II PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE OF INTERACTIVE PSYCHOANALYSTS
UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE,
THEME: INTERACTIVE PSYCHOANALYSIS AS A FORM OF PHILOSOPHICAL PRACTICE
The conference was held on October 7, 2023, at the University of Belgrade. In addition to numerous presenters, Prof. Dr. Zorica Kuburić attended the event and reflected on the importance of philosophical, psychological, and sociological aspects in psychotherapeutic approaches.
The presentation was given by philosopher Igor Grujičić titled „Jung's Synchronicity and Interactivity“.
His exploration of the concept of synchronicity led to the necessity of clarifying and understanding, according to Igor, both Rine's experiments and the metaphysical position, primarily Leibniz's Monadology. The author also conducted a spiritual-historical analysis to explain the conditions under which the concepts of synchronicity and interactivity could emerge as themes.
By examining the positions of interactive psychoanalysis, the author critically confronted the idea of synchronicity with the idea of interactivity, concluding that the key difference lies in the fact that synchronicity aims to be understood from the perspective of physics, while interactivity is a universal human phenomenon understood through logic.
From the perspective of the psychotherapeutic situation, understanding these concepts in the case of the analysand leads to progress and stabilization, and it is from this perspective that the greatest similarity between the concepts of synchronicity and interactivity emerges.
In her presentation, Irena Peličić, specialist in interactive psychoanalysis, discussed a potential approach to the therapy of psychotic personality structures from the perspective of interactive psychoanalysis. She employed Lacan's triad: the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic.
This presentation particularly focused on Lacan's symbolic register and its importance, as the place where the collapse of a psychotic personality structure begins, but also as a guide for the interactive psychotherapist in terms of setting tasks and therapy goals. The goal is for the analysand to structure the unconscious through language, while the interactive psychoanalyst, in the real and imaginary registers, monitors thought forms that can manifest as either representational or predictive thinking. By entering the analysand's perception of reality, here and now, the interactive psychoanalyst, relying on the categories of time and space and their corrective function, helps the analysand to create a new value of reality, gradually returning them to abstract thinking.
In her work, Dr. Zora Davidović focused on the influences of environmental factors, adaptation mechanisms in the form of either maladaptive or progressive adaptations, and how individuals, as dynamic systems, respond to other dynamic systems, particularly through the forces of Eros and Thanatos, which are in constant change and striving, similar to enthalpy and entropy. Zora concluded that "consciousness" in every being depends on the essence of its interaction with itself and the environment, i.e., its orientation toward the forces of entropy and control. She emphasized that although the human psyche can imagine some immaterial world, what promotes our perception of "reality" is the property of "variable physicality."
In his presentation on "The Ontological Position of Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory within the Philosophy of Spirit," Dr. Aleksandar Prica aimed to respond to the critique of neuropsychoanalysis, which claims that its ontology is unsustainable. He attempted to do this by situating Freud's psychoanalytic theory within the traditional categorization of psychological theories in the philosophy of spirit concerning the mind-body relationship, testing it based on Freud's works to assess how each of these theories corresponds to psychoanalytic theory.
Among
the eight theories considered, including physicalism, mentalism, epiphenomenalism,
neutral monism, dualistic interactionism, psychophysical parallelism, the thesis of
psychophysical identity, and the thes is of supervenience, Prica concluded that only
two theories—psychophysical identity and neutral monism—passed the test. Of these
two,
he selected neutral monism for its greater explanatory value.
In the concluding part of his
presentation, Prica also criticized the views of Vesa Talvitie and Juhani Ihanus
regarding the
ontology of psychoanalysis for postulating the existence of the unconscious as an
unknowable
noumenon.
However, Prica believes that this is not an insurmountable flaw but rather calls for
a
revitalization of metapsychology as a branch of psychoanalysis. He believes that
interactive
psychoanalysis, philosophically oriented, can provide a decisive contribution by
translating
philosophical metaphysical theories into a specific form of thinking, thus enabling
indirect
knowledge of the unconscious.
In her presentation, Prof. Dr. Suzana Dimitrijević reflected on the role of mirror neurons in establishing the therapeutic alliance within the context of interactive psychoanalysis. A key feature of the therapeutic alliance in interactive psychoanalysis is that the therapist understands the analysand's specific way of thinking by entering a dual manifestation (understanding their subjective view of the world), thus helping them draw more accurate conclusions. While language plays a key role in social interaction, a significant part of interpersonal relationships occurs unconsciously, manifesting through both verbal and non-verbal signs.
Social relationships in humans (and animals) begin with learning, initially through observation, followed by imitation or simulation of the environment. Contemporary research in neuro- and related sciences suggests that mirror neurons play a large role in this. These findings can provide additional tools for developing the interactive therapeutic alliance. Suzana Dimitrijević hypothesized that interactive psychotherapists could use neural mechanisms of mimicry or simulation, in addition to tools of interactive psychoanalysis, to guide the analysand's affective and cognitive actions, which could be very helpful in the interactive therapeutic process.
Lazar Bogunović, an interactive psychoanalysis specialist, presented on the concept of personality in interactive psychoanalysis. He based the psychotherapeutic framework on the idea of mutual analysis from Sandor Ferenczi, while the philosophical framework was grounded in Martin Buber's "I–Thou." In this segment, he analyzed the phenomenon of transference and, above all, countertransference. He connected all of this with the practice of interactive psychoanalysis.
The conference moderator, Dr. Milan Popov, highlighted the necessity for further critical examination of the specificity of the interactive position as a universal human phenomenon, considering the conceptual relationships between Interactive Psychoanalysis and Classical Psychoanalysis. He argued that the focus should be on overcoming the key problem of therapeutic nihilism, which Freud discussed repeatedly.
Understanding the specific experiences
of the analysand in the expression of dual manifestation, through the methods of
interactive
psychoanalysis, allows insight into thought-selfhood and thus overcomes the fear of
the
unknown.
Besides the theoretical reflection, he also pointed to practical examples and the
need to
revise existing psychotherapeutic theories. Dr. Milan Popov emphasized that specific
thoughts in
individuals with schizoid fantasies must be considered from a logical perspective,
recognizing
the analysand's relationship with the environment, rather than categorizing them
solely as
expressions of a psychotic state.
Specific opinions in people with schizoid fantasies, according to Dr. Milan Popov, must necessarily be considered from a logical perspective as well, taking into account the analysand’s relationship with their environment, rather than classifying the analysand solely as an expression of a psychotic state.