click here  to read this article in Italian

A.S.S.E.Psi.NEWS (to subscribe our monthly newsletter)

Ce.Psi.Di. (Centro di Psicoterapia Dinamica "Mauro Mancia") 

Maitres à dispenser (Our reviews about psychoanalytic congresses)

Biblio Reviews (Recensioni)

Congressi ECM (in italian)

Events (our congresses)

Tatiana Rosenthal and ... other 'psycho-suiciders'

Thalassa. Portolano of Psychoanalysis

PsychoWitz - Psychoanalysis and Humor (...per ridere un po'!)

Giuseppe Leo's Art Gallery

Spazio Rosenthal (femininity and psychoanalysis)

Psicoanalisi Europea Video Channel

A.S.S.E.Psi. Video Channel

Ultima uscita/New issue:

"Psicoanalisi in Terra Santa"

Edited by/a cura di: Ambra Cusin & Giuseppe Leo                              Prefaced by/prefazione di:               Anna Sabatini Scalmati                Writings by/scritti di:                          H. Abramovitch  A. Cusin  M. Dwairy A. Lotem  M. Mansur M. P. Salatiello       Afterword by/ Postfazione di:            Ch. U. Schminck-Gustavus                 Notes by/ Note di: Nader Akkad

 Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collection/Collana: Mediterranean Id-entities

Anno/Year: 2017

Pagine/Pages: 170

ISBN:978-88-97479-12-3

"Essere bambini a Gaza. Il trauma infinito" 

Authored by/autore: Maria Patrizia Salatiello                                     

 Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collection/Collana: Mediterranean Id-entities

Anno/Year: 2016

Pagine/Pages: 242 

ISBN:978-88-97479-08-6 

Psychoanalysis, Collective Traumas and Memory Places (English Edition)

Edited by/a cura di: Giuseppe Leo Prefaced by/prefazione di:               R.D.Hinshelwood                                      Writings by/scritti di: J. Altounian       W. Bohleber  J. Deutsch                        H. Halberstadt-Freud  Y. Gampel           N. Janigro   R.K. Papadopoulos            M. Ritter  S. Varvin  H.-J. Wirth

 Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collection/Collana: Mediterranean Id-entities

Anno/Year: 2015

Pagine/Pages: 330

ISBN:978-88-97479-09-3

"L'uomo dietro al lettino" di Gabriele Cassullo

 Prefaced by/prefazione di: Jeremy Holmes                                                         Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collection/Collana: Biografie dell'Inconscio

Anno/Year: 2015

Pagine/Pages: 350

ISBN:978-88-97479-07-9

Prezzo/Price: € 29,00

Click here to order the book

(per Edizione rilegata- Hardcover clicca qui)

"Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis" (English Edition)

Edited by/a cura di: Giuseppe Leo Prefaced by/prefazione di: Georg Northoff                                            Writings by/scritti di: D. Mann               A. N. Schore R. Stickgold                   B.A. Van Der Kolk  G. Vaslamatzis  M.P. Walker                                                 Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collection/Collana: Psicoanalisi e neuroscienze

Anno/Year: 2014

Pagine/Pages: 300

ISBN:978-88-97479-06-2

Prezzo/Price: € 49,00

Click here to order the book

Vera Schmidt, "Scritti su psicoanalisi infantile ed educazione"

Edited by/a cura di: Giuseppe Leo Prefaced by/prefazione di: Alberto Angelini                                             Introduced by/introduzione di: Vlasta Polojaz                                                   Afterword by/post-fazione di: Rita Corsa

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana: Biografie dell'Inconscio

Anno/Year: 2014

Pagine/Pages: 248

ISBN:978-88-97479-05-5

Prezzo/Price: € 29,00

Click here to order the book

Resnik, S. et al.  (a cura di Monica Ferri), "L'ascolto dei sensi e dei luoghi nella relazione terapeutica" 

Writings by:A. Ambrosini, A. Bimbi,  M. Ferri,               G. Gabbriellini,  A. Luperini, S. Resnik,                      S. Rodighiero,  R. Tancredi,  A. Taquini Resnik,       G. Trippi

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana: Confini della Psicoanalisi

Anno/Year: 2013 

Pagine/Pages: 156

ISBN:978-88-97479-04-8 

Prezzo/Price: € 37,00

Click here to order the book

Silvio G. Cusin, "Sessualità e conoscenza" 

A cura di/Edited by:  A. Cusin & G. Leo

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana/Collection: Biografie dell'Inconscio

Anno/Year: 2013 

Pagine/Pages: 476

ISBN:  978-88-97479-03-1

 Prezzo/Price: € 39,00

Click here to order the book

AA.VV., "Psicoanalisi e luoghi della riabilitazione", a cura di G. Leo e G. Riefolo (Editors)

A cura di/Edited by:  G. Leo & G. Riefolo

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana/Collection: Id-entità mediterranee

Anno/Year: 2013 

Pagine/Pages: 426

ISBN: 978-88-903710-9-7

 Prezzo/Price: € 39,00

Click here to order the book

AA.VV., "Scrittura e memoria", a cura di R. Bolletti (Editor) 

Writings by: J. Altounian, S. Amati Sas, A. Arslan, R. Bolletti, P. De Silvestris, M. Morello, A. Sabatini Scalmati.

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana: Cordoglio e pregiudizio

Anno/Year: 2012 

Pagine/Pages: 136

ISBN: 978-88-903710-7-3

Prezzo/Price: € 23,00

Click here to order the book

AA.VV., "Lo spazio  velato.   Femminile e discorso psicoanalitico"                             a cura di G. Leo e L. Montani (Editors)

Writings by: A. Cusin, J. Kristeva, A. Loncan, S. Marino, B. Massimilla, L. Montani, A. Nunziante Cesaro, S. Parrello, M. Sommantico, G. Stanziano, L. Tarantini, A. Zurolo.

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana: Confini della psicoanalisi

Anno/Year: 2012 

Pagine/Pages: 382

ISBN: 978-88-903710-6-6

Prezzo/Price: € 39,00

Click here to order the book

AA.VV., Psychoanalysis and its Borders, a cura di G. Leo (Editor)

Writings by: J. Altounian, P. Fonagy, G.O. Gabbard, J.S. Grotstein, R.D. Hinshelwood, J.P. Jimenez, O.F. Kernberg,  S. Resnik.

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana/Collection: Borders of Psychoanalysis

Anno/Year: 2012 

Pagine/Pages: 348

ISBN: 978-88-974790-2-4

Prezzo/Price: € 19,00

Click here to order the book

AA.VV., "Psicoanalisi e luoghi della negazione", a cura di A. Cusin e G. Leo

Writings by:J. Altounian, S. Amati Sas, M.  e M. Avakian, W.  A. Cusin,  N. Janigro, G. Leo, B. E. Litowitz, S. Resnik, A. Sabatini  Scalmati,  G.  Schneider,  M. Šebek, F. Sironi, L. Tarantini.

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Collana/Collection: Id-entità mediterranee

Anno/Year: 2011 

Pagine/Pages: 400

ISBN: 978-88-903710-4-2

Prezzo/Price: € 38,00

Click here to order the book

"The Voyage Out" by Virginia Woolf 

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

ISBN: 978-88-97479-01-7

Anno/Year: 2011 

Pages: 672

Prezzo/Price: € 25,00

Click here to order the book

"Psicologia dell'antisemitismo" di Imre Hermann

Author:Imre Hermann

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero 

ISBN: 978-88-903710-3-5

Anno/Year: 2011

Pages: 158

Prezzo/Price: € 18,00

Click here to order the book

"Id-entità mediterranee. Psicoanalisi e luoghi della memoria" a cura di Giuseppe Leo (editor)

Writings by: J. Altounian, S. Amati Sas, M. Avakian, W. Bohleber, M. Breccia, A. Coen, A. Cusin, G. Dana, J. Deutsch, S. Fizzarotti Selvaggi, Y. Gampel, H. Halberstadt-Freud, N. Janigro, R. Kaës, G. Leo, M. Maisetti, F. Mazzei, M. Ritter, C. Trono, S. Varvin e H.-J. Wirth

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

ISBN: 978-88-903710-2-8

Anno/Year: 2010

Pages: 520

Prezzo/Price: € 41,00

Click here to have a preview 

Click here to order the book

"Vite soffiate. I vinti della psicoanalisi" di Giuseppe Leo 

Editore/Publisher: Edizioni Frenis Zero

Edizione: 2^a

ISBN: 978-88-903710-5-9

Anno/Year: 2011

Prezzo/Price: € 34,00

Click here to order the book

"La Psicoanalisi e i suoi confini" edited by Giuseppe Leo

Writings by: J. Altounian, P. Fonagy, G.O. Gabbard, J.S. Grotstein, R.D. Hinshelwood, J.P. Jiménez, O.F. Kernberg, S. Resnik

Editore/Publisher: Astrolabio Ubaldini

ISBN: 978-88-340155-7-5

Anno/Year: 2009

Pages: 224

Prezzo/Price: € 20,00

"La Psicoanalisi. Intrecci Paesaggi Confini" 

Edited by S. Fizzarotti Selvaggi, G.Leo.

Writings by: Salomon Resnik, Mauro Mancia, Andreas Giannakoulas, Mario Rossi Monti, Santa Fizzarotti Selvaggi, Giuseppe Leo.

Publisher: Schena Editore

ISBN 88-8229-567-2

Price: € 15,00

Click here to order the book

Introduction

Fundamentalism has increasingly become a part of the political discourse in western countries and is presently to a large degree associated with Islamic Jihadism. Fundamentalism has, however, been a concern in all religions, especially in Christianity where the term has its origin more than 100 years ago. The concerns were how not to lose hold of the fundaments without which there could not be a proper belief system. Fundaments was seen as the necessary minimum, to which further elaboration may or may not be added; on other words, the essential.

That adherence to fundaments may develop into fundamentalism, understood as rigid adherence to basic principles, has, however, seldom been on the agenda in professional and scientific contexts. As tight groups with string inner cohesion may develop within professional and scientific organisations, it should not be a surprise that fundamentalist tendencies may develop in these groups as well. Any organisation that deals with fundaments or have an idea about the essentials may fall prey to fundamentalist tendencies. Psychoanalysis is a case in question here and reflection on the relation between fundaments of psychoanalysis and possible fundamentalist tendencies may thus give insight into possible basic problems within psychoanalysis, a profession that has both scientific claims and practical-clinical tasks. These reflections may, however, also open for general considerations on the relation between fundaments and fundamentalism.

Fundaments in psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis developed in the last century into a diverse field with several schools and traditions, all with their own language or dialect and often with quite diverse and at times idiosyncratic understanding of central concepts. In a conceptual research on two psychoanalytic concepts, enactment and unconscious phantasy, it was at times difficult to discern similarities and common ground across different schools (Bohleber et al., 2015, Bohleber et al., 2013) . It was also amazing to observe to what degree different schools avoided citing each other, confirming an impression of tribalism, a core mark of fundamentalism.

Controversies have sometimes led to splitting of psychoanalytic groups. These splits have certainly been multi-determined, where personal animosity, institutional rivalry, ideological forces from without and societal conditions play a role alongside theoretical controversies. Having observed some of them close up have, however, increased my respect for how unconscious forces develops in groups. Primitive defences like splitting and projective identifications, idealisation and mere denial has prevailed in spite of the protagonists’ presumably solid psychoanalytic training and thorough personal analysis. In the heat of the battles the ability for rational argument and mentalisation tend to get lost – and this condition may prevail for such a long time that the history of the original conflict and split may almost be forgotten.

Heated debates and severe antagonisms are of course not particular for psychoanalysis and can be seen in any profession. During my time in psychoanalysis and in my work for IPA there has been a marked improvement of the intellectual debate, but still arguments flourish that deem other positions as dangerous or damaging to psychoanalysis; a “we-them” discourse typical for fundamentalist movements.

Research is a case of matter here. There has, as we know, been a long struggle to get acceptance for formal research in psychoanalysis and there are regional and other differences regarding the value or even the potential damage ascribed to research.

One example: there is quit solid research showing that transference interpretations are useful for patients with more severe personality pathologies, but less important for neurotic disturbances. Interpretations should be used with caution also for personality disturbances and some researchers came up with the advice that not more than 1-4 interpretations per session is to be recommended (Høglend, 2014) . Clinicians may dismiss this finding as it is expressed in a mechanistic, formal scientific language that certainly would not fit with psychoanalytic approaches focusing on the here-and-now and the indeterminism of the analysand-analyst relationship. The clinician’s difficulties with empirical research are, in addition to troubles inherent in understanding the logic of arguments in other disciplines, related to a problem of language or rather dialect; clinical psychoanalysis and empirical research are expressed in quite different languages even if they concern same clinical problems. There are also reciprocal difficulties and even unwillingness to learn the other group’s language. Shahar makes in this connection a heuristic distinction calling the language of psychoanalysis the language of poetics and says that research represents a schematic language (Shahar, 2010) . Either language, or dialect, is useful in relation to their respective domains and valid in relations to their objects of study. They do not, however, communicate very well. Concrete reception of such research findings (“this is senseless”), expressed in the other’s language, (e.g. counting of interpretations in sessions), may easily lead to stricter adherence to “psychoanalytic fundamentals” and has as a consequence an impediment to reciprocal understanding and also to the development in each fields of inquiry.

It represents an example of shielding oneself from being influenced by “the other” or from something outside, one of the salient figures in fundamentalism to which I will return later.

The question in the background may then be to what degree psychoanalytic societies and institutions as well as its members are prone to be caught in the lures of fundamentalist attitudes or, as I will call it, fundamentalist states of mind or fundamentalist mindset. These are states of mind that avoid ambiguity, deplores diversity with a more or less prominent tendency to manichaeistic thinking (a dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness).

It can be argued that such states of mind tend to develop within basic-assumption groups (Bion, 1961) and as such are a danger in every group formation and group process. Fundamentalism become a symptom of anxiety for the group’s cohesion. If psychoanalysis develops an ideology that advocates adherence to fundamentals, this will then represent an illusory way to safeguard the group’s cohesion.

In general, this may count for all kinds of fundamentalist tendencies in groups. Fundamentalism understood in this way is a question of degrees and may be related to certain critical phases or crisis in a groups’ developmental process, and the group may when this has been worked through return to more normal business of rational argumentation.

I will argue, however, that there are situations that we may call the fundamentalist trap. This is not always easy to identify and may have devastating influences on a group or an organization’s development. Such a trap may develop in any group – also psychoanalytic. In other words, when keeping the fundamentals in mind, the danger is that this may develop into a belief in fundamentals, and as with any belief, an atmosphere may develop where fundamentals should not be questioned.

When fundamental traps become a characteristic of a group, a conviction may develop that someone has deviated from the essentials, that they are absolutely wrong, that the influences from them will shake the fundaments and harm the cohesion of the group, accompanied by a predominance of dualistic thinking and lack of rational argumentation.

Having thus stated that fundamentalism is an inherent possibility also on the psychoanalytic scene, I will in the following discuss fundamentalism on a quite different scene, a scene where the basic problems of fundamentalism may be seen through a magnifying glass. This concerns fundamentalism as it appears in political and religious movements, especially in present Islamist movements. On this basis, one may get a clearer view on the relation between fundaments and fundamentalism. 

References:

BION, W. R. 1961. Experiences in Groups., London, Tavistock Publications.

BOEHNKE, K. 1998. On the developement of xenophobia in Germany: the adolescent years. Journal of Social Issues.

BOHLEBER, W. 2002. Kollektive Phantasmen, Destruktivität und Terrorismus. Psyche, 56, 699-720.

BOHLEBER, W. 2010. Destructiveness, intersubjectivity and trauma, London, Karnac.

BOHLEBER, W., FONAGY, P., JIMENEZ, J. P., SCARFONE, D., VARVIN, S. & ZYSMAN, S. 2013. Towards a better use of psychoanalytic concepts: A model illustrated using the concept of enactment. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 94, 501-530.

BOHLEBER, W., JIMENEZ, J., SCARFONE, D., VARVIN, S. & ZYSMAN, S. 2015. Unconscious phantasy and its conceptualizations: An attempt at conceptual Integration. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 96, 705-730.

BORCHREVINK, A. S. 2012. En norsk tragedie. Anders Behring Breivik og veiene til Utøya, Oslo, Gyldendal.

BROWNING, C. R. 1998. Ordinary Men. Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, New York, HarperPerennial.

BURUMA, I. & MARGALIT, A. 2004. Occidentalism. The West in the Eyes of their Enemies, New York, The Penguin Press.

CRICKLEY, A., WINKLER, B. 2006. The Annual Report on the Situation regarding Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU [Online]. European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. Available: http://fra.europa.eu/fra/material/pub/ar06/AR06-P2-EN.pdf [Accessed].

FEKETE, L. 2009. A suitable enemy. Racism, Migration and Islamophobia in Europe, London, Pluto Press.

FREUD, S. 1939. Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistischen Religion: Drei Abhandlungen. Sigmund Freud Studienausgabe. Bd IX. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag.

GEISSER, V. 2004. Islamophobia in Europe: from the Christian anti-Muslim prejudice to a modern form of racism. In: RAMBERG, I. (ed.) Islamophobia and its consequences on Young People. European. Budapest: Youth Centre Budapest 1–6 June 2004: Council of Europe.

HEATH-KELLY, C. 2013. Counter-Terrorism and the Counterfactual: Producing the ‘Radicalisation’ Discourse and the UK PREVENT Strategy. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 15, 394-415.

HEINE, P. 2002. In Allahs Namen: Religiös motivierter Extremismus und Terrorismus. In: FRANK, H. & HIRSCHMAN, K. (eds.) Die weltweite Gefahr. Terrorismus als internationale Herausforderung. Berlin: Berlin Verlag Arno Spitz GmbH.

HØGLEND, P. 2014. Exploration of the Patient-Therapist Relationship in Psychotherapy. Am J Psychiatry, 171, 1056-1066.

KHOSROKHAVAR, F. 2010. The psychology of global Jihadists. In: STROZIER, C., TERMAN, D. & JONES , J. (eds.) The Fundamentalist mindset. New York: Oxford University Press.

KLEIN, M. 1946. Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms. Int.J.Psycho-Anal., 27, 99-110.

LAQUEUR, W. 2001. Die globale Bedrohung. Neue Gefahren des Terrorismus., München, Econ Taschenbuch.

SAID, E. 2003. Freud and the Non-European, London New York.

SERAUKY, E. 2000. Im Namen Allahs. Der Terrorismus in Nahen Osten., Berlin, Karl Dietz Verlag.

SHAHAR, G. 2010. Poetics, pragmatics, schematics, and the psychoanalysis-research dialogue. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 24, 315-328.

STEIN, R. 2006. Fundamentalism, Father and Son, and Vertical Desire. Psychoanalytic Review, 93, 201-229.

STROZIER, C. & BOYD, K. 2010. Definitions and dualisms. In: STROZIER, C., TERMAN, D. & JONES , J. (eds.) The fundamentalist mindset. New York: Oxford University Press.

STROZIER, C., TERMAN, D., JONES, J. & (EDS). 2010. The fundamentalist mindset, New York, Oxford University Press.

VARVIN, S. 2001. Genocid i etnicko ciscenje. Psihoanaliticka i socijalno-psiholoska gledista. In: MARTINOVIC, Z. (ed.) Psihoanaliza i rat. Belgrade: Cigoja Stampa.

VARVIN, S. 2003. Terror, terrorism, large-group and societal dynamics. In: VARVIN, S. & VOLKAN, V. D. (eds.) Violence or Dialogue.Psychoanalytic Insights on Terror and Terrorism. London: International Psychoanalysis Library.

VARVIN, S. 2013. Ideologiens galskap eller galskapens ideologi. (The ideology's madness or the ideology of madness) Matrix, 30, 156-173.

VOGT, K. 1993. Islams hus, (The hours of Islam). Oslo, Cappelen.

VOLKAN, V. 1997. Bloodlines., New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

VOLKAN, V. D. 2003. Traumatized societies. In: VARVIN, S. & VOLKAN, V. D. (eds.) Violence or Dialogue. Psychoanalytic Insights on Terror and Terrorism. London: International Psychoanalysis Library.