma, the crucial dimension is communities in which people feel safe enough to learn, grow, and develop their capacities. In this vein, my reviewer points to Geel as an admirable model of communally driven care. I am largely in agreement with this line of thinking. In... (shrink)

In 1988, Colorado instituted a new regulatory system that was opposed by psychologists and social workers. We surveyed 306 psychotherapists about their attitudes regarding this system, which included profession-specific licensing boards and an omnibus board to handle grievances. Social workers and psychologists, members of more established professions, opposed creating an omnibus licensing board and favored the return of profession-specific grievance functions. Members of the newer professions and unlicensed psychotherapists were not as opposed to omnibus boards. All groups agreed in their (...) positive ratings of the performance of the Colorado grievance structure. These results are discussed in terms of "capture" theory, which postulates that professions capture governmental regulation and use it for their own interests. (shrink)

The chapter begins with a brief preliminary investigation of the nature and role of theory in psychotherapy in general. Then, it introduces Gestalt therapy in an institutional and historical context. The distinctive theoretical tenets of Gestalt psychotherapy are outlined next. The chapter looks at some of the philosophical underpinnings of this theory and notes how such underpinnings tend toward subjectivism and an anti‐theory stance. It also suggests some alternative underpinnings, which could lead to a more integrated outlook (...) on the relation of theory to practice and a resolution of the objectivity‐subjectivity tension. (shrink)

Conversation analytic research has advanced understanding of the psychotherapeutic process by understanding how psychotherapy is organised over time in and through interaction between clients and therapists. This study progresses knowledge in this area by examining how psychological accounts of experience are progressively developed across a range of helping relationships. Data include: (1) approximately 30 h of psychotherapy sessions involving trainee therapists; (2) approximately 15 h of psychotherapy demonstration sessions involving expert therapists; and (3) approximately 30 h of (...) everyday conversations involving close friends or family members. This article reports an analysis of techniques that are used to bring together two experiences that were discussed separately, to proffer a candidate connection between them. This proffering of candidate connections was recurrently used in psychotherapy. If confirmed by a client, a proffered connection could be used to develop a psychological account of a client’s experiences, which could then warrant some psychological intervention. In contrast, the proffering of connections was observed in only one of the everyday conversations included in the current study, where it was used to develop psychological accounts of experience. This shows that although proffering candidate connections is an everyday interactional practice, it appears to be used with greater frequency in psychotherapy, to advance its specific institutional aims. (shrink)

This article examines Guattari’s broad political investment with regard to a molecular revolution of institutions through his reflection on one complex event, the 22nd of March Movement at Nanterre. I want to consider this example for two reasons. First, it is general enough to provide a non-clinical foundation for specific kinds of innovations that preoccupy many of his readers who comment on these issues and centre their work on historical clinical examples within the trajectory of institutional psychotherapy from (...) Saint-Alban to La Borde. And second, it is not so far divorced from the orbit of cure where institutional analysts cut their teeth, as it were, in the early 1960s left-wing student groups devoted to health issues. The question of cure, here, remains tied to the recognition of the influence of an institution and how it may be changed, but shifts in my example from clinic to campus and factory and, ultimately, to all of French society. (shrink)

Definition of the problemStaff and patients in institutions of organized health care experience and express a variety of adverse conditions of these organizations. Within a theoretical framework of institutional pathology we can explain some of these “miserable conditions” as effects of the activities of organizations belonging to the political system (health policy) and to the economic system (health economy). Clinical ethics committees (CECs) cannot effectively handle such adversities or even address them properly. Standard organizational ethics can address them but (...) cannot handle them effectively.ArgumentsI propose to strengthen organizational ethics by a theory of institutional pathology. Basic nosological distinctions such as disease, illness and sickness, whose primary reference is to biological organisms and persons, can be analogically extended to socially constituted entities (e.g. hospitals) in terms of functional deficiency, miserable conditions, and need for reform of such entities. A very promising focus for analysis are organizational disorders of responsibility allocation. This group of institutional pathological disorders engenders, amongst other kinds of miserable conditions, specifically morally relevant miserable conditions.ConclusionThe institutional pathology paradigm, oriented to concrete institutions and organizations, can help “clinical” organizational ethics to considerably expand, in theoretical ethics as well as in ethically guided practice e.g. for members of CECs and organizational ethics advisors, the capacities for observing, evaluating and, if necessary, amending disturbed relations of responsibility. (shrink)

Critical theory has historically assumed an undialectical either/or between reformist therapy and revolutionary politics. Frantz Fanon’s dialectical, psycho-social approach to recovery as disalienation offers us a way out. Lying at the intersection of critical theory, political strategy and the history of political thought, this article highlights a lesser-known French tradition of Freudo-Marxist psycho-politics contemporaneous with the first generation of the Frankfurt School, but which placed therapeutic imperatives front and centre of its psycho-political praxis. This article uses Fanonian institutional (...) class='Hi'>psychotherapy to contest the anti-psychiatric conceit that madness is liberating and that therapy obstructs freedom. Fanon’s critical therapy speaks to the recent care-ethical turn of the contemporary organized left, whilst maintaining a structural critique of the aetiology and treatment of mental illness. This article concludes that recovery involves a permanent psycho-political revolution between the subjective and objective, which requires a radical transformation of both mental healthcare and the pathogenic social world to and within which it responds. (shrink)

On New year's Eve 1992 a man suffering from schizophrenia climbed into a lions' cage at the London Zoo and was badly mauled. This event provoked a full-scale moral panic among the media and government, the tragedy seeming to violate many of the comfortable myths about progress in psychiatry, echoing the impact of the civil war in former Yugoslavia which had shattered the hope of an era of unbroken European peace following the end of the cold war. Whatever we may (...) wish in reality the lion does not lie down with the lamb. Daniel the visionary, the interpreter of dreams, the one who asserted that his God, the God of angels and saints with power over man and beasts would eventually endure, while all earthly kings were found wanting, emerged from the lions’ den unscathed—but secular, psychiatric, suffering, decarcer-ated, visionless, late-twentieth-century man does not. (shrink)

This article examines a particular kind of business-opening activity found in a specific, and little analysed, type of institutional group meeting: group supervision for psychotherapeutic counsellors. The data consist of a particular set of activities that occur in the initial stages of these meetings, which are neither the kind of pre-meeting talk identified by previous research on interaction in meetings, nor specifically the business of group supervision itself. This phase, referred to as the ‘check-in’, functions as an interim stage (...) between small talk and getting down to business. The analysis shows how the check-in comprises a highly structured set of linguistic sequences whose production is bound up with one of the key interactional features of group supervision: the collaborative orientation to the production and relevance of ‘feelings-talk’. (shrink)

Chapter 3 of an e-book 'Handbook for Logotherapists' 2024 (Niiles-Mäki Anne). Institute for Purpose-centered Philosophy Finland.

This article delves into a problem that is still seldom addressed by historians—namely, the use of medical records testifying to the implementation of a psychoanalytically inspired treatment within a psychiatric institution for historical research. Based on publications, a broad spectrum of medical patient records, and interviews with former practitioners, it more broadly addresses issues related to the attention to patients’ voices at the University Psychiatric Clinic of Strasbourg, a central institution of psychiatric care in Northeastern France that was once considered (...) a bastion of French Freudianism. Eventually, it contends with the fundamentally elusive nature of medical patient records when it comes to talking cures, highlighting the challenges and limitations inherent in the historical exploitation of this type of source. (shrink)

The philosopher is the man who has to cure himself of many sicknesses of the understanding before he can arrive at the notions of the sound human understanding.

Guattari has progressively designed a set of tools capable of helping everyone escape from capitalist injunctions, finding support in affects, in participative action, in cultural universals and in the flows freed by the human adventure on the surface of the planet. The subject, distanced from the powerlessness generated by a central ego, develops her reflection and agency in infinitely diverse situations. He drew such tools, first, from institutional psychotherapy and psycho-sociology, later, from a form of semiotics not limited (...) by the collapse of the « loci of speech », which finally led him to invent schizo-analytic mappings and to prepare the ground for « ecosophy ». (shrink)

This innovative text addresses the lack of literature regarding intersectional approaches to psychoanalysis, underscoring the importance of thinking through race, class, and gender within psychoanalytic theory and practice. The book tackles the widespread perception of psychoanalysis today as a discipline detached from the progressive ideals of social responsibility, institutional psychotherapy, and community mental health. Bringing together a range of international contributions, the collection explores issues of class, politics, oppression, and resistance within the field of psychoanalysis in cultural, theoretical, (...) and clinical contexts. It shows how, in contrast to this misperception, psychoanalysis has been attentive to these ideals from its origins, as well as demonstrating how it continues to be relevant today, through wide-ranging conceptual discussions of the anti-globalisation, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. Written in an accessible style, Psychoanalysis, Politics, Oppression and Resistance will be essential reading for practicing psychoanalysts as well as academics and students in a range of humanities and social sciences fields. (shrink)

Today, capitalism functions as a very complex tool of colonisation capturing our desires, dreams, and putting life itself at risk. Its effects lead us all to times of extreme anxiety increasing the number of people with mental health problems. This paper is concerned with the question of ‘critique’ within this context. How can critical legal scholarship engage with a theoretical mode that allows us to confront the politics of law with today’s capitalism? This analysis shows that contemporary capitalism, which operates (...) as an immanent desiring-machine, is investing in our unconscious. In this sense, we aim to rethink the idea of ‘critique’ as an opportunity to make it creative and effective. As such, this paper argues that the Deleuzian concept Critical and Clinical is particularly useful, as it opens new roots for the critical movement. Taking the literary strategy of Masochism and the experience of the Institutional Psychotherapy movement in France, the clinical–critical practice contributes to push and expand critical scholarship into new terrains of thought and practice. (shrink)

In Lignes de fuite. Pour un autre monde de possibles, Guattari refers to an ‘analytico-militant programme’ that would position analysis across multiple social fields. What would this correspond to? Through an examination of Guattari’s theorisation of the question of the group in the framework of institutional psychotherapy, this article seeks to open ways to think the general meaning of analysis for social and political purposes and its practical form. The paper will explore what is at stake in the (...) collectivisaton of analysis beyond the group as a social-environmental process and according to a collective machinic perspective of enunciative processes. Analysis will be defined here as an everyday permanent process of creating conditions of autonomy, where self-management is key and alliances are unlocked through a work of analytical metabolism. (shrink)

Philosophical counseling is an educational activity in which philosophers engage in dialogue with clients who wish to address questions or manage problems that arise during the course of everyday life. This chapter offers three contrasting perspectives on the question of what philosophical counselors do: first, an institutional scope of practice for philosophical counseling; second, an anecdotal list of common issues for which clients seek philosophical counseling; and third, a heterogeneous set of views by several pioneers of philosophical counseling. From (...) what we have seen thus far, it may already be clear that there exist both parallels and anti‐parallels between philosophical counseling and psychotherapy. First and foremost, anyone who wants to become a philosophical counselor should earn an accredited graduate degree in philosophy in whichever area of specialization captures their interest. (shrink)

‘Transversality’ is a key term in the work of Félix Guattari. As a conceptual and pragmatic motor for the generation of heterogeneity, it extends throughout all of his work, including the writing he undertook with Deleuze. It promotes the rupture and redistribution of hierarchical structures, the mobilisation of operations of deterritorialisation across the social and cultural field, and it gains a ‘chaosmic’ dimension in the later writings. Its ‘origins’, however, are to be found in Guattari's early work at the Clinique (...) de la Borde and in militant Marxist movements in the 1950s and early 1960s. This is an initial and necessarily provisional effort to embed the concept in a social and therapeutic pragmatics and thus counter a debateable tendency towards a dilution or diffusion of transversality in theoretical abstraction, where it risks becoming a synonym for a generalised sense of creative differentiation. (shrink)

Les âgés et leurs familles sont souvent confrontés aux problématiques liées à l’entrée en institution. La séparation, le deuil du domicile réactivent des problématiques œdipiennes ou préœdipiennes qu’il est parfois difficile d’élaborer. Simultanément les établissements accueillant des personnes âgées dépendantes se trouvent entraînés dans des représentations idéales du soin qui les mettent en conflit avec les familles. Dans de telles situations le psychologue peut se trouver tiraillé entre le sujet âgé, sa famille et le personnel de l’établissement. L’article s’appuie sur (...) la théorisation d’Anzieu à propos des enveloppes familiales et plus largement sur les théories psychanalytiques prenant en compte les groupes et les institutions et montre en quoi elles sont particulièrement pertinentes pour la compréhension de telles situations. Considérer la dimension de groupe, qu’elle concerne les familles ou les institutions, peut donner aux psychologues des outils de compréhension et d’élaboration de ces situations. (shrink)

This book argues that moralism is a troublesome emotion of the sort one might seek help with from a psychotherapist. Its focus is on how to disabuse ourselves of the illusion that our values are objective, as well as how to manage the manifestations of its residual presence. This thesis may seem odd at first blush because morality is commonly conceived as an antidote to our baser impulses. Desire makes us want to do something, but the voice of conscience urges (...) us not to. If morality is conceived as a myth, as the author contends, then how shall we conduct our lives? The form of abolitionism put forward by the author goes beyond proposing the mere elimination of moral beliefs, attitudes, vocabulary, and institutions to encouraging their replacement by the rational vetting of our desires. He suggests that moralism, conceived as being motivated by belief in objective values, be treated similarly to, or even as, an emotional problem, akin to, or perhaps even identical to, the sort addressed by anger management programs in psychotherapy. By exposing our beliefs and desires to rational scrutiny, we can achieve our rational goals without the adverse side effects engendered by a fictitious moral overlay. Ethical Health will principally appeal to scholars and students working in metaethics and moral psychology, and will also be of interest to clinical practitioners and inquiring laypersons. (shrink)

Biosynthesis means "integration of life". It is a holistic form of body psychotherapy, which was founded over forty-five years ago. The concept of life-streams is one of its major foundations, which has since been supported by research in neurobiology. How can we integrate the three most important domains of being human: our bodily existence, our psychological experience and our spiritual essence? Biosynthesis Therapy has developed a broad spectrum of reliable methods to make this possible and to free our life (...) energy. It is resource-oriented and is practised worldwide. David Boadella brings his many years of experience to provide in this book a trend-setting model for the understanding both of the origin of illness and of therapy. First published in 1987, this book has appeared in ten languages. It provides numerous case examples and is fascinating and enriching for the normal reader as well as for therapists from many different schools. In this book, the word "bioenergetic" is used to refer to the study of life energy, which is a major foundation of the therapy method "Biosynthesis". This is not to be confused with the term "Bioenergetic Analysis", an other and different form of body psychotherapy. Since 1985, together with David Boadella, Biosynthesis has been developed further by Dr. Silvia Specht Boadella, particularly in its philosophical and transpersonal aspects. In 1990, Biosynthesis was the first form of body psychotherapy to be scientifically accredited by the European Association of Psychotherapy. Biosynthesis therapists can therefore receive the European Certificate of Psychotherapy ECP. In 2001, the International Foundation of Biosynthesis IFB was formed, to coordinate trainings and research in twenty countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America. The newest information about Biosynthesis, including our actual course programme, you will find on our website. David Boadella International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS, Benzenrüti 6, CH-9410 Heiden, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected]_ _www.biosynthesis.org_ _The Author_ David Boadella, born 1931 in London, pioneer of body psychotherapy and founder of Biosynthesis. He studied education, psychology and literature and wrote numerous articles and several books. Since 1985, he is the Director of the International Institute for Biosynthesis in Switzerland. In 1989, he was elected as the first President of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy EABP. In 1995, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the "Open International University of Complementary Medicine". Author of "Wilhelm Reich: The evolution of his work". _Disclaimer_ Basically this book contains neither exercises or advices. Nevertheless, if statements from the book should be used for self-treatment or for treatment of others, every form of liability of the author or the publisher for personal, material, or financial damage is excluded. (shrink)

Moral enhancement proposals struggle to be both plausible and ethically defensible while nevertheless interestingly distinct from both cognitive enhancement as well as (mere) moral education. Brian Earp (_Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement_ 83:415–439, 12 ) suggests that a promising middle ground lies in focusing on the (suitably qualified) use of psychedelics as _adjuncts_ to moral development. But what would such an adjunctive use of psychedelics look like in practice? In this paper, I draw on literature from three areas where techniques (...) for moral development have been discussed: psychotherapy (e.g., Overholser 2010; Burns 1980) education (e.g., Uhl and Lütge, 2018), and AI-assisted enhancement (e.g., Lara and Deckers, _Neuroethics_ 13(3):275–287, 17 ) in order to propose more concrete ways in which to use psychedelics as adjuncts to moral development. It is shown that in each of these areas, we can see that _trusting_ relationships (e.g., Baier 1986; Hawley 2019) between the facilitator and the agent will very plausibly maximize the success of this type of moral enhancement. Finally, I appeal to literature on informed consent for use of psychedelics (e.g., Smith and Sisti, _Journal of Medical Ethics_, 22 ; Johnson et al., _The Journal of Psychopharmacology_ 22(6):603–20, 23 ) and on the therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy (e.g., Dryden and Reeves 2013; Horvath et al. 2011) to outline concrete suggestions for facilitating dimensions of trust most likely to maximize the benefits of (adjunctive) psychedelic moral enhancement. The result is a newly detailed practical proposal for how we might best facilitate moral enhancement by using drugs as adjuncts to moral development. (shrink)

Social theory between progress and apocalypse -- Autonomy and domination: Weber's cage -- Barbarism and modernity: Eisenstadt's regret -- Integration and justice: Parsons' utopia -- Despising others: Simmel's stranger -- Meaning evil -- De-civilizing the civil sphere -- Psychotherapy as central institution -- The frictions of modernity and their possible repair.

This book charts Carl Gustav Jung’s 33-year correspondence with James Kirsch, adding depth and complexity to the previously published record of the early Jungian movement. Kirsch was a German-Jewish psychiatrist, a first-generation follower of Jung, who founded Jungian communities in Berlin, Tel Aviv, London, and Los Angeles. Their letters tell of heroic survival, brilliant creativity, and the building of generative institutions, but these themes are darkened by personal and collective shadows. The Nazi era looms over the first half of the (...) book, shaping the story in ways that were fateful not only for Kirsch and his career but also for Jung and his. Kirsch trained with Jung and acted as a tutor in Jewish psychology and culture to him. In 1934, fearing that anti-Semitism had seized his teacher, Kirsch challenged Jung to explain some of his publications for the Nazi-dominated Medical Society for Psychotherapy. Jung’s answer convinced Kirsch of his sincerity, and from then on Kirsch defended him fiercely against any allegation of anti-Semitism. We also witness Kirsch’s lifelong struggle with states of archetypal possession: his identification with the interior God-image on the one hand, and with unconscious feminine aspects of his psyche on the other. These complexes were expressed, for Kirsch, in physical symptoms and emotional dilemmas, and they led him into clinical boundary violations which were costly to his analysands, his family and himself. The text of these historical documents is translated with great attention to style and accuracy, and generous editorial scaffolding gives glimpses into the writers’ world. Four appendices are included: two essays by Kirsch, a series of letters between Hilde Kirsch and Jung, and a brief, incisive essay on the Medical Society for Psychotherapy. This revised edition includes primary material that was unavailable when the book was first published, as well as updated footnotes and minor corrections to the translated letters. (shrink)

This book offers numerous questions and answers about ethics in counselling and therapy, training, counselling supervision, research and other important issues. The authors bring psychodynamic, person-centred, integrative or eclectic approaches to their selection of questions and answers. They also bring a variety of experience from independent practice, institutional and voluntary agency settings. Between them they have experience as counsellors, psychotherapists, trainers, counselling supervisors and authors. The questions cover a range of issues that practitioners need to consider including: confidentiality, constraints (...) and the management of confidentiality; boundaries, dual and multiple relationships, relationships with former clients; non-discriminatory practice, issues for individuals and agencies; competence and the proper conduct of counsellors and therapists and the profession's responsibilities to deliver non-exploitative and non-abusive help to clients. Questions of Ethics in Counselling and Therapy also contains three appendices offering useful information. It is written in a clear, accessible style and is aimed at a wide readership in counselling and therapy, ranging from trainees to more experienced practitioners. (shrink)

As social theorists seek to understand the contemporary challenges of radical populism, we would do well to reconsider the febrile insights of the psychoanalytic social theorist Erich Fromm. It was Fromm who, at the beginning of the 1930s, conceptualized the emotional and sociological roots of a new ‘authoritarian character’ who was meek in the face of great power above and ruthless to the powerless below. It was Fromm, in the 1950s, who argued that societies, not only individuals, could be sick. (...) This essay traces the intertwining of psychoanalytic and sociological methods that allowed Fromm to create such new ideas. At the same time, it highlights how Fromm’s sociology was hampered by an economistic Marxist approach to the institutions and culture of democratic capitalist societies. Such theoretical restriction prevented Fromm from conceptualizing how institutions like democracy, science, and psychotherapy can provide resources for widespread emotional recuperation and civil repair. (shrink)

Psychoanalytic Theory, Research and Clinical Practice: Reading Joseph D. Lichtenberg explores both Lichtenberg’s psychoanalytic theoretical contributions and innovations in clinical technique, and how these have influenced the work of other psychoanalysts and researchers. Lichtenberg’s approach integrates a developmental perspective on the life cycle, self-psychology, attachment theory, and his theory of motivational systems. The commentaries in this volume are divided into several sections. Section One is devoted to informal interviews with Lichtenberg that portray an account of the evolution of psychoanalysis through (...) Lichtenberg’s eyes interwoven with the development of his own psychoanalytic identity. Section Two celebrates the role of friendship within his psychoanalytic circle, and Section Three highlights his leadership role in the development of creative structures: the journal _Psychoanalytic Inquiry; _The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and its training programs; and the ongoing Creativity Seminar. Additional sections provide commentary by psychoanalysts and researchers which demonstrate Lichtenberg’s theoretical and clinical impact on his colleagues. Psychoanalytic Theory, Research and Clinical Practice provides an in-depth encounter with a major contributor to the psychoanalytic field. Engagement with the openness, flexibility, and inquiring spirit of Joseph D. Lichtenberg offers respect for and hope in the psychoanalytic process. This book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, mental health professionals, and graduate students interested in how theory, research and technique are creatively integrated by a renowned psychoanalytic clinician and teacher. (shrink)