Chicago Psychoanalytic Society Study Group
An introduction to the work of
Psychoanalyst Dr. Marilia Aisenstein
3 Sessions: November 2, November 16, November 30
Via Zoom
The CPS study group is in preparation for Society lecture by Dr. Aisenstein on a recent paper, "Concerning the Allergic Object-Relationship, Zelig and Heikyong"1
"It is very good news that Marilia Aisenstein is to give a virtual talk on psychosomatics in Chicago Saturday the 2nd of December, 2023. The Paris school of psychosomatics is without equal in the world and no one is more qualified than Aisenstein to speak from within that tradition. Indeed, a colleague of Joyce McDougall and Janine Chassaguet-Smirgel, Aisenstein and Haydée Faimberg continue a tradition of remarkably gifted women analysts who have endowed the French School with a unique intellectual lineage, now carried on by Laurence Kahn and others. Vive la France!” Christopher Bollas
This study group is an invitation to explore the ideas developed by French theorist, author, teacher, and psychoanalyst psychosomatician Marilia Aisenstein whose views follow on the legacy of both Freud and The Paris School of Psychosomatics (Institut psychosomatique de Paris, Pierre Marty). To prepare for the talk we will read her seminal papers on psycho-somatics: “The Indissociable Unity of Psyche and Soma" and “The Mysterious Leap of the Somatic into the Psychic." These papers will lay the groundwork then to read the third paper which will be presented by Aisenstein in December:, “Concerning the Allergic Object-Relationship, Heikyong and Zelig.:”1
We will be introduced to French psychoanalytic and psychoanalytic psychosomatic concepts such as pulsion or drive, mentalization/dementalization, and the allergic object relation. Other concepts to think about include unconscious communication and conversion hysteria vs lack of mentalization in the psychosomatic patient.
This group is open to all members of the Society, on a first-come, first-serve basis, with a maximum of ten members. Please register online here by clicking REGISTER. This is the second study group offering in the “French Series” as part of CPS programming, and it is free to all members of the society and candidates. There will be no fee at this time as there are no CEU’s, although we may be able to offer them for study groups in the future.
Participants will be asked to read the papers in advance and to kindly commit to joining all three meetings. These meetings will be held every other week for one and half hours and chaired by Dr. Suzanne Rosenfeld on Zoom. Each meeting will be based on an in-depth discussion of 1 -3 papers over the entire three meetings. Once the group is formed, Suzanne will send out the first paper. The papers should also be found on the PEP Web.
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1 Allergic Object-Relationship: ("The term 'allergic' is to be understood here more as a metaphor, for it is not identical with allergies in medicine..."). .Aisenstein will describe this type of object relation as “A total and massive identification between the allergic subject and the object: The subject inhabits the object.... The failure to achieve closeness puts the subject in danger, hence the allergic crisis: asthma, eczema, skin rashes, and so on. Some subjects during crises experience a confused dream-like state, while others present anxieties of depersonalization.” Aisenstein shows us how the body is the site for psychic conflict and breakdown with somatic processes taking over thinking or rather non-thinking.
Recommended Readings:
1. Aisenstein, M. (2006). The indissociable unity of psyche and soma: a view from the Paris Psychosomatic School. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 87: 667-680.
2. Aisenstein, M. (2011). The mysterious leap of the somatic into the psyche. In: M. Aisenstein & E. R. Aisemberg (Eds.), Psychosomatics Today: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (pp. 47-62). London: Karnac.
3. Aisenstein, M. ( 2022) The Allergic Object Relation. In: M. Aisenstein & E. R. Aisemberg (Eds.), Psychosomatics Today, 2nd edition. (pp. 173-185). Oxon: Routledge.
About the presenter:
Marilia Aisenstein was born in Alexandria Egypt, from Greek parents. Her father was a diplomat; after four years they went back to Athens and some years later to Paris where she finished school and completed studies in Philosophy.
Her request for analysis was totally personal. After her analysis she studied psychology and applied for an analytic training. She has been training Analyst of the Hellenic Psychoanalytical Society, Distinguished fellow of the British Association and TA of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. She was president of the Paris Society and of the Paris Psychosomatic Institute, member of the editorial board of the “Revue Française de Psychanalyse”, co-founder and editor of the” Revue Française de Psychosomatique”. She has been involved in the IPA, member of the Board and of the Executive Committee and chair of the International New Groups Committee (ING).
She wrote chapters and books on psychosomatics, transference, hypochondria, depression in French, English, Greek and numerous papers in international reviews. She received the Maurice Bouvet award in 1992. She works presently in private practice and teaches in French, Greek and English. Her last book “Desire, Pain and Thought” is now translated in Spanish, Greek, Romanian and will be published in English by Routledge in May 2023.
