by Irwin Hirsch (USA)

External Crises and Analytic Symmetry

Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Volume 27, Number 2, p. 122-124. 2017.

In writing previously about the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11, I noted that for a period of time,  the traditional analytic asymmetry between my patients and me tended to collapse. In its place was a dialogue not different in content and in form as existed with friends and colleagues. The focus, of course, was what had just happened to the world we shared and how this had affected each of us. A similar analytic configuration developed once again in the aftermath of another shocking and shattering event—the presidential election of 2016.

Link to article:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10481885.2017.1286151

From Familiar and Familial Repetition to the Anxiety of Living Differently

Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Volume 54, Number 2, p. 290-298, 2018.

This article attempts to summarize the author’s view of what is generative in the psychoanalytic process. Included in this discussion are reflections on the ideal aims of psychoanalysis and a perspective on mutative action. One clinical example is used to illustrate the author’s thesis.

Link to article:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00107530.2018.1457893

Irwin Hirsch, PhD
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