Specificities of Psychoanalytic Treatment

Yvette Dorey is a psychopathologist and psychoanalyst certified by the French Psychoanalytic Association (APF). She has been a research psychologist (Val-de-Grâce and Percy – joint publications on criteria for psychical selection) and a senior lecturer (Paris X University). Her work primarily addresses boundary issues, teaching, and transmission. She has translated several articles from English into French (Tchou), participated on reading committees, edited a book, and published articles (Dunod, Éditions TDK, Évolution psychiatrique, Revue française de psychanalyse, Psychologie clinique, and others). She has been a member of Specificity since 2010.Serge Frisch is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Luxembourg. He has been a member of Specificity since 2006.Leopoldo Bleger, a training member of the French Psychoanalytic Association (APF), left Argentina in 1976 after completing his studies in medicine and psychiatry and now works in Paris. He has written texts on the work of Melanie Klein, on psychoanalysis in the Río de la Plata region, and on methodological issues in psychoanalysis. His most recent book is Analyse en présence, analyse à distance. Paris: PUF, 2024. He has been a member of Specificity since 2006.

• About the editors and contributorsForewordCláudio Laks EizirikIntroduction Part IPresentation of the “specificity” method – psychoanalysts at work1. The working party on the “specificity of psychoanalytic treatment today”Serge Frisch and Leopoldo Bleger 2. The method within its historical contextLeopoldo Bleger and Serge Frisch3. Construction of the dispositifSerge Frisch and Leopoldo Bleger4. Presentation of a clinical group and its discussion in the Paris Group, “The Red Blanket”Yvette Dorey5. Gourmet psychoanalysis, or attempting to describe the work of a research groupErika Kittler Part IIClinical insights – inter-analytic exchanges6. Moderating a group of analysts listening to clinical materialCatherine Desvignes7. Specificity of the method from the presenter’s perspectiveMartine Sandor-Buthaud8. The silent support of the tripod – intersecting views: From the role of the rapporteur to the function of the observerMarie-France Dispaux-Ducloux and Lila Hoïjman9. The crossing: A psychoanalytic journey into the heart of a group settingFabienne Fillion10. About candidate group workRonnie Shaw  Part IIITheoretical insights – Towards a new field of investigation11. Free association and free discourseLuc Michel12. Unconscious communication in inter-analytic work Diana Messina Pizzuti13. What do specificity groups teach us about psychoanalytic specificity?Andrea Scardovi14. The clinical narrative in the working party on specificityLeopoldo Bleger15. The group as infant in front of the primal: Grasping, pointing, free-associating in specificity groups practiceAndrea Scardovi16. Outcomes and resultsLeopoldo Bleger and Serge Frisch PostscriptÉvelyne SechaudReferencesIndex

'The reader will find an extraordinary collection of writings from analysts who have been engaged with a psychoanalytic research project to identify the core concepts of the analysing situation. This impressive accomplishment is that a new research method has been movingly born. Inter-analytic group work that takes place at international psychoanalytic conferences has forged a method that provides evidence for the living validity of the Freudian project. This volume highlights a rare innovation of a convincing psychoanalytic research method that is intrinsically psychoanalytic. The chapters are presented in a sequence that accounts for the evolution of this unique methodology that continues to be realised in the context of the European Psychoanalytical Federation and beyond.'