Hatred is profoundly narcissistic. It bespeaks an archaic defense, an extreme form of protection against the threat of narcissistic and psychic breakdown. It may be inoffensive or, on the contrary, aggressive and destructive, seeking to destroy otherness. In adolescence, the affective movement of hatred appears necessary with regard to the parental objects and towards the environment in general, since the adolescent has the feeling of being “frowned upon”, passivated or feminized.
This article will focus on the figure of adolescence developed and filmed by Jacques Audiard in De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté (2005) and look at the way in which image-movement and cinematographic writing join with psychoanalytic concepts in a mutually enriching way. This film depicts an adolescent problematic – in a race towards perpetual enjoyment – and allows us to feel the somatic-psychic movements that will enable this young man to emancipate himself from it.
The word “ contract ” in the title gives one to understand that there is a clear prior agreement, or at least a mutually accepted restriction; in other words, it suggests something definitive and under control. Attaching the qualifier “ treatment ” to it opens the way to the notion of therapeutic process with all that it connotes of psychical movement towards a future subject to ambivalence, to the pairing of idealization and de-idealization, to the contingent. The working process that has been engaged offers a therapeutic setting at once spatial and temporal which creates the conditions for the emergence of a transitional space. There is a fool’s bargain when the immediate normative aim takes precedence : – treatment by medicine alone- imposture of effective symptomatic treatment without any work of elaboration (which can lead to relapses and defensive psychical readjustments that allow the problem to evolve quietly with increasing risk) ; verification ; openness in information.
The authors suggest to ponder on the topic of a rise of acted violence in the adolescent population and question the psychoanalytic understanding of destructive both heteroaggressive and self‑aggressive movements. Several theoretical positions on the topic of the death instinct, or of drive unbinding or an attempt to save a feeling of identity when violence surges are analyzed briefly, followed by two clinical vignettes. From the latter cases, they try to link the intrapsychological and family links underlying the recourse to violent actings with such subjects, as related with adolescent problematics. The temporary identification dilemma is here suggested as well as the interdependence between self‑violence and violence towards the other person.
It denies the subjectivity of whoever has to bear it, but reflects mirrorlike a threat on the subfectivy of whoever enacts it. Thus it may be considered as a primary defence reaction from a threatened identity. The experience of institutional life in psychiatry as well as the psychotherapies of subjects suffering from behaviour disorders are a priviledged place to study the latter one. Adolescence is a life stage most liable to expressions of violence due to the nature of the psychological changes that are imposed by puberty. Care should take into account such specificities of the psychological functioning of violent patients. The space for such care should be viewed as a figuration of the internal psychological space of the patient and its handling should be made a means to allow the relationships they need to become tolerable. Mediations and a concrete third function have a very special seat whithin such a handling.
Virtual spaces are particularly well-suited to auto-therapeutic uses, especially for suffering personalities. At the same time, these spaces foster the construction of a new culture in which youngsters attempt to construct the landmarks that are missing in their daily lives
In his book Marilyn, Last Sessions, M. Schneider recounts what happened in the course of thirty months of the last sessions of Marilyn Monroe’s slice of analysis with Ralph Greenson and shows the passionate aspect of this relationship. An explication of the actress’s exhibitionist problematic would have certainly led to a deeper understanding of the issues of this analysis. The author explains the elements of clinical work on exhibitionism, particularly in the woman, in order to show that these elements are quite present here, and they shed much light on how things evolved in this case.
There are men who remind us that the flow of history is neither unhurried nor measured. Caravaggio (1571-1610) was one of these, thanks to innovations that were so radical they changed the course of Occidental painting. A notorious troublemaker – he was convicted of murder – he never ceased painting, be it under the protection of liberal patrons or on the run from papal justice. The disparity between the suspended moments he captured on canvas and his wayward wanderings punctuated with actions suggests that, despite the seminal nature of his work, his creative powers never quite prevailed over the attraction of the abyss he staged right from his early production. The drift accelerated in later years whilst he still engaged, sheltered by his canvas, in large religious compositions, exploring themes of despair and seeking out divine release.
The authors suggest to ponder on the topic of a rise of acted violence in the adolescent population and question the psychoanalytic understanding of destructive both heteroaggressive and self-aggressive movements. Several theoretical positions on the topic of the death instinct, or of drive unbinding or an attempt to save a feeling of identity when violence surges are analyzed briefly, followed by two clinical vignettes. From the latter cases, they try to link the intrapsychological and family links underlying the recourse to violent actings with such subjects, as related with adolescent problematics. The temporary identification dilemma is here suggested as well as the interdependence between self-violence and violence towards the other person.
The adolescent, caught within the snares of the first love is struck by a brutal narcissistic breaking in, but he is less disillusioned than the adult by the object’s desiring reality. He knows his desire is fed upon his own self. He will indeed be disillusione and will have to mourn this first love.
Every adult keeps in mind the nostalgia of such a first love which will serve as reference within the vicissitudes of every man’s or woman’s fate.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7