This article is a reflection on institutional work with psychotic people. The myth of Sisyphus serves as a metaphor for the difficulties and possibilities one encounters in this work: on the one hand, the never-ending nature of the work, the laborious progress, the alienating dynamics of the institution; and on the other, the movement, the chances to meet one another. The movement of institutional psychotherapy offers tools for constant reinvention and endurance in this work. Clinical examples illustrate how this thinking tries to realise itself in the daily practice of the institution.
Related articles
On the Nature of the Creative Process in Art Brut, Reflections Inspired by the Work of Arthur PerreiraStarting 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…
Residential Work within Special Youth CareBased on personal experience in a residential setting for adolescent boys within special youth care, the author connects the ‘being difficult to guide’ label of some youngsters, which often results in exclusion from care, to a ‘not wanting’ on the one hand and a ‘being different’ on the other. From within a psychoanalytic perspective both aspects are linked through two clinical fagments with, respectively, an ignorance of the primary function of a residential institution, and, the exclusion of the subjective…
Evolutionary Psychology and Psychoanalysis. On the Nature of the UnconsciousOne way in which the dynamic unconscious is justified is by taking into account the evolution and development of the psychical apparatus. It could be argued that evolutionary psychology is the right way to approach this issue. We contend however that the focus on survival value leads to the overestimation of a functional approach being and to neglect of a the structural viewpoint. This has consequences for how the unconscious is defined. Whereas in Freudian metapsychology both stances (the structural…