Psychopathology of expression and psychoanalysis. The influence of the therapist's analytic orientation on the patient's art product

The graphic symbols produced by patients in analysis are essentially determined by the therapist's interpretations in the early stages of graphic communication. The patient learns the 'symbol language' of the therapist. The more intense the transference, the more evident is the adaptation of the graphic symbolism in the patient's art product to the symbol language of the therapist's analytical school. Sample cases, with predominantly Freudian or Jungian symbols in the patient's sequential graphic expressions, document that conflict resolution can be achieved equally well through different methods of graphic symbol interpretation. In any of the analytic methods, the impact of therapy can be enhanced by the use of graphic language between the analyst and patient.     

Embodied Tools, Cognitive Tools and Brain-Computer Interfaces

In this paper I explore systematically the relationship between Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and their human users from a phenomenological and cognitive perspective. First, I functionally decompose BCI systems and develop a typology in which I categorize BCI applications with similar functional properties into three categories, those with (1) motor, (2) virtual, and (3) linguistic applications. Second, developing and building on the notions of an embodied tool and cognitive tool, I analyze whether these distinct BCI applications can be seen as bodily or cognitive extensions. Contrary to some recent philosophical claims, I will argue that, although BCI technology may have the potential to become bodily and cognitive extensions for skilled users, at this stage they are not. And while the electrodes may to a variable degree be transparent and incorporated in the body schema, the BCI system as a whole is not. Moreover, BCIs do not have a functional role characteristic for cognition and are therefore not cognitive extensions. Third, based on concepts from the distributed cognition framework, I give a number of suggestions to improve the interface design of linguistic applications, i.e. BCIs that allow its user to spell words by selecting letters on a screen. These suggestions may result in cognitive extension and would enhance the autonomy and quality of life of its users. In sum, in this paper I develop a typology, analysis and critique on the current philosophical debate on BCIs, thereby providing a richer conceptual understanding of BCI systems which allows me to offer some suggestions for improving the interface design of linguistic applications.     

Sartre and psychoanalysis

Why read Sartre? Such is the question which is addressed in this article. In a series of publications, principally his monumental Being and Nothingness (1943), the French philosopher of existentialism challenged traditional psychoanalysis with his "existential psychoanalysis." It has remained a matter of debate whether Sartre's alternative approach to the analysis of human motivation and behavior has any value for the psychoanalytic therapist or theorist. In recent publications two clinicians, Charles Hanly (1979) and Richard Chessick (1984), who have read Sartre extensively, respond negatively, arguing that there is nothing productive in Sartre's challenge to Freudian psychoanalysis. In this article I would like to take issue with that point of view and argue that there is indeed much to be gained from reading Sartre, that the challenge which he poses to traditional psychoanalytic thinking with his "existential psychoanalysis" is in fact a productive one for the contemporary clinician and theorist.     

Psychopharmacology and psychoanalysis

Mood disease results from impaired mood regulation. Mood is a direct function of libido, and that is probably a function of the activity of the seeking system. The neurotransmitters that are provided by current medication for mood disorder influence this system and are used to overcome excursions that transgress either the manic or the depressive boundaries of the normal envelop of variation, and with greater difficulty to overcome the excessive mood volatility of the disease syndromes associated with rapid cycling. Psychoanalytic sensitivity to the indications of mood in session contents and dreams can guide drug monitoring and adjustment.     

Anorexia, psychoanalysis, and feminism: fantasy and reality

Two distinct trends inform current psychoanalytic and feminist approaches to anorexia: one focuses on its roots in the fantasy, the other in the reality of childhood and adolescent deprivation and abuse. In outlining these two approaches, this article shows how both increasingly attend to the place of the mother to the neglect of the father in the genesis of anorexia--a shift of perspective somewhat redressed by systemic family therapy.