Course: “Psychoanalysis of Perversions”
A Theoretical and Practical Training Course for Professionals:
PSYCHOANALYSIS OF PERVERSIONS
Course Objective: To provide participants with an understanding of the distinctive features of the psychoanalytic approach to interpreting perversion and to help them navigate the variety of theoretical approaches to it.
Rationale:
The clinical categories that psychoanalysts encounter today are increasingly diverging from the classical differentiation between neurosis and psychosis—as conceived by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century. Modern society brings with it new forms of behavior and new “diseases of civilization.” It is very tempting to lump everything into a single category of borderline states, but in order to practice psychoanalysis, it is important to reflect on the nuances of these new modes of the subject’s existence, which lie on the border between pathology and society.
Among these, perversion stands apart with its constantly recurring questions: Are we talking about perversion or perversions? About a structure or a symptom? In relation to which “norm” should perversion be defined, and to what extent does it deviate from “normality”? From legality? From nature? From goodness? ...
Perversion is an exclusively human trait, the heir to infantile childhood sexuality or “the dark part of ourselves,” in the words of E. Rudinesco, and as such is inherent in everyone. Starting with Freud and Lacan, we speak of perversion as a distinct clinical entity, a structure defined as the “negative of neurosis.”
On the other hand, in clinical practice we increasingly encounter subjects who present a wide range of symptoms but share a common, specific pattern of mental functioning and relationship with the object. Here, the object is almost always fetishized and reduced to a function, and the nature of the relationship takes on the characteristics of compulsive repetition. We are dealing here, rather, with a-structuring.
These clinical phenomena are understood differently by representatives of various schools of psychoanalysis. But despite different emphases in theorization, what inevitably emerges is narcissism. And we will see that narcissism and perversion prove to be relevant and flexible concepts in clinical practice when correlated with Jacques Lacan’s theory of the fantasy, although they are not identical to one another.
The objectives of this special course are:
- to describe the genesis and metapsychology of perversion;
- to correlate and differentiate between perversion and narcissistic disorders;
- to explore the characteristics of the analytical process and transference relationships specific to working with a perverse subject.
Course Author:
Nadiya Volodymyrivna Kryvulia, practicing psychoanalyst, Master of Clinical Psychology and Therapeutic Mediation. Head of the research group “Perversion: A Psychoanalytic Approach,” lecturer at the International Institute of Depth Psychology, including the postgraduate clinical specialization in the psychoanalysis of perverse patients.
Course Content and Schedule:
September 14, 2018
6:30 PM – 9:45 PM
History and the Psychoanalytic Approach to Perversion
Characteristics of the Psychoanalytic Approach to Perversion
The Evolution of Sigmund Freud’s Views on Perversion
Perversion as a structure in the works of J. Lacan
Sadism, masochism, and narcissism
Narcissism of life and narcissism of death in the works of A. Green
September 15, 2018
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
“New” Psychopathology in Psychoanalytic Practice
The Role of the Fetish Between Pregenitality, Narcissism, and Castration
- Narcissistic Perversion and Relational Perversion
- Perverse Solutions as Means of Psychological Survival
- Features of Family Dynamics in the Formation of Perversion
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Issues and Characteristics of Mental Functioning
- The Metapsychology of Perversion. Anxiety and Fetish
- Perverse Thinking
- Characteristics of the Relationship with the Object
4:15 PM – 6:00 PM
The Analytical Process
The paradoxical demand and the organization of the setting
Obstacles in the analytical process
Characteristics of the transference relationship
Therapeutic goals and strategies
Format: lectures, analysis of clinical case excerpts, video presentations followed by discussion.
* Following the training, a series of workshops focused on the topic of perversions is planned