In this article, Christine Anzieu-Premmereur explores the relationship between compulsion and the body in childhood and adolescence. Using psychoanalytic theory, she analyzes how the compulsive repetition of self-destructive behaviors can represent an attempt to process and make sense of early traumatic experiences. The article highlights the importance of early therapeutic intervention in childhood to prevent emotional and addictive problems later in life. In a world where addiction and emotional difficulties affect many people, understanding the roots of these behaviors is crucial. Through psychoanalytic theory, the author guides us in exploring the underlying mechanisms of compulsive repetition and its role in shaping subjectivity. Christine Anzieu-Premmereur proposes models of early psychic processes that influence repetition compulsion, distinguishing between two types: one that fosters creativity and openness, and another that leads to disorganization and destructiveness. She examines how early relationship disturbances can contribute to addiction and compulsive behaviors in adulthood. Early therapeutic intervention is therefore essential to foster creativity and free association in patients. Ultimately, the author argues that compulsive behaviors can reflect attempts to process and make sense of early experiences, even when this process is painful or difficult. She also highlights the importance of analytic space, transitional spaces, and creative activities as settings where emotions can be explored and understood.

Christine Anzieu-Premmereur is an adult and child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of the Société Psychanalytique de Paris and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. She directed the Parent-Infant Psychotherapy Training at Columbia University and served as chair of the IPA Committee for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis. She has published extensively on motherhood, child psychoanalysis, psychosomatics, addiction, and the intersection of the body and compulsion.

You can download a copy of the paper here.

Cover Image: Simon Vouet, Madonna and Child, 1633. Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

https://www.nga.gov/artworks/206070-madonna-and-child

"X". Calle Alcalá, Madrid. Photograph by Ana M. Martín Solar.

With the evocative title “Once Again, the Mystery”, the Argentine psychoanalyst Mariano Horenstein poses the equally enigmatic question: How do we listen to the language of sexuality today?

Through an exploration of the relationship between language and psychoanalysis and the historical transformation of the clinical paradigms that have shaped psychoanalytic listening to date: hysteria, in its origins, with its enigmatic language surrounded by silences, which inaugurated the analytical device; psychosis, which after the Second World War led to the expansion of the field, forcing us to give voice and testimony where the absence of repression predominated; the author shows us the trans clinic as a new paradigm that is currently emerging, not only because it requires the analyst to be heard, but also because it bursts onto the scene with its own voice and avatars of inclusive language, directly challenging psychoanalytic theory and practice, and thus bringing sexuality back to the centre of the psychoanalytic stage and debate.

In 2022, “Once Again, the Mystery” won the biennial Carolina Zamora Prize awarded by the Asociación Psicoanalítica de Madrid, which recognised the author by inviting him to participate as one of the main speakers at the seventh Meeting of Spanish-speaking Psychoanalysts in 2024.

Mariano Horenstein is a psychoanalyst with a teaching role at the Córdoba Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association.

He is a former representative for Latin America on the IPA Board.

He is the former editor-in-chief of Calibán-Revista Latinoamericana de Psicoanálisis. He is also the author of the books:

‘Psicoanálisis en lengua menor’ (Psychoanalysis in a Minor Language); ‘Brújula y diván. El psicoanálisis y su necesaria extranjería’ (Compass and Couch: Psychoanalysis and its Necessary Foreignness); ‘Funambulistas. Travesía adolescente y riesgo’ (Tightrope Walkers: Adolescent Journey and Risk); and ‘Conversaciones de diván’ (Couch Conversations).

www.marianohorenstein.com

This episode is presented in English and Spanish.

You can download a copy of the paper here.

In the wake of profound cultural change, the traditional image of the father has been destabilized, prompting renewed psychoanalytic reflection. No longer confined to authority alone, the paternal figure is now expected to embody both care and limit. What psychic space does the father occupy in the life of the child? In this episode, Heribert Blass explores fatherhood through a contemporary psychoanalytic lens.

Drawing on clinical experience, interdisciplinary research, and cultural observation, he outlines a model of committed paternity that integrates emotional presence with symbolic function. From early play to Oedipal conflict, the father's task is to protect, to differentiate, and to support the child's path toward autonomy. Rather than fading, he emerges as a complex figure situated at the intersection of intimacy, separation, and symbolic function—and essential to the child's inner world.

Heribert Blass, medical doctor, is a psychoanalyst for adults, children, and adolescents; a training and supervising analyst of the German Psychoanalytic Association and the IPA; also a specialist in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, and psychiatry, working in private practice in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is the president-elect of the IPA and served as president of the European Psychoanalytic Federation from 2020 to 2024. His publications cover a wide range of topics, including male identity and sexuality, the image of the father, supervision, generativity both in clinical work and within psychoanalytic institutions, boundary violations, the relationship between internal and external reality, psychoanalysis and society (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic), as well as time and the experience of time.

You can download a copy of the paper here

This Podcast Series, published by the International Psychoanalytical Association, is part of the activities of the IPA Communication Committee and is produced by the IPA Podcast Editorial Team.

Co-Editors: Gaetano Pellegrini and Nicolle Zapien.

Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri.

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