Het trauma in het psychisch
landschap [abstract]
Julien Quackelbeen

Subject in staat van ontbinding:
een lacaniaanse lezing van Lasch'
"De cultuur van het narcisme" [abstract]
Eli Noé

Psychose en instelling
Omtrent de sociale vervreemding en
de principes van de institutionele
psychotherapie volgens Jean Oury [abstract]
Bart De Lepeleire

"Op een dag doken ze op…"
Over werkelijke, kleine en enige
andere freudiaanse gevalsstudies[abstract] [text]
Wim Galle

Toeval bij Freud en P.T. Andersons
Magnolia [abstract]
Isolde Roose

"Ja, als ik alles ooit eens zou kunnen
opschrijven": Gerard Reve en de
nutteloze taal van het verlangen [abstract]
Kris Pint

Het lijden van Don Juan
Een blik op het oeuvre van
Milan Kundera [abstract]
François Levrau

ARCHIEFTEKST

Brief aan Wilhelm Fließ 170
Sigmund Freud

The mental landscape of trauma

Julien Quackelbeen

Summary: Referring to the evolution of the psychoanalytic conception of trauma the author considers, based on clinical fragments, three questions with which we are confronted in the clinic of trauma. The first fragment about a trauma of incest, which was initially dealt with within the family in a sensitive and appropriate manner, raises the question of the impact of speech on trauma where it concerns laypeople. It can be argued that the consequences of this kind of speech can be equally as disastrous as those of stubborn silence or a prohibition to speak. Using a second fragment attention is drawn to the role of the phantasma. A third fragment illustrates the trans-generational transmission of a trauma. Some considerations concerning the traumatic neuroses and the trauma of birth conclude this paper.

Key words: Trauma, Jouissance, Phantasma, Transmission, Traumatic Neuroses.

Subject in a state of disintegration: A Lacanian reading of Lasch's "The Culture of Narcissism"

Eli Noé

Summary: In "The Culture of Narcissism" (1979), American social critic Christopher Lasch shows how the disintegration of traditional patriarchal authority and the rise of neo-capitalism has spawned a new, narcissistic form of subjectivity. In the current article, the author tries to relate Lasch's work to the postmodern problematic of the non-existence of the big Other, as described by a number of authors inspired by Lacan. It is argued that the demise of symbolic influence has given rise to a proliferation of narcissistic ideals and the emergence of a "permissive" but extremely cruel superego. The imaginary identity of the narcissistic individual is no longer fixed in the symbolic, but is permanently refashioned and restyled for commercial purposes. On the basis of an interpretation of Lacan's discours du capitaliste, this thesis is further developed and applied to a number of contemporary pathologies. The author states that these pathologies can be listened to as a complaint directed against the capitalist Other. The response of psychoanalysis to the non-existence of the big Other consists therefore of an ethic of good listening, listening that invites speech that does not leave the subject undivided.

Key words: Narcissism, Lasch, Melman, Zizek, discours du capitaliste.

Psychosis and the Institution: On the Principles of Jean Oury's Institutional Psychotherapy

Bart De Lepeleire

Summary: This paper aims to address how the institution functions for the psychotic. People with a psychotic structure often have difficulties integrating into a community and functioning within a social bond. This means that on the level of treatment it is not immediately apparent how to build a lasting therapeutic relationship (and environment). Jean Oury's institutional psychotherapy starts from this point, inspired by Marx's analysis of social alienation. This paper focuses on the way in which an institution can be organised according to the principles of Oury's institutional psychotherapy, taking into account the phenomenon of social alienation. First the theory of the social alienation is described, then the praxis of Oury's institutional psychotherapy is outlined.

Key words: Psychosis, Institution, Social Alienation, Institutional Psychotherapy, Jean Oury.

"Suddenly, they appear…": On genuine, small and other Freudian case-studies

Wim Galle

Summary: Reflecting on the three symposia recently organised by Idesça in cooperation with the Gezelschap voor Psychoanalyse en Psychotherapie, the author queries the status of so-called "small case-studies". With reference to (i) his own clinical experience; (ii) so-called small Freudian case-studies (in contrast with Freud's case-studies of Dora, The Ratman, The Wolfman, Little Hans and Schreber); and (iii) the short stories of the Belgian writer Peter Verhelst (Mondschilderingen ["mouth paintings"] (2002)), it is argued that a small Freudian clinical fragment bears witness to (i) the enigmatic presence of the clinician with respect to the sudden appearance of the unconscious; (ii) the use of a certain style and a certain measure; (iii) the circumvention of imaginary reality; and (iv) the clinical structure of fantasy.

Key words: Case-study, Clinical Fragment, Unconscious, Fantasy.

Chance in Freud and P.T. Anderson's Magnolia

Isolde Roose

Summary: This paper deals with the Freudian conception of chance and with the way in which this theme is elaborated in the work of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. Freud's interpretation of chance or symptomatic actions, belief in chance and in superstition is illustrated with reference to some small case fragments. P.T. Anderson, in his film Magnolia, also questions the hidden meaning of apparently accidental events in human life. Whereas Freud trips up the illusion of free will by pointing to the determination of our speech and actions by unconscious, powerful mechanisms, Anderson, in contrast, approaches the notion of chance as an astonishing coincidence that should be seized rather than ignored and dismissed as something purely accidental and trivial. It is concluded that both authors make a plea for the not so fortuitous nature of chance and for breaking with repetition by opening our eyes to whatever comes our way by chance.

Key words: Freud, Chance, Determinism, Film, Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia.

"If only I could be able to write it all down": Gerard Reve and the useless language of desire

Kris Pint

Summary: In this article, the reader is introduced to the fascinating fictional universe created by the Dutch writer Gerard Reve. Far from searching for the person behind the work, we examine how Reve creates his personality through his fiction, how he forges a new language for his (homosexual) desire: a mixture of irony and religious piety, of romantic and vulgar idioms, of fairy tales and memories, a language that enables him to cope with his fears and his disturbed relationship with his parents. It is argued, with reference to the theoretical framework of Kristeva, that Reve's work helps to assure his subjectivity, to protect him from "going mad" as he puts it, but at the same time also provides a place where, via the irony, the metaphors, the style, the humour, via everything that defies the symbolic law, the writer celebrates the jouissance of the Other, in the text.

Key words: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Gerard Reve, Julia Kristeva.

Milan Kundera and the sorrow of Don Juan

François Levrau

Summary: The Czech author Milan Kundera, one of the most famous contemporary "literary analysts", is recognized as a master story-teller of the relationship between men and women. In this article, Kundera's perspective is compared with the Lacanian statement that "there is no such thing as a sexual relation". In a critical way, some of Kundera's protagonists (Tomas, Klíma, Martin and Havel) are confronted with the Freudo-Lacanian interpretation of the Don Juan character. Through a short historical review, the author examines how Don Juan has evolved through the centuries from vulgar libertine to romantic hero. Kundera's characters are situated within this evolutionary continuum. Both from a phenomenological and a structural viewpoint, a clear distinction is made between the characters of Don Juan and Casanova. The question is whether Kundera's characters are Don Juans or Casanovas.

Key words: Milan Kundera, Don Juan, Casanova, Seduction, Jouissance, Fantasy, Freud, Rank, Lacan