Pszichoterápia
A professional journal of practice based on psychotherapeutic methods
A quarterly publication 31st year, issue 1. February 2022.
Contents
Editorial
Noémi Berger, Márta Takácsy
ARTICLES
Questions of practice
Eszter Mónika Ács: The struggle against separation
Case study
György Gábor Németh: Empty rooms – An attempt to reconstruct a separation trauma
Case study
Irmgard Kreft: Methods of transference focused therapy in children – a case report. Translated by: Krisztina Csáky-Pallavicini
Invited paper
Henrietta Benkő, Gábor Szőnyi: A mirror seldomly used: Roster of Hungarian psychotherapists and training guide. Reflections on the last three decades of the profession
WORKSHOP
Workshop presentation
Ágnes Tar: The online journey of dreams and freedom
Workshop discussion
Discussion with the leaders of Magyar Pszichoanalitikus Egyesület – Tibor Cece Kiss, Krisztina Pál
PROFESSIONAL LIFE
Portrait
Farewell to Lucia Moukhtar – Compiled by Katalin Szili
Discussions, comments
Debate on taking notes during therapy or consultation – Cece Kiss Tibor ♦ Mária Barna, Noémi Berger
Debate on the future of psychotherapy – Ildikó Rózsa ♦ Gábor Szőnyi ♦ László Bokor
Ethical dilemmas of therapeutic practice 36th: János Eszik ♦ Emese Néveri ♦ Ákos Varga
News
In memoriam – A. T. Beck– László Tringer
Reports
Conferences – Krisztina Pál ♦ Zsuzsanna Oroszi, Éva Vasas ♦ Mária Barna ♦ Cece Tibor Kiss ♦ Linda Enid Roszik ♦ Mária Barna
Museum letter – Gábor Szőnyi
Book reviews – Zsuzsanna Benyus ♦ Kata Köhler ♦ István Ormay ♦ Aranka Tiringer ♦ István Tiringer ♦ István Tiringer ♦ Dániel Trixler
List of professional books and periodicals
Professional programs
Announcements
ARTICLES
Questions of practice
Eszter Mónika Ács
The struggle against separation
The study reports about a specific mental condition that protects against loss, the pain of loss, at the same time hinders the development of personality. It affects all of us, we all have somehow suffered – someone easier and someone harder – the natural crisis of psychic development, in which we are born psychologically through the loss of separation. The process of creating our independent subject is not as evident, as our physical birth. Psychic separation can never be complete. What does this mean? The dialectical relationship between the Self and the Other maintains a space of reflection where the recognition, the meaning is born. This dialectical process is often damaged, and the damage creates special opportunities for self-perception and the perception of the other, thus the psychic perception of reality. The study uses J. Steiner’s conception of the pathological organization of the personality to understand this process and moves in the direction of unfolding the topic by examining the relationship between denial – as a self-protective mechanism – and the symbolic function. As an illustration, it provides insight into the interactions of therapeutic work and provides clues to the therapeutic process.
Keywords: separation – psychic retreat – denial – perversion – mourning – physical content
Case study
György Gábor Németh
Empty rooms – An attempt to reconstruct a separation trauma
In the study, I aim to demonstrate a new kind of therapeutic approach through the detailed description of some therapeutic sessions of a traumatized young woman, Beata. This method is based on an attempt to integrate the analytic paradigm and yoga – examining the connection between the interpersonal unconscious processes and their possible energetic background, the chakras.
The chakras as “signal sending & receiving devices” provide a specific kind of experience, for instance in the dimension of survival, sensory pleasures or mastery and they relay an identical archetypic drama, which manifests in the therapeutic relationship as transference and countertransference. The instantaneous changes in the activity of the chakras sensitively reflect the emotional changes of the relationship and this can be followed by the observation of somatic countertransference.
Beata, who went to therapy mainly for her panic symptoms, is the second child of a jealous, impulsive father and an unstable, emotionally distant mother. Her childhood was full of traumatic events caused by her family. She witnessed her father’s permanent terror threatening and abusing her mother, and sometimes she had to ask for the neighbours’ help in case of an emergency. After the separation of her parents, she moved to an adobe house in the countryside with her mother, where she spent whole nights alone as a not yet nine-year-old, while her mother was away at work. These threatening experiences of separation were uncovered during a discussion of a panic attack when she had got lost in a forest during an excursion and had not felt safe.
The introduction of the new approach is connected to the work with projective identification leading to a partial transformation, paying special attention to the alterations in the complete countertransference dimension and the therapeutic interventions adjusted to these changes.
Keywords: trauma – somatic countertransference – projective identification – yoga – chakra
Case study
Irmgard Kreft
Methods of transference focused therapy in children – a case report.
The ongoing treatment of a five-year-old girl with borderline personality organization exemplifies the strategic principles of transference focused psychotherapy (TFP). One can observe how the girl already began re-enacting her dominant object relational dyads and her typical defence strategies as she played and during the transference of our first meeting. The therapist describes her attempts to develop age-based and TFP-based interventions. By examining the changes in the transference and the way in which the child played, we can see a gradual step by step development toward integration. This development can first be seen in the emergence of libidinously determined dyads, later on also in her identification with the mainly defended self-representation and finally in her growing ability for symbolization instead of symbolic equalization.
Keywords: Therapy with children – analytic therapy – transference focused psychotherapy – borderline personality organisation
Translated by: Krisztina Csáky-Pallavicini
Originally published: Kreft, Irmgard (2015): Techniken der Übertragungsfokussierten Therapie bei Kindern. Ein Fallbeispiel. PTT – Persönlichkeitsstörungen: Theorie und Therapie, 19: 14–22. https://elibrary.klett-cotta.de/article/99.120110/ptt-19-1-14,
Invited paper
Henrietta Benkő, Gábor Szőnyi
A mirror seldomly used: Roster of Hungarian psychotherapists and training guide. Reflections on the last three decades of the profession
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Pszichoterápia journal, the authors overview the history of the psychotherapy in the last three decades, using a rarely used mirror. This mirror is the rosters of Hungarian psychotherapists and the related publications, the training guides: the history and the comparison of the different issues. The first roster and training guide was published in 1993, which was updated from time to time (with varying frequency, in every 3-6 years) by the current editors of the publication. By comparing the published rosters the changes and development of psychotherapy training and supply, evolves over the last three decades. International professional legitimacy intentions (Task force of psychotherapists from the socialist countries and ECP – European Certificate for Psychotherapy -) also appear in the study. The summary of changes in the content (and form) of the training guides provides insight not only into the historical data but also into the evolution of professional, political and social legitimacy of psychotherapy, from 1985 until these days. The study concludes with an overview of the current situation, the details will be contained in the updated roster and training guide, which will be published this year.
Keywords: Roster of Hungarian psychotherapists – training guide – psychotherapy training – psychotherapy supply – history of the profession
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