The Ellsberg psychoanalytic situation. 1976

V Bernal

The author proposes to explore an event that received nationwide publicity through the Watergate investigation: the burglary of the office of a Los Angeles psychoanalyst believed to be treating Dr. Daniel Ellsberg. A brief questionnaire, with an accompanying letter, was mailed to all members of the American Psychoanalytic Association. It requested voluntary information on the reaction of their patients to the aforesaid particular event. The results of the study was then evaluated as serving hopefully an indirect inquiry into psychoanalytic practice. This paper is based on an adjusted sample of 861 respondent psychoanalysts, who reported on a total of 5,074 analysands. The resultant figures indicate that a high percentage of the analysand sample was silent concerning the office break-in during the eight-week period following the national publicity given the event. Of the small percentage of analysands that did present material concerning the event, the survey found that they were the patients of only 84 analysts of the entire sample of 861. The absence of reference to the Ellsberg Affair in so many patients may have been due to (1) the fact that analysts create an analytic situation which has a basic quality of interference such that events of this kind do not get communicated, and (2), more important, the fact that analysts through some defensive need failed to take cognizance of references to the Ellsberg Affair in dreams or in the latent content of the associations of their patients. A "natural" psychoanalytic experiment has been studied, and the results are offered for consideration.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007062 Identification, Psychological A process by which an individual unconsciously endeavors to pattern himself after another. This process is also important in the development of the personality, particularly the superego or conscience, which is modeled largely on the behavior of adult significant others. Identification (Psychology),Identification, Psychology,Identifications (Psychology),Identifications, Psychological,Identifications, Psychology,Psychological Identification,Psychological Identifications,Psychology Identification,Psychology Identifications
D008297 Male Males
D011057 Politics Activities concerned with governmental policies, functions, etc. Political Activity,Conservatism,Decentralization,Liberalism,Political Factors,Activities, Political,Activity, Political,Factor, Political,Factors, Political,Political Activities,Political Factor
D011575 Psychoanalytic Therapy A form of psychiatric treatment, based on Freudian principles, which seeks to eliminate or diminish the undesirable effects of unconscious conflicts by making the patient aware of their existence, origin, and inappropriate expression in current emotions and behavior. Balint Psychoanalytic Therapy,Psychoanalytic Therapy, Balint,Psychoanalytical Therapy,Therapy, Balint Psychoanalytic,Therapy, Psychoanalytic,Psychoanalytic Therapies,Psychoanalytical Therapies,Therapies, Psychoanalytic,Therapies, Psychoanalytical,Therapy, Psychoanalytical
D003219 Confidentiality The privacy of information and its protection against unauthorized disclosure. Patient Data Privacy,Privacy of Patient Data,Privileged Communication,Confidential Information,Secrecy,Communication, Privileged,Communications, Privileged,Data Privacy, Patient,Information, Confidential,Privacy, Patient Data,Privileged Communications
D004325 Dreams A series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep which are dissociated from the usual stream of consciousness of the waking state. Nightmares,Dream,Nightmare
D005239 Fear The affective response to an actual current external danger which subsides with the elimination of the threatening condition. Threat Cues,Threat Sensitivity,Cue, Threat,Fears,Sensitivity, Threat,Threat Cue,Threat Sensitivities
D006167 Guilt Subjective feeling of having committed an error, offense or sin; unpleasant feeling of self-criticism. These result from acts, impulses, or thoughts contrary to one's personal conscience. Guilts
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001290 Attitude An enduring, learned predisposition to behave in a consistent way toward a given class of objects, or a persistent mental and/or neural state of readiness to react to a certain class of objects, not as they are but as they are conceived to be. Sentiment,Attitudes,Opinions,Opinion,Sentiments

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