THE PSYCHOANALYTIC FIELD » Associations

Subjects-Insights

Fadi Abou-Rihan — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:14:35 +0000

One of the main controversies in the history of the psychoanalytic movement has coalesced around the meaning and relevance of insight as a clinical category. A divide has often separated a more classic epistemic orientation from a concern for the analysand’s affective well being which, supposedly, may or may not have much to do with …

Breaking Down

Fadi Abou-Rihan — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:18:53 +0000

In the context of a connective synthesis, a machine or a chain of associations works only when it breaks down. It works by breaking down, continually, by having the flow it produces interrupted and consumed by another that is inevitably produced by it. “Breaking down” in the French original is actually “detraquée.” The word suggests …

Connection

Fadi Abou-Rihan — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:48:11 +0000

Of the connective synthesis of production (and… and… and…): the chain of free associations is not simply a representation of an underlying dynamic, a metaphor for latent peculiarities, or a symptom of as yet undisclosed conflicts and possibilities. In its vagaries and detours, this chain is a machine whose flow is recorded and consumed by …

Fragment

Fadi Abou-Rihan — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:30:39 +0000

Somewhere, Hakim Bey once suggested that it is only a fragmented theory that can do justice to a fragmented reality. Among other things, a fragment is a residue not entirely covered over by time. Its presence is unsettling. It invites us to excavate for another to which it may retell its story. Its misshapen contour …