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

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.

On the Nature of the Creative Process in Art Brut, Reflections Inspired by the Work of Arthur Perreira

Starting from the viewpoint that Art Brut cannot be differentiated from professional art on the basis of an analysis of either its style or its content, the author questions the nature of the creative process in Art Brut, with reference to his observation of a psychotic artist and to the work of Jean Oury on Creation and Schizophrenia (1989). It is argued that in Art Brut there are three main elements: (i) the need to create which manifests itself as an attempt to cure; (ii) a characteristic attempt to communicate or to install a social bond; and (iii) endless repetition. However, while these elements may be particularly explicit in Art Brut and therefore suggest an interesting perspective for the study of the creative process in general, it is concluded that they do not in themselves constitute a set of distinctive criteria with which to differentiate “Art Brut” from professional art.

“La psychothérapie Institutionnelle… Influences psychanalytiques” Interview de Jean-Claude Polack

Cet article est la retranscription de l’interview avec le psychiatre Jean-Claude Polack. Dans la deuxième partie de l’interview, l’interviewé parle de quelques influences théoriques de la Psychothérapie Institutionnelle: Lacan, Pankow, la phénoménologie, la relation entre Guattari et Lacan. L’interview se termine par une réflexion sur la prise en charge des psychotiques en cabinet.

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La psychothérapie institutionnelle… Histoire(s), politique, résistance. Interview avec Jean-Claude Polack (I)

Cet article est la retranscription de l’interview avec le psychiatre Jean-Claude Polack. Dans la première partie de l’interview, l’interviewé retrace les évènements politi¬ques majeurs qui traversent l’histoire de la psychothérapie institutionnelle: la guerre d’Espagne, la Résistance, l’extermination douce, la guerre d’Algérie, le Parti Communiste, mai ’68, le droit à l’avortement, etc. Il situe également les relations conflictuelles et tendues entre la psychothérapie institutionnelle, la schizo-analyse et l’antipsychiatrie, qu’il a vécu au premier rang lors de ses 12 années de travail à la clinique de la Borde, où il était un proche de Félix Guattari.

 

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