Editorial
Tünde Stang
ARTICLES
Theoretical study
Bernadett Babusa, Ferenc Túry: Muscle dysmorphia in the aspect of self development
Essay study
Tamás Tényi: Dionysos and the blond beast — Nietzsche and Jung
Case study with commentaries
The analyst at work
Ronald Britton: The use of Bion’s concept of „the selected fact” (translated by Gábor Szőnyi)
Marina Arutiunyan: Commentary on Ronald Britton’s paper “The use of Bion’s concept of the selected fact” (translated by Gábor Szőnyi)
Gábor Szőnyi: Contain your thoughts — Ronald Britton at work
Essay study
József Krékits: Beyond Freudian thought, or suspicion in culture I.
Case study
Péter Baltás: Successful cognitive-behavioral therapy of a severe sexual aversion
PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Discussion
On leading groups individually or in co-therapy II. — Etelka Büti • Mária Koltai • Zoltán Terenyi • Mária Tornyossy • Tamás Treuer
News and reports
On the present standing of psychotherapy and therapeutic community departments — János Harmatta • Anna Kantó • János Kocsis • Lajos Simon – Tamás Tölgyes • József Pál Vas • Zsolt Zalka • János Zámbori
Publishers’ lists — Animula • Lélekben Otthon • Medicina
Letter to the editor — Éva Urbán on continuous education II.
Preliminary to the 4th Conference of the Psychotherapy Journal — Gábor Szőnyi
Book reviews — Béla Birkás • Béla Buda • Katalin Futó • Kázmér Karádi • Leila Kovacsis • Viktor Vörös
Professional programs
Abstracts in English
Theoretical study
Bernadett Babusa, Ferenc Túry: Muscle dysmorphia in the aspect of self development
Muscle dysmorphia (earlier reverse anorexia) was first described in 1993. Bodybuilders are a risk population to this disorder and also to steroid use. The danger following the corresponding serious body image disorder is not only compulsive workout but also steroid abuse and dependency. The effects and medical dangers of steroid abuse are often serious. On the other hand steroid abuse causes changes in personality and behaviour, which have an impact on social relationships. This paper explores the psychological causes and the possibilities of preventing steroid abuse.
Exploring the causes of the development of muscle dysmorphia we have to take into account the possibility of the damage of early self. According to the theory of Fonagy the undifferentiated psychological self may result in the person experiencing themselves only through their physical self. In such a case the body will express the personality and provides the only sense of stable identity for the person.
The early theory of Sartre specifies the gap between body experience and body image as the basis of problems relating to the body. Finally Merleau-Ponty surmounts the gap by his theory that close bodily contact with mother, and her reflecting the baby’s self integrate the body image and inner experience of the body.
Essay study
Tamás Tényi: Dionysos and the blond beast — Nietzsche and Jung
This article — which is a chapter of a monograph by the author — deals with Carl Gustav Jung’s evaluation of Nietzsche. The poetic philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche had a great impact on the development of analytical psychology, Jung integrated and/or misunderstood Nietzsche’s philosophical anthropology in several places in his work. It can be demonstrated by the conception of the Dionysian Self, which was more „created” by Nietzsche and more „discovered” by the structuralism of Jung. The paper explores the details of Jung’s five years long Zarathustra seminar, which was a hidden and unknown event for a long period in the history of psychoanalysis.
Case study with commentaries
The analyst at work
Ronald Britton: The use of Bion’s concept of „the selected fact” (translated by Gábor Szőnyi)
Marina Arutiunyan: Commentary on Ronald Britton’s paper “The use of Bion’s concept of the selected fact” (translated by Gábor Szőnyi)
Gábor Szőnyi: Contain your thoughts — Ronald Britton at work
„The analyst at work” is a recent series of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. The idea is to show the micro-process of ongoing analytic sessions; to show the analyst’s attitude, the development of the analyst’s interventions and the interplay between patient and analyst in statu nascendi. The paper and the two commentaries were read at the IJP and MPS Second Moscow “Psychoanalyst at Work Conference” of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and of the Moscow Psychoanalytic Society, 4- 6 May, 2007.
Ronald Britton’s paper describes Bion’s theory of the „selected fact” in the crystallization of psychoanalytic intuition and it’s possible simulation by theoretically overvalued ideas. The author displays the way he works by presenting details of a session of an analysis, including the internal reflections of the analyst.
In her commentary Marina Arutiunyan shares a special technique with the reader: she reads piece by piece Britton’s case presentation, and gives her associations step by step.
Gábor Szőnyi’s comments focus on exploring Britton’s „private theory”, and its impact on the understanding of the patient.
Essay study
József Krékits: Beyond Freudian thought, or suspicion in culture I.
In my essay I am observing one of Freud’s summary work, the „Civilization and Its Discontents”, which also has subjective elements, regarding the author’s ‘discontent’, and searching for its sources then and there.
I am trying to find the borderline, the meta-position, where Freud launches his observations from and gets to the laying down of the foundations of psychoanalysis. The work of many thousand-pages comes from the minority ground of double-identity, in the atmosphere of growing anti-Semitism. His work is also an answer to the challenge, naturally, not avoiding the pitfalls. As it was written in the forecast of holocaust, I have to deal with the greatest scandal of the 20th century, how, by using Freud’s basic concepts and partly stepping over them, it may be explained. To be able to answer the challenges of our times we should try to face and work on the past, the Freudian spirit, in the interrelation of history, culture and the individual.
Case study
Péter Baltás: Successful cognitive-behavioral therapy of a severe sexual aversion
The author reports the therapy of a 22-year-old woman with severe primary sexual aversion. The cause of the aversion was a sexual abuse, suffered when she was 9-year-old.
Before this therapy the patient lived a totally asexual life. With her partner (a 23-year-old man) the relationship was only intellectual and spiritual. Her partner agreed to take part in the treatment as a „co-therapist”. The author conceptualised the patient’s sexual aversion as a male-phobia, as an intense fear of the physical contact with a male. Therefore the author applied systematic desensitisation as a main method of therapy, in vivo in the patient’s home (with the co-therapist), and in imagination in the therapeutic sessions.
In the cognitive part of the simultaneous therapy the patient successfully corrected her dysfunctional attitudes relating to sexuality, male-phobia, and low self-esteem.
The therapy continued for nearly two years, and resulted in complete success.
In the middle of the second year of treatment the patient and her partner got married.
The therapy came to an end, when the patient became able to live a conventional sexual life.
It seems from the case study that cognitive-behavioural therapy is effective in the treatment of primary sexual aversion.