by Sofie Avery | Vol 38 (1) 2020
Axel Honneth, neo-Hegeliaan en een van de meest invloedrijke denkers in de erkenningstheorie, is gekend om zijn drie sferen van erkenning: liefde, wet en solidariteit. In de eerste sfeer, liefde, ontwikkelt men het zelfvertrouwen dat het fundament zal vormen voor de andere relaties-tot-zelf in de andere sferen van erkenning. In zijn uitwerking van deze eerste sfeer van erkenning, steunt Honneth op de objectrelatietheorie van psychoanalyticus en kinderarts Donald W. Winnicott. Aan Winnicott ontleent Honneth de notie van een behoeftig subject, dat hij in dienst stelt van zijn bredere subjectnotie van een rationeel, autonoom individu. Dit individu is bij Honneth echter ook onbelichaamd. Aan de hand van een analyse van deze subjectnotie aanwezig in Honneths erkenningstheorie, zullen we zijn verwaarlozing van het lichaam trachten te duiden. Hierin vertrekken we van de hypothese dat Honneths verwaarlozing van het lichaam geen toeval is, maar net ten dienste staat van zijn subjectnotie, waarin een logica van normaliteit werkzaam is. Hoewel Winnicott het lichaam wel een plaats geeft, blijkt deze logica van normaliteit ook bij hem werkzaam, gezien hij enkel normafwijkende lichamen in overweging neemt. We concluderen door de (gedeeltelijke) afwezigheid van het ‘normale’ lichaam bij Honneth en Winnicott te verklaren door een terugwijken voor de verdeeldheid die het lichaam kan brengen.
by Jeroen Donckers | Vol 19 (4) 2001
This paper is based on the experience of watching a piece of theatre in which children dub the dialogues of adults. In order to account for the observation that this dubbing as a form of repetition produces a gain without actually adding anything, we formulate the hypothesis that repetition in a child’s play can have the value of an interpretation. We combine this with the clinical observation of Winnicott that playing in itself is therapeutic, illustrated by some short clinical vignettes. A first support for our hypothesis lies in the analysis of the Fort-Da game described by Freud. Furthermore we describe two essential aspects of the child’s play: a supportive function for entering language and the creation of Desire while playing. These two aspects are clarified by making use of the theory of the Russian developmental psychologist Lev Semyonovitch Vygotsky.
by Jeroen Donckers | Vol 25 (1) 2007
This article deals with the necessary dynamic between the psyche or movement and the object. The notion of movement serves as a material conception of the psyche, in the same way as the drive, the life-drive and language are material: they exist on the basis of a mutual defining relationship to a support, to an object. This necessity (or thought) is considered from within psychosis. Using the poet Antonin Artaud as the movement is illustrated which is not defined by their grounding encounter with the object. With a neologism psychosis is named as ontrand, both in the sense of approach as well as in the sense of distancing. On the basis of a fragment of a case it is explained that, in a way that is different, it is up to the analyst or therapist to ontrand psychosis. In support of this ontranden the case is made for a sufficient continuing constellation of objects. This translation is offered as what Winnicott meant by transitional objects and phenomena.
by Jeroen Donckers | Vol 20 (3) 2002
According to Freud, psychoanalysis and education are considered as two impossible professions, both necessarily failing on the rock of castration. At this point the subject has to create an original construct. It is argued that the theoretical concepts good enough mother and true self can be read as the particular constructs of the subject D.W. Winnicott. His particular position towards castration is explored as revealed in the idea of the transitional object. It is not only the content of his work, but, perhaps more importantly, also his style of writing that tries to “hold” the reader. It is precisely in his ideas about a good enough mother/good enough analyst who knows how to hold the child/patient in order to create a true self, that Winnicott’s solution for the impossible professions is found. Psychoanalysis and education are thus conceived of as transforming into another potentially impossible profession: that of creating a desiring subject.
