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HOME : Inspecting Its Psychoanalytic Furniture. SALMAN AKHTAR, MD Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Centre of Philadelphia. I.
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HOME:Inspecting Its Psychoanalytic Furniture SALMAN AKHTAR, MD Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Centre of Philadelphia
I. If you are wandering about in a foreign land, far from your home and from all that you hold dear, if you have seen and heard many things, have known sorrow and care, and are wretched and forlorn, then without fail you will dream one night that you are coming near to your home, you will see it gleaming and shining in the fairest colors. Sigmund Freud
II. A woman’s relation to her home, which is equivalent to her own body, has a special importance for the feminine mode of mastering anxiety, and has, besides, another and more direct connection with her early anxiety situation.…the little girl’s rivalry with her mother finds utterance, among other things, in fantasies of driving her out and taking her place as mistress of the house. An important aspect of this anxiety situation for children of both sexes, but more especially for girls, consists in the fear of being turned out of the house and being left homeless. Melanie Klein
III. • The child whose home fails to give a feeling of security, looks outside his home for the four walls; he still has hope and he looks to grandparents, uncles and aunts, friends of the family, school. He seeks an external stability without which he may go mad. • ****** The environment is something we take for granted…A good home absorbs much difficulty which becomes only too apparent when the home breaks or when the home is disturbed by illness. Donald Winnicott
IV. CHILDHOOD HOME • Reality constancy (Frosch, 1964) & waking screen (Pacella, 1980) • Mnemic objects (Bollas, 1992) • Split homes / frequently changing homes • Environmental memories (Akhtar, 2018) • The “second look” (Novey, 1968)
V. FUNCTIONS OF HOME • Physical (Searles, 1960) • Holding (Winnicott, 1946) • Symbolic (Freud, 1900; Klein, 1932)
VI. LATER HOMES • College dorms • First apartment • Marital home • Retirement & nursing homes
VII. REPARATIVE HOMES • Orphanages • Long-term hospitals • Spiritual retreats • Prisons
VIII. PSYCHOPATHOGY • Homelessness (actual, feared, psychic, political) • Homesickness (‘nostalgia’; Sterba, 1934) • Home-boundness (‘agoraphobia’; Freud, 1897) • Flight from home (‘dromomania’; Stekel, 1943)
IX. THE ANALYST’SOFFICE • Location (Maroda, 2007; Mills, 2007) • Physical attributes (Winnicott, 1954; Akhtar, 2009;) • Symbolic aspects (Carpelan, 1981; Parsons, 2008)