The constructivistic theory of Maturana and Varela allows us to construct a schema that orders the diversity of psychosomatic phenomena. In doing so, Cartesian dualism is transcended.
Fundamental commonalities between systemstheory and psychoanalysis are explored. The integration of both approaches is presented as potentially fruitful for understanding and treating psychosomatic diseases. The ethical dimension will also be explored.
Related articles
On Racism from a Psychoanalytic Point of ViewThis paper focuses on Freud's interpretation of racism and xenophobia as described in his essay "A Comment on Anti-Semitism" and in his "Letter to the Editor of Time and Tide". The psychobiographical method Jean-Louis Maisonneuve uses in his work L'extrême droite sur le divan is also critiqued. An alternative starting point for a psychoanalytic interpretation of racism and xenophobia is found in the works of Tahar Ben Jelloun and Gerard Miller, in which racist language and sexual fantasies projected onto…
Reflections on the structure and finality of psychoanalytic interpretationsThis article differentiates between two forms of interpretation: symbolic and imaginary. It is argued that an analytic interpretation always revisits a symbolic interpretation made by the subject, resulting in the subject also making an imaginary interpretation.. Furthermore, a psychoanalytic interpretation can only be of service to the analytic cure if the analyst makes a cut between the (revisiting of the symbolic) interpretation made by the analyst and the imaginary interpretation made by the analysand.
Psychoanalytic Materialism. A Political-Philosophical Approach In these times of the increasing neurologisation of the person, the question is not only how psychoanalysis can or should relate to the neurosciences, but also how it should position itself in relation to psychology, as the latter has seemingly unproblematically aligned itself with the new hegemonious discourse. The author argues that philosophy, specifically political philosophy and ideology critique, that can bring clarity here. The central idea is that where neurologisation and psychologisation merge, psychoanalysis shall have to clarify its…