Introduction

Le résumé fourni par la source

Psychoanalysts – one foot in the nineteenth century and the other planted firmly in the twenty-first – have been talking and writing about Freud&s;s cases continuously over a time-period spanning more than a hundred years. It would appear that we members of the psychoanalytic tribe are compelled to travel to a point of origin in the manner of wild salmon to their spawning grounds, or pilgrims to a hallowed place. The cases have been variously used; as means of introducing novices to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis, as a means of illustrating what distinguishes psychoanalysis from other forms of approach to psychological suffering, as a point of identification for psychoanalysts, as a point of divergence for psychoanalytic schools, as a starting point for renewal of the field, as an historical flag-bearer for a unique research methodology, and as a place-marker for perspective-taking in discussions of where the field now stands, no matter when the now. Whatever the era, every psychoanalytic generation goes back to go forward, and every generation&s;s “return to Freud” has its own special character marked by its own contextual time. Ours – that of the Freud Lacan institute (FLi) – was no different. To use an Irish colloquialism, “the times that were in it” were exceptional. Our FLi return to Freud via the six major case studies constituted a psychoanalytic labour of love in a time of pandemic. This book brings the reader into contact with that collective work, involving participation of the international community of psychoanalysts, trainees, students, mental health professionals and the ordinarily curious. That very particular gathering, unique for its time, marked the beginning of what only a few years later we would consider commonplace – a virtual space for presentations where psychoanalysts from across the globe could come together to present their thoughts and formulations to an equally international audience, for discussion and critique. The feeling of broaching something new heightened the excitement and sense of importance of this project given over to a reconsideration of Freud&s;s case studies, child of the impossible – when time appeared to stop and space collapse.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.