Changing minds, saving lives – Psychoanalytic Insights

Welcome to Pamela Nathan’s psychoanalytic series, taking simple gems from the psychoanalytic dreamtime that may become tools for living…

The Psychoanalytic Tool Box

By Pamela Nathan, November 2016

‘Wisdom can be won from illness and this wisdom can be practical’. Analytic psychotherapy seeks to understand the meaning/s of things, feelings and actions and in this practice restore the humanity in a person. One of the most difficult things a person has to overcome is the sense of incapacity. One of the most difficult things a person has to achieve is to accept responsibility for their life and to lead it. ‘The Tool Box’ provides some living tools for achieving psychological well-being for yourself and others and for dreaming and living …

Holding

By Pamela Nathan, August 2016

‘Holding’ follows on from the Psychoanalytic Insight ‘What’s so important about the Mother-Babe Relationship?‘. While ‘holding’ is discussed in relation to the Babe in this article, it is a concept that can be applied equally to other individuals and to community relationships.

What’s so important about the Mother-Babe relationship?

By Pamela Nathan June 2016

The Mother–Babe relationship is central in personality development. The relationship forms a model for all other relationships. Article also discusses the critical importance of fathers.

Wisdom Won From Suffering

by Pamela Nathan, May 2016

‘Wisdom can be won from illness and this wisdom can be practical’. How psychoanalysis can provide insight into suffering…

Suicide

by Pamela Nathan, March 2016

We can say a few simple things about suicide in order to change minds and save lives. Suicide concerns us all.

Fear

by Pamela Nathan, August 2015

Fear locks you in callipers. It likes to pinion you, and clutches at your throat and chest in a vice-like grip. If you can unlock the frozen fear you can try anything!

Shame

by Pamela Nathan, June 2015

SHAME’s power can be deadly. It can cripple us and make us shrink from life’s possibilities. So what can we do about shame?

How Stories are Healing the Racial Divide

by Pamela Nathan, May 2015

Psychoanalysis is about listening, talking about and understanding the past. Psychoanalysis as an approach to understanding the racial divide and healing communities is rarely considered. But the process of remembering, experiencing and listening to the journeys that have led to the racial divide is how we can learn, grow and reconcile, as individuals and as a community. Given time, it can help us move towards kurunna mwarre for all.

The Absent Father

by Pamela Nathan, November 2014

Many males do not grow up with a father who is actively present in family life. In this paper, Pamela Nathan discusses the importance of fathers and the impact of the ‘absent father’ from the psychoanalytic perspective.