Contenu du sommaire : Métamorphoses

This article examines the strange feeling of "missing out on your life," to understand what lies behind it and ask whether it might not also be a sign of an opportunity for metamorphosis. By questioning the philosophical category of occasion and kairos, the author reflects on the importance of metamorphoses in life, which can become metamorphoses of life.

The purpose of this article is to explain, through the concept of metamorphosis, how life is in constant flux and continually recreating itself, shifting from one a state to another, both in terms of its nature and the most diversified forms of its structure. After reviewing various books in the social sciences, I wanted to study in greater depth several fundamental questions relating to life and what is often opposed to it: death. The use of the concept of metamorphosis helped me apprehend and illustrate in an evocative way the dynamics outside of time that transform life. The central argument of this article is that life has neither beginning and nor end. That everything that lives and surrounds us is impermanent and determined by interdependent relationships. Thus, by way of conclusion, I wished to point out that our humanity is based on harmonious cohabitation with all the living entities on earth, without which our continued presence in the world cannot be ensured.

In his book Devenirs trans de l'analyste [Trans Becomings of the Analyst], Nicolas Evzonas traces the history of relationships between gender, transidentity, and psychoanalysis, taking examples from Freud (Dora), Winnicott (the patient from Nothing at the Centre) and from his own clinical practice (surgical transition). Drawing on the enigmatic gender messages theorized by Laplanche, which are fueled by a mytho-symbolism specific to a given era, Evzonas shows that gender is indeed a narrative identity. The analyst must listen to transgender patients without theoretical preconceptions that might distort the clinical countertransference. In a changing society, the analyst must dare to “become trans.” This crossing, while challenging in the event of hormonal or surgical transition (like in Evzonas' clinical context), is equally difficult in cases of “simple” social transition. In this review of Evzonas's book, Emmanuèle Sandron completes her analysis with examples from her own clinical practice. She considers transidentity as an enigmatic message addressed to the other, and sees the psychoanalyst as an ever-evolving narrative identity.

Subject: This article discusses the relevance of Freudian and post-Freudian theoretical foundations for the method of analyzing projective tests developed by the French School in the context of research carried out on people with an XY karyotype, born between the mid-1960s and the 1990s, who were operated on and assigned as female post-surgery. Context: While clinical approaches to intersexuality challenge the centrality of the male-female binary, the basis of Freudian theory, this article argues in favor of a theoretical model that would go beyond the limits of this binary division. The Laplanchian theory of gender assignment, which dispenses with anatomical determinism to consider the genesis of sexual identity, offers a way out of the impasses of the classical Freudian model to explore this very specific clinical situation. Research question: If classical Freudian theory has shown its limitations in relation to clinical approaches to intersexuality, what is the relevance of using projective methods analyzed according to the principles of the French method in this context? Method and results: Based on what we describe as the classical analysis of the projective material collected over the course of this research, this article reveals the limits and naturalistic stumbling blocks inherent in this approach. Drawing on the theoretical argumentation cited above, the aim of this article is to defend the advantages of a Laplanchian reading of the projective situation, with a view to opening up other avenues of interpretation.

Apart from fantasies and fictional accounts of events, psychiatrists and psychologists are often confronted with psychic metamorphoses. While this topic is still the subject of much controversy today (in terms of its reality, etiology, and symptoms), the fact remains that dissociative identity disorder (DID) (formerly called multiple personality disorder according to ICD-10) has been listed in the DSM since 1994. This article attempts, through a clinical case, to give a non-exhaustive summary of the symptoms of DID and their functions.

At a time when women's voices are becoming ever louder, a number of masculinist and virilism movements are emerging in response. The "incel" community, composed of young men defining themselves as “involuntary celibate,” is becoming increasingly popular, and as the movement gains traction, acts of mass violence targeting women are on the rise. This study, based on a mixed methodology involving semantic analysis of interviews using Voyant Tools software, enabled us to shed light on the following themes: the life course of incels, associated psychological disorders, the "Black Pill" theory, and finally a definition of what incel status entails. These themes are analyzed qualitatively to gain a better understanding of the incel movement, its ideology, and the clinical profile of its members. A reflection centered on the advent of a new radicalism, revealing a major societal issue that has yet to be addressed, is carried out with a view to prevention among adolescents.

How can we understand the onset of weight disorders after suffering from cancer? This article aims to get to the bottom of this question. Based on the psychotherapeutic follow-up of female patients (each suffering from a different form and prognosis of cancer), the research objective is to show how the traumatic experience of cancer and/or its treatment persists, or rather lingers, through a new somatic expression, in this case obesity. Obesity is a (paradoxical) way of regaining control over one's own body and, more importantly, restoring the narcissistic integrity damaged by the traumatic experience of illness and/or treatment. In this respect, weight gain or obesity constitutes a metamorphosis of the body-being, enabling the subject to feel alive again in their psychosoma.

How does the singularity of the ever-increasing number of clinical cases of childhood frustration, a phenomenon that is leaving many parents feeling helpless, indicate societal changes/movements? How can psychoanalysis be useful? Should psychoanalysis modify its approaches in response to these metamorphoses, seen on both the societal and individual levels? If analysts avoid taking the position of educators, what would their position be in this type of clinical challenge? How can one support parents and children and avoid taking a didactic position? In our opinion, it will be a question of identifying, from a clinical perspective, the subjective effects of changes in attitudes toward authority and changes in the place of children in society. To do this, we will need to rely on our analytical insights while questioning this process of interaction between the individual and the collective.

Based on two published treatment accounts, one by the analysand and the other by her analyst, to which he adds two short testimonies and the results of quantitative studies, the author maintains that well-conducted analytical treatments can bring about changes in analysands that can be described as real metamorphoses of the subject. As for the treatment programs carried out as part of the training of psychoanalysts, he argues that the aim is to achieve a more radical restructuring of the initial desire that J. Lacan called the "desire of the analyst," a desire that is stronger than the other desires that may animate the analyst when he or she receives an analysand.

Cerebral palsy is a neurodevelopmental condition with varied manifestations, resulting either directly from early brain insults or as a secondary consequence of activity limitations restricting sensorimotor experiences during development. The cultural concept of disability and its implications on management and service thus shape developmental trajectories. Given the predominance of the biomedical approach, which tends to be reductive, focusing solely on the physical aspects of the condition, and which heightens the risk of discrimination, exclusion, and ableism, we should instead look to a psychobiosocial model. Adopting a psychobiosocial approach would provide a better understanding of clinical situations and a framework for setting more relevant objectives and providing more effective treatments.

This article looks at addiction through the lens of the originary. From this perspective, the relationship addicts have with their addiction is understood in terms of the bipolarity of the object, which is made up of two complementary facets with opposing qualities: the good and the bad. The functional and sensory splitting caused by the object reflects an attempt to rework enigmatic originary experiences. Addictive logic is thus an attempt to transform the uncanny and unsettling sensory impressions. Drawing on the metamorphoses of Narcissus (Ovid) and Gregor (Kafka), the meaning of bodily and sensory experiences is seen as echoing the qualities of the environment. It's important for the environment to be sufficiently reflexive, otherwise sensory activity can become frightening. In this respect, the space of addiction presents itself as an experiment in bodily form, in place of a non-subjectivized sensoriality lacking in psychic depth.

Now that artificial systems are capable of intelligence and sometimes even exhibit superhuman intelligence, the question arises of whether it will be possible at some point to develop conscious artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and, if so, whether such a development would amount to a metamorphosis or whether it would involve incremental progress. While probably still a distant and uncertain horizon, the possibility of building a conscious AI system cannot be ruled out, raising ethical and societal issues that must be addressed today.

The processing power of computers, added to the phenomenal amount of accessible data and its availability via the internet, have led to the development of new tools known as "artificial intelligence" or "AI." But what lies beneath this catch-all term? What are the consequences of these new technologies for our lives, our jobs, and our behavior? It is precisely these questions that we wish to explore in this article, by explaining how AI is constructed and on what models it is based. The metamorphosis AI is producing in human life will be discussed, as well as the threat it could pose to our democracy in the absence of robust regulation.

This article aims to explore the problem of metamorphosis in psychiatry from different points of view. The first is metamorphosis as myth, at work in the myth of change, healing, or rebirth over the course of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment. The second (this time objective) point of view, is the reality of metamorphosis in psychiatry, approached via the study of change processes on the one hand (evaluation and understanding of therapeutic processes), and via the development model on the other, in its biological, psychological, social, and intersubjective dimensions. Finally, we conclude by discussing the metamorphoses of psychiatry itself, under the influence of advances in child psychiatry, but also of emerging social demands and new forms of anti-psychiatry.