Human Nature - International Philosophy and Psychology Review

Presentation of the Dossier Psychoanalysis in dark times: clinical practice as an object of resistance to suffering and pain

Rosemarie Elizabeth Schimidt Almeida — 2025-10-24

Presentation of the dossier Psychoanalysis in dark times: clinical practice as an object of resistance to suffering and pain, organized by Prof. Rosemarie Elizabeth Schmidt Almeida, PhD.

Marked bodies: expressions of psychological suffering in adolescence in dark times

Rosemarie Elisabeth Schimidt Almeida — 2025-10-24

Faced with the fraying of social ties and the collapse of symbolic matrices, adolescence is experienced under the aegis of the sacrifice of living in “dark times”. This article proposes a psychoanalytic reading of scarification as an expression of adolescent suffering, not reduced to destructiveness, but understood as an attempt to register the subject in the face of the unrepresentable and a way of (sur)viving in society. Based on a theoretical-clinical methodology, with the use of psychoanalytic clinical vignettes, the gesture of cutting oneself is presented as a precarious form of symbolization in the face of excessive drives, environmental failure, and as a cry for help that is made in the environment in which the adolescent lives. The analyst’s listening, supported by the ethics of psychoanalysis, emerges as a possibility of transforming pain into words and acts into narratives. In this context, of cultures based on “dark times”, the psychoanalytic clinic emerges as a space that can be considered an “epitome of love”, of support in the face of helplessness, where the adolescent can overcome the pain and suffering of existence.

Between facts and flaws: challenges of twin motherhood

Maria Elizabeth Barreto Tavares dos Reis — 2025-10-24

Motherhood with twins implies extra challenges right from pregnancy, which is considered high risk. The birth of the babies implies anguish, fears, and challenges experienced by the mother that are probably more intense than those that affect mothers of single babies - when one baby is born per pregnancy. Given that there are still few texts in contemporary psychoanalytic literature on the psychotherapeutic care of such women, this study was to describe and analyze the clinical facts encountered in the psychotherapeutic care of a mother of twins. The analysis of the clinical facts detected made it possible to reflect on the overload experienced by the mother due to the simultaneous demands of the twins and the implications for the marital relationship.

Resonances on the decision to use the contraceptive pill: a qualitative clinical study

Nathália Tavares Bellato Spagiari — 2025-10-24

The contraceptive pill was the creation of a period of demands from women regarding the care of their lives, mainly regarding fertility. So, how did women signify the choice for the pill today? The objective of this study is to understand the reasons and meanings attributed by women from the north of Paraná to the choice of using the pill. Through the qualitative clinical method, nine women users of the pill were interviewed. It was observed that the reasons attributed by them are: control of menstrual flow, reduction of emotional symptoms linked to PMS, reduction of acne, postponement of motherhood, etc. In addition to meanings such as: self-indulgence, control over life cycles, autonomy over your decisions. It is concluded that such meanings and reasons given by these women direct them to a phallic ordering of the body, as well as a postponement of motherhood in order to experience other forms of creation about the feminine.

The objects voice and gaze in devastation in The Human Voice by Pedro Almodóvar

Heloisa Caldas — 2025-10-24

This article addresses the concepts of the objects voice and gaze in psychoanalysis, exploring Lacan’s contributions in the dialogue with Winnicott stemming from the film The Human Voice by Pedro Almodóvar. Delving into the conception of the object a, particularly the voice as an inaugural drive object, the text articulates the dimension of jouissance with the register of structural alterity, problematizing the failure of phantasmatic constructions in confronting the real of amorous trauma. The relationship between voice and gaze is analyzed, situating its components as elements that transcend the symbolic and imaginary registers, evoking the tension between the subject’s position and alienation towards the fallen object. The protagonist’s trajectory from devastation to subjective reconfiguration is evidenced, mediated by a transitional object, as formulated by Winnicott. The aim is to critically read contemporary forms of subjectivation, love, and gender, highlighting the interweaving of the death drive, fantasy, and not-all jouissance.

Psychoanalysis and Evidence: critical and historical perspectives

Richard Harrison Oliveira Couto — 2025-10-24

In this paper, we discuss evidence-based practices in the field of mental health, tracing their origins, funding agents, and implementation policies, as well as the problematic effects that this policy has produced in the mental health practice. Although psychoanalysis and psychodybamic psychotherapy have evidence, as indicated by many clinical studies, been included in some Guidelines, like NICE Guideline, these are generally not publicized and, when they appear in the media or high-impact journals, criticism tends to point out flaws that, in most cases, are no different from the flaws found in research regarding practices with already accepted evidence of efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency. Conclusion: in the f evidence-based practice in mental helth, there arestrong evidence of a policy that tries to implement at all costs, sometimes unethically, an extremely poor vision both epistemologically and in relation to practice, prioritizing certain treatments that, as we were able to verify, are not superior to other practices or, in some cases, not even to the placebo effect. Finally, we discuss the method of psychoanalysis and the reasons why it can work when other treatments often fail because they disregard the possibility of the unconscious, as discovered and supported by psychoanalytic theory and clinic.

Transference management and logical time in the neoliberal era

Rosangela Vernizi — 2025-10-24

This article seeks to contribute to discussions on the impact of the imperatives of acceleration, and productivity on the direction of treatment, especially regarding transference management. To this end, a brief exploration is proposed regarding the transformations associated with capitalism and their effects on subjectivity, with particular emphasis on how the typical demands of neoliberalism affect patients seeking treatment. Subsequently, the challenges of transference management in psychoanalytic practice are examined, especially concerning the use of logical time. It is concluded that contemporary demands require the analyst to exercise careful management of time so as not to compromise their desire as an analyst.

The body's twists in history and psychoanalysis

Denise Maurano — 2025-10-24

Over time, since the Greco-Roman philosophical influence on Western Civilization, idealistic currents and materialistic tendencies have permeated reflections on corporeality. These flow into the Contemporary world, where much is said about the overvaluation of the body, a valorization that is, however, extremely dubious, since it is taken for its image. This image, responding to the globalized world of the third millennium, makes the body a product of the market, subject to all sorts of idealisms and manipulations. But after all: Is it I who who inhabits a body? That has a body? Or am I my body? What is the “I”? What is the body? What is the self? Its recognition? Lacan warns us that the body should dazzle us more, after all, it is the condition for both desire and enjoyment. This is the theme of this article.

The Head of Medusa and the Interpellation of the Real by Thought

Laéria Fontenele — 2025-10-24

The essay revisits the text "The Head of Medusa," in which there are specific contributions to the study of the effects of the castration complex on the structuring of thought and its difficulty in assimilating the real. It follows Freud's indications at the end of the text, highlighting the importance of studies on the origins of that symbol in Greek mythology. It envisions two main questions: why is this myth so unique? And why the myth of the Head of Medusa rather than that of Medusa herself? The aim is to clarify the lessons Psychoanalysis can offer to the discussion of a contemporary issue: the disintegration of progressive forces and the affirmation of human rights, as well as the collapse of the cultural foundations that once legitimized them — now slipping into hatred, dissent, and the narcissism of minor differences, which hinder the plural dialogue necessary for the symbolization of difference and the scientific debate surrounding it.

“It makes hearts beat in the applause of the crowds": nuances on creativity and artistic sensitive living in dark times from the perspective of D. W. Winnicott

Maíra Bonafé Sei — 2025-10-24

This study is an investigation, based on the theoretical postulations of D. W. Winnicott, about creativity and creative processes in the present day. To this end, we take as an analytical reference point the critical observation of the spectator in a classical work of art, ballet. We resort to the theory of creativity and the importance of the illusory process and play to produce meanings in life. And then, we establish a reflexive critique of the process of subjectivation in dark times, of needs met quickly and of impoverishment of the experience of the self, in ballet, but also in society as a whole.

Experiences associated with fibromyalgia as shared by women in digital environments

Rodrigo Sanches Peres — 2025-10-24

The present study aimed to understand experiences associated with fibromyalgia, especially those emerging in the family context, as shared online by affected patients. To this end, we utilized posts made on internet by this population and used methodological procedures proposed for the development of qualitative research based on the psychoanalytic investigative method through the adoption of digital environments as locus for data collection. The corpus of the present study was composed, in total, of 10 posts, from eight different profiles. The obtained results indicate that the internet users responsible for the selected posts feel that, after the diagnosis, they lost their health completely and, as a result, lost the place they previously occupied in their own family. Evidence was also detected that these internet users tend to conform in the face of the social contestation of which they believe they are victims and that they think they have little or no autonomy to face the limitations caused by the syndrome.

Notes on Lacan's contributions to diagnosis in psychoanalysis

Marco Antonio Coutinho Jorge — 2025-10-24

Following the theoretical work of his return to Freud, in which he highlighted the structural clinical tripartite division - neurosis, perversion and psychosis -, Jacques Lacan provided numerous contributions to differential diagnosis. The three psychic registers isolated by the teaching of Lacan - real, symbolic, imaginary - allow for a new diagnostic distinction, in which fundamental fantasy assumes decisive importance.

The clinic of urgency in its various manifestations

Maico Fernando Costa — 2025-10-24

The main contribution of this article, one of the works derived from our PhD Thesis, is to signal that the understanding of the concept “Urgency Clinic” implies the recognition of Urgency, in its organic or subjective dimension, as if bifurcating in several manifestations: 1) Urgency itself; 2) Organic-generalized urgency; 3) Installation of urgency; 4) Subjective urgency; 5) Urgency in neurosis; 6) Urgency in psychosis; 7) Urgency and its conclusions. The purpose of this text is to present the various expressions of the concept of Urgency, taking into account the device of Urgency Clinic. During the present production, we built reflections based on the multiple manifestations of Urgency in the experience of subjects in relation to their anguishes, demands and desires. Therefore, we exposed clinical vignettes of cases that we attended and that intertwine with the theorizations. We add that this is linked to the subjective style of each human being in his bond with the world, thus representing his singularity in contact with others around him.

The dichotomy of human nature

Ronaldo Victer — 2025-10-24

This is a psychoanalytic-scientific essay that presents dichotomy as a distinct issue from dissociation, as a structure of mental nature. The author uses everyday examples to focus on the dichotomous model of mental functioning as something ubiquitous. He highlights Freud's dualistic conception of psychoanalytic precepts considering his basic cognitive reasoning. He also draws an analogy between the dichotomy and experiences of the body, namely having two arms, two legs, two lungs, and two brains. He evokes authors Piera Aulagnier, Elizabeth Howell, and Ronald Fairbairn to review concepts of dissociation, and Luis Cabré regarding Freud's concepts of Spaltung and Ferenczi's Splitting. Finally, he seeks to substantiate with new examples the permanent human need for reintegration with oneself, representing the vivid movement of the profound experience of the inner dichotomy of human nature.

Freud and the dialogue with medicine: on the challenges of psychoanalytic clinics in the face of diagnosticism

Luciana Ribeiro Marques — 2025-10-24

In this article, we follow Freud’s theoretical and clinical career, highlighting how his medical training and his dialogue with the neurology and psychiatry of his time were decisive for the construction of a new clinical model. We analyze the emergence of psychoanalysis within the medical field as a fundamental conceptual inflection: from the organ to the subject, from the lesion to language, from observation to listening. Through a chronological and articulated reading of pre-psychoanalytic, clinical and metapsychological texts, we demonstrate how Freud approached symptoms and phenomena, moving from localizationist neurology to a listening guided by the logic of the unconscious. By examining Freud’s critical dialogue with central figures of classical psychiatry, we also demonstrate how, in psychoanalysis, diagnosis is not reduced to classificatory naming, but is inserted in the direction of treatment, highlighting the unique function of clinical listening. We therefore propose a refusal to standardize, reaffirming the ethical position of psychoanalysis in the face of the contemporary challenges of widespread pathologization, by supporting a clinical practice that is guided by listening to the subject: a practice capable of resisting the diagnosticism of subjective experience.

Introductory note to the translation of Sigmund Freud's preface (1919) to The Ritual: Psychoanalytic Studies, by Theodor Reik

Luciana Ribeiro Marques — 2025-10-24

The following is the first translation into Portuguese of the preface written by Sigmund Freud in 1919 for the book Das Ritual: Psychoanalytische Studien, by Theodor Reik. It is a brief but dense text in which Freud revisits the path of psychoanalysis from its emergence as a response to a medical need – in the face of symptoms that escaped the treatments available at the time – to its consolidation as a theoretical field also focused on understanding productions such as art, religion and culture.