Label: psychoanalysis

Pioneer psychology

Pioneer psychology

I was reminded of something myself thought about sometimes. Not very profound. If you want something like that, you can read these columns by the psychoanalyst Per-Magnus Johansson in GP. Seems to be a theme he is drawn to.

"Nothing interests me less than Andy Warhol's sexuality" (GP, 2023-09-16)

"It is pointless to psychiatrise Serge Gainsbourg" (GP, 2023-07-14)

That people who go against the flow, track in the snow themselves, are often a little crazy. Also. Besides their stubbornness and talent. There is often a portion of self-assertion, rowdiness, and lust for revenge baked in. Which not infrequently has to do with early experiences of just being left out and odd. Can one think.

This Per-Magnus Johansson who, by the way, is lecturing at the ABF house in Stockholm tomorrow 20/9. Then about August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud and loneliness. Speaking of…

Johansson starts the season with this as well "With psychoanalysis from the cradle to the grave".

The cradle rocks on

The cradle rocks on

The new program for "With psychoanalysis from the cradle to the grave" has arrived. Now in its 23rd year, a true institution. The autumn theme seems to be literature. August Strindberg, Lars Ahlin...

Personally, I'm especially looking forward to 20/12: "What significance does Freud's Jewish identity have for psychoanalysis?", with, among others, Svante Weyler.

Location: ABF building on Sveavägen, Stockholm

The Swedish Psychoanalytic Association arranges: https://www.psykoanalys.se

Fly with Frankl

Fly with Frankl

There is no point in just re-posting what is already on YouTube, for anyone to watch. But this was special, to me, so I'm doing it anyway. It is remarkable in any case.

Viktor Frankl, who I don't really know much about. He was in a concentration camp, survived, became a psychiatrist (probably an analyst too, because everyone became one at the time). Founded his own school, which he called “Logotherapy”?

In neo-spiritual circles, he has a special place, alongside Jung, the founder of psychosynthesis, Assagioli, and a few others. Because they are perceived as softer, more human.

I have owned his most well-known book, probably in a couple of installments, but never read it: "Life must have meaning". Never heard or seen him speak before. Perhaps not so many have done that, after all? But here is a lovely, energetic clip from a lecture, where he - as I understand it - explains the basis of his motto, this "meaning". He does it from 1 min 20 sec in using an airplane metaphor.

Jung in Psykologtidningen

Jung in Psykologtidningen

“Applications for the course in Jungian psychology [University of Gävle] have increased by 650 percent in the last five years. The training places, which were previously 15, are now 130. According to Åke Tilander, many of those accepted are studying in the psychology, sociology and medical programs. With the course, they want to get a complement and a comprehensive understanding of the human being."

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Dream job

Dream job

Yesterday I lost my new scarf. Had been visiting friends and when it was time to get dressed and go home, it was gone. Gone. Couldn't find it anywhere. Once home, I continued to search, in the pockets of the jacket (for the fifth time), in the pack, in all the bags & nooks and crannies of a wagon that had been on the trip. Not then. Went to bed disappointed.

When I woke up this morning I knew exactly where it was! Out in the hall, up to my jacket & stuck my hand in the hood. Voila! There it lay.

Wondering what actually happens when you sleep. What resources are freed up? If this, what else is possible?

What was wrong with Freud?

What was wrong with Freud?

People like to pick on Sigmund Freud. He did and thought and wrote so many strange things.

Sometimes it feels as if he has become like a mix of "The Progenitor" in his own imaginative theories, who is challenged and killed (and chewed up) by his unborn sons - and by Särimmer in Norse mythology. He keeps respawning so you can hump him 🙂

But - so sometimes people manage to remember that, okay, he actually lived a hundred years ago. How many other quirky and limited things didn't happen then! Various cultural figures who were petty Nazis, racists, misogynists, etc. And at the same time recognized talented, artistic, profound, wise and sensitive individuals.

And then you can normally calm down a bit, get your heart rate down. It is as if one still has some basic understanding of what is called "mentality history", which can then be activated. This means that a collective development has taken place on certain levels.

But, oh that's where I was going!, I wonder if we who have been deeply impressed by various neo-spiritual/esoteric ideas might even be extra inclined to judge Freud? And find it hard to overlook his flaws? That our thinking apparatus may have even become a little shabby or underdeveloped in some respects due to the spiritual beliefs? How then?

Well (speculatively), because one has been dazzled, intoxicated to the point of the thought of "eternal, timeless wisdom", "enlightened people" (or even the company of such individuals), etc., which must have existed in all times & who watched the world and fellow human beings much like we ourselves can do, that Freud can then be dismissed as an average or parenthesis.

When in fact he was so much ahead of his time that many have not yet had time to sink in... His thoughts still offer resistance, challenge. (Although a lot has also become part of the common vocabulary, of course, or the usual way of looking at oneself or each other.)

At the same time as he was a man of his time, too, that is.

The horrors of childhood

The horrors of childhood

What causes mental illness? Sometimes it is claimed that everything depends on childhood, how one's parents failed in one way or another (or many). There is probably some truth in that. But I would like to bring up another perspective.

How it is basically not possible to grow up/bring up children without there being a lot of mistakes. A little impressionistically, and completely incomplete, I would like to mention such, freely from memory, that I have read, which corrects the overly idealized image one may have.

I would argue that it is impossible to protect children from a plethora of unpleasantness, which they are not equipped to handle or process (precisely because they are children).

Right from the start! Being born is a hell of a drama. There are psychologists (Frank) who believe that a "birth trauma" is the basis for all possible difficulties later in life. And how to protect the child from it? You have to go out. And then? Hopefully a period of relative harmony and quiet symbiosis with mother will follow. But then we have this thing about "the good and the bad chest" (Klein) which, of course, you can make fun of, but which probably still has a grain of truth in it. Just think! The frustration of not getting the food exactly when you want it. (Or the diaper changed, or that the temperature of the environment is regulated exactly when needed.) Crying and fear of being abandoned.

And then you get a little older. Maybe there are siblings, younger or older, who are also there and disturb the peace of mind... Envy, all shades. How the hell are parents supposed to protect from that?

And that the parents are not only parents, but also (at best) have a completely separate relationship, where the children have nothing to do. This whole thing about finding one's parents in the bedroom, the "primordial scene", in reality or fantasy (Freud). Others, as I remember it (Laplanche), say that it is something that children pick up very subtly. For example, the mother seems to have something, her partner, that draws her attention away from the child, must be experienced as both threatening and incomprehensible.

To this must be added all sorts of other feelings and overwhelming (precisely because you are a child) impressions that you are exposed to. Parents' and older siblings' entire register of emotions... anger, worry, inattention, lust, fear... which the small child has little chance of understanding.

So, we probably - all of us - come out of childhood as rather disheveled individuals. And maybe there is something good about it even? The world is quite a confusing, challenging place to be in for the rest of your life. So having had to become a little thick-skinned is perhaps a good thing? (Then, of course, there are children who get to experience far more than the normal or practically unavoidable, but that's not what I wanted to capture here.)

I conclude with the famous expression (Winnicott) about how no one should have greater ambitions as a parent than to be "good enough". That so many people are depressed, anxious today, and that the sales of anti-depressant drugs are breaking all records, is not something that can be blamed on the previous generation. There are a lot of other factors that come into play, rather, I think.

Spirituality from the cradle to the grave

Spirituality from the cradle to the grave

It's just words. As you use to get something said, catch it where you anticipate, and be able to be reasonably understood by others, it's a wobbly dance. (Like him who painted with jam in creamed milk on TV many years ago?) 🙂

Anyway, I'll let spirituality be the overriding concept, the phenomenon. Spirituality is newer spirituality, new age & much more. Religion, yes the institutionalized, the reasonably permanent or slowly changing, in both tradition, idea and matter.