On Psychoanalysis, Disillusion, and Death: Dead certainties

142 Pages·2014·0.85 MB·English

by  Antonie Ladan

On Psychoanalysis, Disillusion, and Death:
Dead Certainties
For some years now, psychoanalysts have been trying to understand the implica-
tions of neuroscientific findings for psychoanalytic theory and practice. In On
Psychoanalysis, Disillusion, and Death: Dead certainties , Antonie Ladan looks at
how findings from neuroscience and memory research can inform our understand-
ing of some of the most important psychoanalytic concepts, such as transference
and unconscious fantasy.
Central to the book are the „dead certainties‰ that, to a great extent, determine
how we lead our lives. Antonie Ladan argues that these certainties are too self-
evident to be seen, as invisible as the air we breathe. He shows how in our associa-
tions with others, we are in large measure „guided‰ by „dead certain‰ relational
patterns of which we are not conscious, but that remain implicit. Using clinical
examples, Ladan illustrates how a specific form of observation, where the analy-
sand and the analyst pay careful attention to their relationship over an extended
period of time, makes it possible to gradually recognize these automatic expecta-
tions and behaviors in relational situations.
On Psychoanalysis, Disillusion, and Death explores how the psychoanalyst can
bring the implicit patterns, within which analysands find themselves trapped, to
their attention enabling them to look at the world from a „disillusioning‰ per-
spective in order to accept life and the prospect of death for what they are. This
book will be of interest to psychotherapists, analytical psychologists, psychoana-
lysts, therapists, and students.
Antonie Ladan is in private practice as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Zeist,
the Netherlands. He is a full member of the International Psychoanalytical Asso-
ciation and a training and supervising analyst at the Dutch Psychoanalytical Soci-
ety and the Dutch Psychoanalytical Association.
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On Psychoanalysis, Disillusion,
and Death
Dead Certainties
Antonie Ladan
translated from the Dutch by Marjolijn de Jager
First published 2014
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Antonie Ladan
The right of Antonie Ladan to be identifi ed as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-64142-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-64143-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-81659-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
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For Tijn, Olivier, Soesja, Kai, and Amélie
You had to lay the lash of fantasy across the haunches of reality,
or reality would throw you from the saddle like a bucking horse.
(Arnon Grunberg: Tirza, p. 161)
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1 On the yearning not to be disillusioned 1
2 On the analyst as a „disillusionist‰ 17
3 On the illusion of an autonomous psychoanalysis 29
4 On illusions in relationships 43
5 On the illusion of togetherness 59
6 On the illusion that the analytic relationship
is an ordinary one 77
7 On the disillusion of actual death 97
References 113
Index 121
Acknowledgements
Elsbeth Greven I thank for her confidence. Jan Stoker, Paul and Tilly Citroen
I thank for their commentary on previous versions of the manuscript. The late
Ad Boerwinkel I thank by remembering him. Petra Kaas I thank for her editorial
assistance. The Stichting Psychoanalytische Fondsen I thank for the contribution
to the cost of translation. Marlene Dumas I thank for her permission to use a
detail of „The Fog of War‰ on the cover. Ton Stufkens I thank for the many con-
versations about the profession during our walks. Louise Ladan I thank for her
willingness to put up once again with my initial discontent over her remarks, no
matter how valuable they often turn out to be in the end. Nathalie Ladan and Jord
Bodewitz, Sharlene Ladan and Joost Harkink I thank for the literal and figurative
birthing of those to whom this book is dedicated. Tijn, Olivier, Soesja, Kai, and
Amélie I thank for being here.
Introduction
It is my intention with this book to offer an impression of my work as a psycho-
analyst, and particularly of the significance that disillusion and death play therein.
The theme that connects the chapters is shaped by my reflections on the „dead
certainties‰ that, to a great extent, determine how we lead our life (van Leeuwen,
1995). These certainties are „too self-evident to be seen, invisible as the air we
breathe, . . . and immutable in their deadness‰ (p. 194). Thus, in our associations
with others, we are in large measure „guided‰ by relational patterns of which
we arenÊt conscious but that remain implicit (Ladan, 2005). The term „relational
pattern‰ refers to memory traces of relationships with important others that lie
ready to be activated, as it were, by specific cues in a new contact. This is the
process that Freud (1912a) termed „transference‰: aspects of meaningful rela-
tionships from the past are transferred to those in the present. When this occurs,
our forms of behavior, our expectations of and interpretations in the interaction
at hand, run in large part along the established lines of the activated pattern. Not
only is the image of the other thereby „adjusted,‰ but so is the image of ourselves:
up to a certain point, we begin to feel and act again the way we used to do with
that important other person in the past. The addition of „implicit‰ indicates that
these patterns are stored in the implicit memory system. I have paid ample atten-
tion elsewhere to the great importance for the practicing psychoanalyst of insight
into the functioning of our memory (Ladan, 2005). Insofar as it is needed for my
argument I would like to briefly address this here.
Two memory systems
„Memory‰ refers to the ability to learn, that is to say, to allow our brain to be
permanently altered through experience (Kandel, 2006). The fact that we are able
to do so is of great importance from an evolutionary perspective. If we were to
be entirely at the mercy of what is genetically laid down, it would diminish our
chances of survival as a species considerably.
The changes in question take place in the synaptic links between the neurons in
the various brain circuits. In this connection, LeDoux (2002) speaks of our „syn-
aptic self‰ and explains that on the level of the brain n urture and n ature speak the