Is there still a place for the concept of therapeutic regression in psychoanalysis?

The author uses his own failure to find a place for the idea of therapeutic regression in his clinical thinking or practice as the basis for an investigation into its meaning and usefulness. He makes a distinction between three ways the term ‘regression’ is used in psychoanalytic discourse: as a way of evoking a primitive level of experience; as a reminder in some clinical situations of the value of non-intervention on the part of the analyst; and as a description of a phase of an analytic treatment with some patients where the analyst needs to put aside normal analytic technique in order to foster a regression in the patient. It is this third meaning, which the author terms “therapeutic regression” that this paper examines, principally by means of an extended discussion of two clinical examples of a patient making a so-called therapeutic regression, one given by Winnicott and the other by Masud Khan. The author argues that in these examples the introduction of the concept of therapeutic regression obscures rather than clarifies the clinical process. He concludes that, as a substantial clinical concept, the idea of therapeutic regression has outlived its usefulness. However he also notes that many psychoanalytic writers continue to find a use for the more generic concept of regression, and that the very engagement with the more particular idea of therapeutic regression has value in provoking questions as to what is truly therapeutic in psychoanalytic treatment

The Music Therapist in School as Outsider

This essay examines the institutional commonalities among several schools in which I have worked as a music therapist, illustrating how thinking about my role as an outsider has informed my therapeutic approach. I refer to the broader concept of the outsider as it relates to both fictional and historical figures and in particular to Sherly Williams's article 'The Therapist as Outsider: The Truth of the Stranger' (1999) in which she compares the therapist to the archetypal figures of the fool and the seer. Finally, I link these ideas to Winnicott's concept of play, presenting the music therapist's role in school as that of an advocate for fostering creative impulses, which can at times be at odds with (or perhaps complementary to) the central educational aims of the school

Playful interactions: A critical inquiry into interactive art and play

My practice-based doctoral research explores how I, as an artist, can create conditions and possibilities for playful interaction in and around interactive artworks. Using practice- based research methods four artworks were created, presented and examined in relation to my research questions concerning play. The three key research questions were:1] How do the properties and affordances of materials and technologies foster play and interactions?2] How can artists conceptualise physical participation and play in interactive artworks? 3] What kind of play takes place in and around interactive artwork?My inquiry focused on the development of a model for making playful and interactive artworks and the creation of a vocabulary of play, which demonstrates the different kinds of play initiated through my practice and research. The model provides alternative ways to think about the role of play within interactive art and consists of a series of tangible making gambits for eliciting playful interactions from the audience. The model will be useful for future interactive artists, as well as other fields concerned with the creation of playful experiences. Underpinning my process of creating playful experiences were methods of observation of the participants’ interactions, which were used in order to enable change and improvement of the artworks throughout the research process.I argue that by employing a sculptural approach to interactive art, using the visual arts tradition of working with the properties of materials and affordances of technology, an invitation to play was created. I propose that to focus on the material’s affordance, rather than on interactive systems, provides additional ways to create interactivity. I also suggest that by understanding technology as a sculptural and embodied material we can move the focus from the technology to what the art does and says. In this sculptural playful interactivity audience members are allowed and encouraged to touch and physical and immersive participation is invited. I explored the body as a particular mode of interaction that can bridge the divide between doing and looking in the gallery, developing theories of the playful body and how audiences connect through play. I argue that the combination of sculptural, captivating interfaces, where the artwork reacts reliably, enables the audience to develop play mastery and become fully engaged. These playful interactions invite people to be curious and seek to engage audiences into dialogue, thereby opening up the possibility for play. Play is an essential pre-condition for the emergence of possibilities and, as such, it is the flexible structure by which meaningful interaction can arise. These interactions are not about our relation to technology but rather about new ways of experiencing culture. In this context interactive art is part of a wider change in contemporary art, where artists are creating culture to be experienced rather than consumed

Der Gegenübertragungstraum – oder: Das Ping-Pong-Spiel der beiderseitigen Unbewussten

In einem Brief an Freud hatte Lou Andreas-Salomé wegen des ihr unverständlichen Stillstands einer Analyse um Rat gefragt. Freud antwortete: >>Was man nicht deklinieren kann, das sehe man als - Übertragung an<< (Freud und Andreas-Salomé, 1966/1980, S.  133, Brief vom 23.3.1923). Er variiert damit die alte Grammatikregel: Was man nicht deklinieren kann, das sehe man als ein Neutrum an. Es handelt sich um keine feste grammatische Gesetzmäßigkeit wie >>Alle Substantiva mit der Endung -um sind Neutra<<, sondern um eine mehr pragmatische Regel zum Einsortieren. Diese Äußerung mag belegen, wie Freud die Übertragung auffasste: nicht als etwas faktisch Gegebenes, sondern als etwas zu Unterstellendes und - vor allem modischen Konstruktivismus - in der Analyse zu >>Konstruierendes<< (vgl. Freud, 1937d). Es ist nützlich, sich immer wieder Stellen wie diese in Freuds Schriften vor Augen zu halten, um nicht dem verbreiteten trügerischen Begriffsrealismus zu verfallen: Wenn es das Wort gibt (Übertragung, Ödipuskomplex oder was auch immer), dann gibt es auch den damit bezeichneten Sachverhalt