Psychoanalytic Thoughts by German Cheung, Psy.D.

04/22/2025

"The damage done to us during our childhood cannot be undone, since we cannot change anything in our past. We can, however, change ourselves. We can repair ourselves and gain our lost integrity by choosing to look more closely at the knowledge that is stored inside our bodies and bringing this knowledge closer to our awareness. This path, although certainly not easy, is the only route by which we can at last leave behind the cruel, invisible prison of our childhood. We become free by transforming ourselves from unaware victims of the past into responsible individuals in the present, who are aware of our past and are thus able to live with it."

The Drama of the Gifted Child and How we Became Psychotherapist - Alice Miller

01/20/2025

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to you as scholars, clinicians, and mental health professionals to request your signature on the attached petition protesting the abrupt closure of the Center for the Treatment of Young Psychotic Adults (the “388”) in Quebec City by bureaucrats in the provincial healthcare system, who last week acted summarily to close this internationally-recognized treatment Center without any sound justification.

The “388” was conceived and created by psychoanalysts W***y Apollon, Danielle Bergeron and Lucie Cantin and has been operated by their organization GIFRIC since 1982. It has earned international renown for its successful psychoanalytic treatment of patients suffering from the symptoms of psychosis–many of whom had extensive histories of psychiatric treatment and hospitalization and were unable to live independently before seeking treatment at the Center.

The 388 is an interdisciplinary and multi-modal treatment center in which each patient works with a psychoanalyst as well as a treatment team composed of a psychiatrist, a social worker, and a clinical case worker. It offers a unique approach to community-based care, which focuses not only on clinical symptoms but also on the social and psychological reintegration of patients into their communities. The individual psychoanalysis, however, is the core of the treatment, and every aspect of the Center is conceived and designed with the aim of supporting the personal analysis undertaken by each patient. This holistic approach and its clinical outcomes are the result of decades of dedicated efforts and continued refinement by specially trained professionals.
The Center’s results have been rigorously documented and reviewed over the forty-two years it has been in operation, and it has been evaluated many times by teams from all over the world who have consistently expressed the highest praise for the quality of the treatment offered and its unprecedented success rate—all delivered at a cost to the government of Quebec that is among the lowest per capita in the field of mental health care, and dramatically less expensive than long-term commitment or hospitalization.

Despite these impressive results, the C.I.U.S.S.S.--the provincial healthcare agency responsible for health and mental health treatment in Quebec–has decided to close the 388 on the grounds that psychoanalysis does not align with what it calls “accepted” treatment protocols for psychosis. This cursory judgment is not only grossly inaccurate, but contradicted by the long and well-documented track record of the Center and regular and detailed evaluations by qualified external reviewers. Data collected over the past forty-two years reveals that a majority of the patients who enter the Center are treated successfully, as defined by their ability to break free of the symptomatology that once controlled their lives, to reduce their reliance on medication, and to live independently, return to school, or pursue careers as productive members of society. This success rate is both astonishing and without precedent for patients with a diagnosis of severe psychosis, for whom treatment options are limited and the prognosis generally poor.

The eighty patients who are currently in treatment at the Center were informed only last week that it would be closed down in March and that they should begin looking for alternative treatment options. This news has been incredibly destabilizing for patients, who in some cases have already invested years in their treatment and have reached delicate and potentially decisive moments in their personal analyses when continuity of care and the support of a treatment team are absolutely essential. These patients themselves are mobilizing to prevent this closure, and we ask you to assist us and them in doing the same.

We therefore ask that you express your support for the continued existence of the 388 by signing one of the attached petitions (or both, if you work in both fields). Please provide your full title and affiliation and circulate widely to your networks!

1. The first petition is for academics (faculty, researchers, and postdocs) in any field whose work engages with or has been impacted by psychoanalysis;

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-the-388-and-preserve-treatment-options-for-mental-health?source=direct_link&

2. The second petition is for clinicians and other mental health professionals:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/preserve-treatment-options-for-psychosis-in-quebec?source=direct_link

Sign this petition to save the Center for the Treatment of Young Psychotic Adults (the "388") in Quebec City, Canada

08/27/2024

When the space to fantasize collapses, a thought is just as "real" as action.

An unwelcomed thought becomes a threat, a real threat.

06/28/2024

Excellent Offering by SFCP

In accordance with a January 2023 ratification vote by all analyst and candidate members (based on majority-supported initiatives in the All-Member Survey on Diversity & Accessibility in Analytic Training – Fall 2022), SFCP is piloting a new Candidate Training Grants for Equity & Diversity Program...

06/12/2024

A thought-provoking episode on bystanding as perversion on this very day, a day that changed Hong Kong, forever.

Episode Description: We begin with acknowledging the phenomena of bystanding in the presence of extreme violence. The slaughter of neighbors by neighbors notoriously occurred in the Rwandan genocide and in the Polish Holocaust, which is the focus of Jan's research. He posits that the psychoanalytic concept of perversion best captures the denial and split-off excitement that characterizes bystanding - 'one eye open, one eye closed'. He challenges the possibility of observer's indifference, documents the ever-present knowledge that neighbors have of the history of their neighbors, and discusses the experience of 'ghosts' inhabiting the homes of forgotten/remembered neighbors. We distinguish between being a bystander and a witness, and the state of mind “We will not forgive you for what we did to you.” We close with our sharing the difficulty of listening to this material and how he managed this over the years of his research.

Our Guest: Jan Borowicz, PhD, is a certified psychotherapist and candidate in psychoanalytic training in Polish Psychoanalytic Society (IPA). He is a Member of Holocaust Remembrance Research Group in the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw, Poland. He is interested in cultural memory, psychoanalytic theory, and Holocaust studies. He published two books in Polish on history and memory of the Holocaust. Recently, he published his first book in English, Perverse Memory and the Holocaust: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Polish Bystanders (2024), in which he explores the deep implications of witnessing mass violence and extermination.

‎Show Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch, Ep Bystanding as Perversion: "We need to forget about what we actually did not even see here." with Jan Borowicz, PhD (Warsaw) - May 19, 2024