Issue 6 – December 2013

Editorial

István Tiringer

ARTICLES

Methodological study

Borbála Sarkadi: Play as an essential mechanism of therapeutic action

Theoretical study

Viktor Boross: Seeing the meaning. Meeting points of the cognitive metaphor theory with psychotherapeutic theory and practice

Question of practice

Irmgard Dettbarn: The Skype, the uncanny third and psychoanalysis.

Translated by Anna Mária Hansjürgens

Question of practice

Amaryl Árkovits: „The touch of origin my soul senses”

 

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Interview

Lili Valkó’s interview with Katalin Dobó and Dániel Eörsi about The Hungarian Bálint Mihály Psychosomatic Society

Discussions, comments

Debate on child psychotherapy – Annamária Csák ¨ Éva Csiffáry ¨ Zsuzsa Janda ¨ Éva Szamosi

Ethical questions in therapeutic practice 8. – Karolina Cziglán ¨ Elvira Kácsándi ¨ Mária Tornyossy

Point of view – The American Psychological Association’s recognition of psychotherapy effectiveness. Translated by Márta Takácsy

Letter to the Readerabout the 10th conference of Psychotherapy

News

Reports

Conferences – Katinka Kertész ¨ Ildikó Kuritárné Szabó, Katalin Merza

Literary LetterMária Koltai

Book reviews – István Tiringer ¨ József Varga¨ Katalin Zana

Lists of professional books and periodicals

Professional programs

Editorial announcements

 

Methodological study

Borbála Sarkadi:

Play as an essential mechanism of therapeutic action

The paper intends to show how, in psychotherapy, difficult situations can be solved by some form of play or playful activity from the part of the therapist. A child and an adult therapy vignette illustrates the way the therapist gets personally involved, but also controls the process, maintaining or repeatedly renewing her own reflectivity.

The above phenomena are examined in a psychoanalytic theoretical frame. An important aspect of the recent changes in the theory of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the role of the therapeutic relationship in therapeutic action. While previously interpretation was considered most important, today it is believed that verbal interventions themselves work primarily through the relationship. More and more attention is paid to the interactions within the relationship: most of them are necessarily carried out in action, and they cannot entirely be verbalized. One important form of action within the relationship is play, which also works in this “not completely verbalizable”, “not exactly known” field, and operates in a transitional space which makes it possible for the patient to approach some unacknowledged aspects of himself in safety, to try out new solutions, to find new ways of affect-regulation. This is quite obvious in child therapy, where it is everyday experience that the therapist “just” plays with the child, and still there is improvement. But play is also an important element in adult therapy, because the originality and complexity provided by playfulness is much in need.

Keywords: play – therapeutic action – enactment – psychoanalysis – psychoanalytic psychotherapy


Theoretical study

Viktor Boross:

Seeing the meaning. Meeting points of the cognitive metaphor theory with psychotherapeutic theory and practice

 

Throughout the history of human thinking various approaches have evolved for the explanation of metaphor. The cognitive approach, evolving in the 1980s, has become a new major direction in metaphor research. The cognitive metaphor theory postulates that there is a direct link between conceptual metaphors and the human cognitive system, namely, the conceptual metaphor is an inherent part of human cognitive processes such as attention, memory, thought processes, and meaning attribution. In the present review, after introducing the cognitive metaphor theory, I will show some examples of the possible meeting points between the conceptual metaphor theory and psychoanalysis and family therapy both on levels of theory and practice. Specifically, I aim to emphasize the importance of the use of metaphors in psychotherapeutic meta-theories. In the second part of this review I aim to draw on common points between the conceptual metaphor and cognitive behavioural therapy through specific examples from the use of metaphors in psychotherapy. In cognitive therapy metaphors can be used in various ways: in the socialization of the patient to CBT, in the understanding of the factors contributing to the maintenance of the symptoms, in the restructuring of the cognitive attributional style of the patient and in developing a new perspective. The individual use of metaphors also gives useful information about the cognitive style and belief system of a person. Thus, the metaphors used by the patients themselves can be regarded as an index of therapeutic change if they can be integrated in the therapeutic process and used as reference points throughout the course of psychotherapy.

Keywords: cognitive metaphor theory – psychotherapy – metatheory – cognitive behaviour therapy

 

Question of practice

Irmgard Dettbarn:

The Skype, the uncanny third and psychoanalysis.

Translated by Anna Mária Hansjürgens

 

Reviewing her experiences the author raises the following questions: Which special characteristics has the setting when we use Skype (video phone) in psychoanalytic psychotherapy? Which kind of emotions, phantasies and thoughts emerge in the analyst and the patient when they hear each other via microphone and see each other in the monitor, instead of physical presence?

Does the absence of corporal closeness more difficult the development of the required confidential relationship? Could this “third” turn into denial of the feeling of missing and of separation in the psychoanalytic relation? Can lack of bodily presence defend us from physical aggression or from sexual temptation?

Do transference, resistance and regression disappear in the empire of magic? Does Skype change into uncanny third during the therapy process?

Key-words: Skype – the uncanny third – psychoanalysis through internet – “remote therapies” – loss of body and space – effects of computer techniques on the therapy process


Question of practice

Amaryl Árkovits: „The touch of origin my soul senses”

„The touch of origin my soul senses”

According to my observations, young adult men have a tendency to respond with psychosis to the Eriksonian identity vs. role diffusion psychosocial developmental crisis. Based on the clinical symptoms the cross sectional view represents the category of schizophreniform psychosis, however transference and countertransference differs from those of the patients’ suffering from schizophrenia. Based on the psychotherapy and follow-up subsequent the acute phase these psychotic episodes may be serving development and search for identity. These young men succeed to lead a live free of symptoms and medication in the long run. However, a certain family role constellation hinders their development: fathers are either weak or physically or emotionally remote. Thus, fighting with them, which is inevitable for the formation of male identity, becomes impossible or causeless. In these cases, psychosis may be interpreted as a liminal phase – like in the case of the rites of passage when the old identity is withdrawn, but the new has not been articulated yet. Being away from the ordinary space-time reality, it is possible to question the norms. However, the young adult needs the help of the community for reintegration. In the cases I observed, it was the therapist who represented the community, and the therapeutic relationship and work with her enabled their return.

Keywords: psychosis – disorganization – liminal – liminoid – reintegration

 

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