Archives de catégorie : ENG – Corps et société aujourd’hui – 2011 T. 29 n°3

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

François Richard : can one speak of a « society of discontent » ?

In this article, the epistemic confrontation between psychoanalysis and the social sciences is re-problematized using the arguments of A. Ehrenberg (and other researchers in sociology) and hypotheses about the specificity of the current discontent in the civilization. Freudian ideas are brought to the point where their subjectivism paradoxically introduces a perspective of renewing historicity. Current forms of discontent in civilization (contradiction between morality and cynicism, complementary relation between individualism and gregariousness, sexual liberation masking a lack of satisfaction, suspension of judgment, prevalence of functioning based on primary processes, violent acts, disorders of subjectivation) are depicted and commented upon.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 571-582.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Alain Ehrenberg : la société du malaise. presentation for a dialogue between clinical practice and sociology

« Discontent in society » is less a point of departure than a problem that needs to be elaborated and clarified. The author suggests replacing the individualistic ideal that society causes psychical suffering be replaced with the sociological idea that psychical suffering is today an obligatory, that is, expected, way of expressing of social suffering. This leads him to the hypothesis that in the area of mental health, we are witnessing a generalization of the use of personal idioms to give form to and resolve conflicts in social relations. These language games consist of making a connection between personal unhappiness and disrupted social relations using the yardstick of psychical suffering, thus bringing together individual suffering and shared suffering. From there, he develops the hypothesis that, obscured by the malaise, a equality crisis is being played out in the French style, that is, a crisis of an equality that is conceived essentially in terms of protection, and a protection in terms of status, according to the model of public functioning, while today’s equality, and thus the struggle against social inequality, is played out in terms of capacity.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 553-570.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Philippe Gutton : introduction

The objective of this working day with A. Ehrenberg Going is to go back to the theses of La Société du malaise (2010) in the field of adolescence and youth. The individual must not only rely on his personal capacities, in particular his competence, but also on « his subjectivity, his inwardness ». « Individual (“ liberated ”) subjectivity is at the forefront. »

We would suggest that the author’s methodology not refer exclusively to character disorders, as is usually done, but to adolescence as a set of processes of creation and a well-known high point in the process of narcissistic individuation. How does the duel, united movement of de-institutionalizing and psychologizing social relations cause adolescents to suffer, perhaps in an exemplary way, in their supposed normalness and in their contemporary pathologies ? How does this evolution change youths in return ?

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 545-551.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Rémy Potier : truth and illusion of crossover approaches between psychoanalysis et neurosciences. an interview with Roland Gori

Crossover approaches between neurosciences and psychoanalysis are receiving more and more methodological support. For this issue of the revue Adolescence, Rémy Potier interviews Roland Gori on the heuristics of this new research. Conceptual rigor often seems lacking in these approaches, which do not pay sufficient attention to the polysemy of concepts or to socio-historical issues.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 531-544.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Lisa Ouss-Ryngaert : the act as process?

The author stresses four points mentioned by J. Dayan and B. Guillery-Girard. The first has to do with the reversal of conceptions of adolescence into a teleological model. The second offers a new reading of the clinical signs : a conception of the act not as a symptom, but rather as a structuring process. The third concerns the way in which we can conceive of the articulation between neurosciences and psychoanalysis. The last discusses the edification of a new framework for psychopathology. From the place of the « all-neuroscience » in the psychology of common sense, to the opening of a fruitful theorization, these interactions continue to raise questions for us.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 517-526.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Jacques Dayan, Bérangère Guillery-Girard : adolescent behavior and brain development : psychoanalysis and neurosciences

Case Reports, anecdotal evidence, descriptive epidemiologic studies, psychoanalytic and neuroscientific studies converge to conclude that impulsivity, sensation seeking and risky behaviours are common during adolescence. Epidemiological studies put forward that not only adolescents (fifteen-eighteen years old) but also young adults (eighteen/fifty five years old) are at increased risks of dangerous behaviours. Structural and functional neuro-imaging studies have shown that neural circuitry undergoes major reorganization during adolescence and young adulthood, particularly in those regions of the brain relating to executive functions, the self and social cognition. Decreases in gray matter volume during adolescence mainly reflect a massive reduction in the number of synapses ; meanwhile, increases in white matter volume reflect improvement of connectivity between distant regions of the brain, studies showing that the brain undergoes major microstructural changes during adolescence, and indeed beyond. Two different approaches to the « tendency to act » during adolescence are expressed in both neurosciences and psychoanalysis. One of the most widespread conceptions hypothesizes that this tendency results from some deficiencies, namely a lack of mentalization, for psychoanalysts, or an inability of the prefrontal cortex to exert a mature control over the emotional brain – the limbic system – for neuroscientists. Hence adolescents could be dominated by their drive or their emotions. The other conception, that we follow and we develop, is that the relative unbalance between emotion and cognition during that period, if any, allows a fine tuning of the brain structure through adjustment of connectivity and functionality of the prefrontal regions. From an evolutionary perspective, the last brain regions to mature in a given adolescent are also the last brain regions to develop phylogenetically. Taking into account gregariousness and social conformism of adolescents, the « tendency to act », often described in pejorative terms referring to their consequences as « risky behaviors », helps to edify a social brain adapted to the adulthood of a new generation.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 479-515.

ENG - Corps et société aujourd'hui - 2011 T. 29 n°3

Bernard Golse : on the concept of neuro-psychoanalysis

The author considers the concept of neuro-psychoanalysis in relation to adolescent ways of functioning. He briefly reviews the historical development and returns to three paradigms from the fiftieth Congrès des Psychanalystes de Langue Française des Pays Romans (1990) : the theory of catastrophes, the theory of chaos, and the concept of auto-organization.

Adolescence, 2011, T. 29 n° 3, pp. 467-477.