SUMMER 2022
Binaries: Psychodynamic Insights in a World View Split Apart, Seth Allcorn
ABSTRACT: The natural world around us including our interpersonal and organizational worlds is universally subjected to a form of perception and thinking, that by its nature distorts our ability to make sense of our experience. This is underappreciated, if not unrecognized. These distortions are the result of the omnipresence of binaries in mind that divide the world into a black and white phenomenology of good versus bad or evil, up versus down, hot versus cold and us versus them. This splitting of the world apart is explored using object relations theory, where the psychodynamics of splitting and projection not only split selves, others, groups, and organizations, but also assign to the sides of the split good or bad elements. The good self or group may be confronted with an evil other or group that merits attack — and even eradication — as underscored by ethnic cleansing and genocide throughout history. The focus in this article is on a specific type of pairing in human thought and emotion: binaries, and how object relations theoretical perspectives provide insight into what can become a black and white world.
Climate Change and Overpopulation, David Lotto
Abstract: This brief paper addresses two issues relevant to the phenomenon of climate change. The first involves examining some of the motives that have and continue to contribute to the current situation — both global warming and the broader issue of the ecological damage that our species has done and is doing to the planet. The strongest of these motives is fueled by the ideology of free-market capitalism, which holds that restrictions to the pursuit of economic gain are anathema. The second issue is the question of the relation between overpopulation and the amount of damage being done to our environment; and the motivations for the resistance to acknowledging that overpopulation plays a role in the human produced pollution and environmental degradation we are experiencing.
From the French Revolution to Napoleon I: the New Figures of the Propaganda of the French State, Brigitte Demeure
ABSTRACT: According to the philosopher J.-J. Rousseau,”Man is naturally good and it is society that depraves him. The key word of the ideology of the leaders of the French revolution was the ”regeneration” of man and society. The revolutionary ideology glorifies Nature, a maternal figure par excellence. The goddess Isis, as a maternal allegory of Nature, is one of its main figures. The painter Jacques-Louis David was in charge of propagating these ideas through revolutionary festivals. He also became the official painter of Napoleon I. In the image propagated by the Empire, Napoleon presented himself both as the first son of Nature (Isis, Cybele, Ceres), but also as the first son of the Catholic Church, of the Virgin Mary, of the homeland, of the Nation, and of France. The notion of group illusion as it was elaborated by the French psychoanalyst, Didier Anzieu, aids the understanding of these representations.
Castration Anxiety and Circumcision, Sheila Levi
ABSTRACT: This study examined the psychological effects of circumcision on Turkish-Muslim boys. A research sample totaling 193 boys was divided into an experimental group comprising Muslim boys who were circumcised between the ages of 5-10 years old (MC) and five control groups: a) Muslim children circumcised soon after birth (MBC); b) Muslim children not yet circumcised (MNC); c) Turkish-Jewish children circumcised during the first week of life (TJ); d) uncircumcised Turkish-Christian children (TCh); and e) children who had undergone dental surgery (Op). The MC and the Op groups were examined pre- and post-intervention. Structured interviews and Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) were administered to the mothers, while the children were given several projective tests. Two exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted to simplify the data. In the pre-operation testing EFA all castration anxiety (CA) measures fell in the same factor and exhibited significant correlations with the older participants in the experimental group. In other words, before circumcision, older boys who have the ability to anticipate the future, showed higher CA. As Op group did not load on this factor, it was concluded that CA measures differentiated between general anxiety and castration anxiety. ANOVA tests revealed a significant decrease in MC participants’ post-test CA scores, possibly signaling their feelings of relief after circumcision. The results provide meaningful support for the Freudian castration anxiety thesis and demonstrate the value of projective tests in empirical research.
KEYWORDS: castration anxiety, Oedipus complex, circumcision, projective tests, Turkish family culture
PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: An empirical research study was performed to investigate the truth or falsity of castration anxiety in Freudian theory through exploring the effects of circumcision on Turkish-Muslim boys. Several projective tests together with objective tests were used to measure the internal world of boys.
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
Bad Bargains, David Lotto
Jay Y. Gonen, Faustian Bargains (2021). Sarasota: Peppertree Press. 180 pages
Psychohistorian Jay Gonen has just published a delightful scholarly book about a topic that has been, and is, of considerable importance – from medieval times to the present. Faustian bargains are high-stakes contracts; something that is very desirable and eagerly sought can be obtained, but, only at a price. And since a bargain, a deal, or a contract must be fair, the price that must be paid in order to get what is so wanted must be proportional to the value of what has been got. In most versions of the Faust legend what is sought after and obtained is “forbidden knowledge,” usually through supernatural or magical means and it grants its possessor great power. The price that must be paid is the forfeit of one’s soul. The author takes us on a journey through the history and evolution of the Faust myth …. …. In modern times we have perhaps the most drastic example of a Faustian Bargain in the mastering the knowledge of how to create and control nuclear fission, giving us access to a tremendous power, which we have used mostly to create and proliferate weapons of mass destruction. But here too there is a price, and a pretty steep one, ….
BOOK REVIEWS
Surrogate: How A Woman Named Sandra Made Me A Mother, Karen L Fund, International Psychoanalytic Books, New York, 2020, $19.95. Reviewed by Mali Mann
Karen Fund’s compelling story tells the reader how she became a mother with the help of a woman named Sandra. It was published posthumously in 2020.
She has created a moving memoir with courage and compassion. It reveals her devastating experience with medical professionals as she went through her infertility work up. Her decision to become a mother was not conflicted and she was driven to reach her goal. Despite her demanding professional career, she, with her supportive psychoanalyst husband, David James Fisher, was determined to build a family.
….
The surrogate mother concept has stirred up many legal, medical, religious, sociopolitical, and feminist controversies. This book gives us a comprehensive account about the lives of four people who were intimately engaged in making the miracle of birth happen. It discusses the dimensions of the controversy around Assistive Reproductive Technology and spotlights an important need for state regulation of the phenomenon.
The Many Roads of the Builders of Psychohistory, edited by Paul H. Elovitz. Ori Academic Press, New York, 2021, $24.95. Reviewed by Claude-Hélène Mayer
Psychohistory is the study of historical events from a psychological point of view. Psychohistorical research is complex in nature, holistic, and uses systemic viewpoints. Its approach is integrative and combines societal as well as individual perspectives.
The Many Roads of the Builders in Psychohistory presents the development of psychohistory from different viewpoints. It starts with a psychohistorical poem by the editor, which describes psychohistory and its gains for human- kind. The book is an homage to the early and contemporary pioneers in psychohistory who have contributed to building the field. At the same time, it acts as a guide to understanding the personal relationships and the scientific webs of psychohistory and psychohistorians. Through the lens of Paul Elovitz’s own development, struggles and deep interest as well as desire to create personal and academic relationships and networks to move the disci- pline forward, the reader gets to understand the complexity of the psycho- historical movement, its foci and developments.
PSYCHOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: POETRY
Dan Dervin
Ruth Steinberg
Howard F. Stein