Congrès / Congress

My first experience

It was my first experience, because she was my first patient in private practice and the analyst supervisor was my first too.

A young woman came to see me, very well dressed, in a very young fashion. She sat down, looked at me and said: “I suffer from the Oedipus Complex”

She bewildered me. I stayed in bewilderment during the whole session.

When I went to supervision, feeling quite desperate, I said something that had a comic effect on the analyst supervisor: “You have to choose: it is her or me.”

Till today, I still wonder if I really meant it as a joke.

The fact that the young woman put me offside, taking into possession the tools that I thought were mine, would teach me that in that supervision, the real patient was in fact myself. Supervision had to be, therefore, centred on the way in which I was using, or trying to use, my knowledge. The problem was my avoidance of the game that was at stake.

Susana Huler

***

Ma première expérience

C'était ma première expérience : à la fois, la première patiente que je recevais en privé et le premier analyste auquel je demandais un contrôle.

Lors de cette première séance, cette très jeune femme, qui était très bien habillée, s'est assise en face de moi, elle m'a regardée et m'a dit : « Je souffre du complexe d'Œdipe ». J’en suis restée déconcertée et dans l'incompréhension pendant toute la séance.

Je suis donc allée en contrôle, je me sentais désespérée, et j’ai dit à mon contrôleur : « Vous devez choisir : c'est elle ou moi ». Ce qui a produit bien sûr un effet comique sur mon contrôleur. Mais, aujourd'hui encore, je me demande si je voulais vraiment plaisanter. Cette jeune femme, en effet, m'avait mise hors-jeu, elle avait pris possession des outils que je pensais être les miens. Le contrôle m'a appris, qu’en l’occurrence, le vrai patient c’était moi-même, et que je devais me centrer sur mon rapport à mon propre savoir. Mon problème : j'évitais le jeu qui était en jeu.

Susana Huler

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New Lacanian School

Many years ago I consulted an analyst, who was visiting our society, for supervision regarding an analysand, whose unconscious position vis a vis his wife was one of dependency and of a maternal/incestuous nature. He was beginning to act out, causing potential harm to himself. I was very encumbered by this case and it was obvious to this analyst, that I was carrying the weight of a rhinoceros on my shoulders, that it had become difficult to hold my position. I wanted to barge in with a solution without properly listening. Towards the end of the session, she said: "This man is a 'motherf..cker'". My sense of relief was immediate and the weight had shifted. This supervision taught me about bearing the real of the clinic and taking responsibility for listening, i.e., the value of true respons(a)bility.

Rik Loose

***

Il y a de nombreuses années, j'ai consulté dans l'urgence une analyste pour une supervision à propos d’un analysant qui venait de faire un acting-out. J'étais sérieusement encombré par ce cas. Pour cette analyste, de passage dans notre société locale pour le travail, il était évident que je portais sur mes épaules le poids d'un rhinocéros. Il m’était difficile, en effet, de tenir une position correcte. J'avais juste envie de trouver une solution, sans bien écouter ce dont il s’agissait. Vers la fin de la séance, elle m’a dit simplement ceci : « Cet homme est un motherf..cker ». Le soulagement a été immédiat : le poids s'est déplacé. Cette séance m'a appris la valeur de la vraie respons(a)bilité.

Rik Loose

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New Lacanian School

Newsletter 312

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New Lacanian School

In the beginning, when I brought a case to my supervisor, I took great care to only use the words of the patient. I meticulously repeated what the patient had told me, in the same words. Eventually, the supervisor said: “He is not telling you everything”. It awakened the realisation in me that I had been listening, but that listening only refers to meaning. I grasped something of the difference between listening and reading [1]. The latter would include something of what is not said.

[1] Miller, J.-A., "Reading a Symptom," Hurly Burly 6, 2011, p. 151.

Natalie Wülfing

* * *

Au début, lorsque je présentais un cas à mon contrôleur, je prenais soin de n'utiliser que les mots du patient. Je répétais méticuleusement ce qu’il m'avait dit, dans les mêmes termes. Finalement, le contrôleur m'a dit : « Il ne vous dit pas tout ». Cela m'a permis de prendre conscience de ceci : j'avais écouté sans doute, mais l'écoute ne se réfère qu'au sens, quelque chose ne se dit pas. J'ai saisi une partie de la différence entre l'écoute et la lecture [1]. La lecture inclut quelque chose de ce qui n'est pas dit.

[1] Miller, J.-A., Lire un symptôme, Mental no 26, juin 2011, p. 49.

Natalie Wülfing

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New Lacanian School

In Supervision

While the School guarantees a link between the analyst and the formation it provides, there is no format to this formation in force. With Lacan, the traditionally compulsory supervision was replaced by a desired supervision. And yet, torn from the standards promoted by a certain tradition, supervision does not raise fewer ethical concerns. It is a must, as Lacan put it, in the interest of protecting the patient from the harmful effects of a blind practice. While Lacan was de-standardising the practice of supervision, he simultaneously established it as essential. Since his Founding Act Lacan articulated work and supervision: "Those who enter the School will commit themselves to fulfilling a task subject to both internal and external supervision [contrôle]” [1].It can be said that the more supervision was deregulated, the more widespread it became: supervision of work, of practice and then of analysis. As J.-A. Miller notes, the pass is "the most demanding method of supervision that psychoanalysis has invented” [2].

For the Question of the School we have chosen to take a look at the practice of supervision by giving a voice to the supervisees. We are interested in the practice, for which Lacan preferred the term super-audition to super-vision. Whether it is experienced by confirmed analysts or by young trainees, supervision allows the analyst to remain in the position of analysand and thus of a worker. In this sense, supervision guarantees a space where the work transference that is fitting for a School of Psychoanalysis, can be experienced. It enables the long-standing analyst to remain alert in his or her practice, while offering the younger analyst the opportunity to find his or her bearings. It's up to the rhinoceros to open an eye now and then! And also, what can the usages of supervision after the pass teach us? Let's not let the cat out of the bag too soon! To know more about it it is better to participate in the Question of the School.

For the Executive Committee, Patricia Bosquin-Caroz, President

[1] Lacan J., "Founding Act", in Television, New York: Norton, 1990, p. 97.

[2] Miller J.-A., "Qui sont vos psychanalystes?", Paris, ed. Seuil, Champ Freudien collection, 2002, p. 11

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New Lacanian School

GIEP – NLS

Identification, Identity: Mass and Collective

With Miquel Bassols

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New Lacanian School

https://londonworkshop-freudianfield.com

14 December

London

“On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love”

with Laurent Dupont

In person & online

Main References

Freud, S. (1905), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, SE, VII: 123-245.

Freud, S. (1908), On the Sexual Theories of Children, SE, IX 205-226.

Freud, S. (1912), On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love, SE, XI: 177-190.

Freud, S. (1918 [1917]), The Taboo of Virginity, SE, Vol. XI: 191-208.

Freud, S. (1914), On Narcissism: An Introduction, SE., Vol. XIV: 67-102.

Freud, S. (1923), The Infantile Genital Organization, SE, XIX: 139-145.

Freud, S. (1940 [1922]), Medusa’s Head, SE, XVIII: 273-274.

Freud, S. (1925), Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes, SE, XIX: 241-258.

Freud, S. (1927), Fetishism, SE, XXI: 147-157.

Freud, S. (1932), Libidinal types, SE, XXI: 215-220.

Freud, S. (1932), Female sexuality, SE, XXI: 221-243.

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New Lacanian School