Claude Nachin
Encyclopedia
Claude Nachin is a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, the majority of whose writings have affiliations with the joint work of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok
, particularly with respect to their concept of the intergenerational "phantom".
"The vast majority of clinical case studies of phantom formations and their sequelae have appeared in France. See, especially, Claude Nachin, Les Fantomes de l'âme[Ghosts of the Soul]"
. Nachin became Register in Psychiatry at Vinatier (Lyon-Bron), participating in early work on Largactil, and was a lecturere in psychopathology
at the University of Picardie. His one book on psychiatry was published in 1982.
After a psychoanalytic training at the Paris psychoanalytical society
, he worked privately in psychoanalysis from 1977-2005, and wrote extensively, particularly on themes concerning mourning
.
Claude Nachin is 'a founding member and current president of the European Association Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok (1999-)'.
and Michael Balint
More explicitly, he claims: "It is necessary to rid ourselves of any automatic functioning - something which is not easy - in order to be a human (with one's particular experience of life, private, social and professional) who meets another human (with their particular experience). The significance of symptoms and dreams is personal. It is a matter of discovering it in its singularity. Thus, psychoanalysis is to be reinvented, each time for each patient"
Nachin is also known for 'resolutely listening to trauma
', and for 'quiet determination and a spirit of precision'
Secondly, there is the (Lacan
ian) bias of the analysts as the subject supposed to know: the self-belief of the analyst should not make him forget that the general elements retrieved in any psychoanalysis are only discovered at the expense of the singular, unique experience that can develop out of the speech of each patient. ".
"For the dead (the dead as we represent them mentally, so to speak) to be at peace and find peace, and for the survivors to go in peace, it is necessary that words of truth can be spoken and genuine feelings expressed, on the occasion of mourning, among the relatives of the deceased, and shared with the entire community. " (Ghosts of the Soul, pp. 30–31.)
Nachin extends Abraham's definition of the phantom to include "work induced in the subject's unconscious by his/her relationship with a parent, or an important love object, who is the carrier of an incomplete mourning process, or of some other unsurmounted trauma - even in the absence of an inadmissable guilty secret. "(Idem, pp. 10–11)
The clinical manifestations of the "phantom" stem from the "constant and desperate psychic work of the child to fill the gap" of incompleteness. From a metapsychological point of view, the ghost is the psychic work of the child undertaken in order "to understand and treat the parent, in the hope of being in turn itself better understood and cared for. "(p. 12)
Maria Torok
Maria Torok was a Hungarian-French psychoanalyst, a student of Sandor Ferenczi.Torok is best known for her idiosyncratic contributions to psychoanalytic theory, developed in the wake of first Freud, then Ferenczi, and also the critical study of Husserl, and often coauthored with Nicolas Abraham...
, particularly with respect to their concept of the intergenerational "phantom".
"The vast majority of clinical case studies of phantom formations and their sequelae have appeared in France. See, especially, Claude Nachin, Les Fantomes de l'âme[Ghosts of the Soul]"
Career
Claude Nachin carried out his medical studies in Lyon between 1949 and 1957, specialising in psychiatryPsychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
. Nachin became Register in Psychiatry at Vinatier (Lyon-Bron), participating in early work on Largactil, and was a lecturere in psychopathology
Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal/maladaptive behavior. The term is most commonly used within psychiatry where pathology refers to disease processes...
at the University of Picardie. His one book on psychiatry was published in 1982.
After a psychoanalytic training at the Paris psychoanalytical society
Paris psychoanalytical society
The Paris Psychoanalytical Society is the oldest psychoanalytical organisation in France. Founded with Freud’s endorsement in 1926, the S.P.P...
, he worked privately in psychoanalysis from 1977-2005, and wrote extensively, particularly on themes concerning mourning
Mourning
Mourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate...
.
Claude Nachin is 'a founding member and current president of the European Association Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok (1999-)'.
Psychoanalytic influences
The clinical practice and theoretical reflections of Claude Nachin are steeped in the work of Torok and Abraham . At the same time, 'the author of Ghosts of the Soul always pays tribute to the work of Ferenczi' - thus forming part of the widespread rehabilitation that would 'make him the most significant forerunner of postmodern psychoanalysis' - while Nachin also recognises the importance of Melanie KleinMelanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
and Michael Balint
Michael Balint
Michael Balint or Bálint Mihály was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and proponent of the Object Relations school.-Life:...
Flexibility
Nachin's thought is characterized by flexibility, and by the belief that listening to the patient comes before any kind of theory. "Psychoanalysis involves the renunciation of all kind of psychiatric diagnosis which always leads to the objectification of the subject and to the distancing of the psychoanalyst," Nachin states.More explicitly, he claims: "It is necessary to rid ourselves of any automatic functioning - something which is not easy - in order to be a human (with one's particular experience of life, private, social and professional) who meets another human (with their particular experience). The significance of symptoms and dreams is personal. It is a matter of discovering it in its singularity. Thus, psychoanalysis is to be reinvented, each time for each patient"
Nachin is also known for 'resolutely listening to trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
', and for 'quiet determination and a spirit of precision'
Freedom from bias
In Nachin's view, "Psychoanalysis presupposes the removal of two common prejudices". On the one hand, there is what he calls "The bias of the archaic" - an over-emphasis on the role of early experience: "the importance of the early years of life, discovered by S. Freud and Melanie Klein does not imply that what happens later in the psyche cannot be significant".Secondly, there is the (Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
ian) bias of the analysts as the subject supposed to know: the self-belief of the analyst should not make him forget that the general elements retrieved in any psychoanalysis are only discovered at the expense of the singular, unique experience that can develop out of the speech of each patient. ".
Grief
Research on the grieving process (especially when obstructed or disrupted) holds a significant place in his work."For the dead (the dead as we represent them mentally, so to speak) to be at peace and find peace, and for the survivors to go in peace, it is necessary that words of truth can be spoken and genuine feelings expressed, on the occasion of mourning, among the relatives of the deceased, and shared with the entire community. " (Ghosts of the Soul, pp. 30–31.)
Phantom
Nachin considered that "The tool we need for our work was provided by Nicolas Abraham with the new psychoanalytic concept of 'the work of the phantom in the unconscious'. He described it as 'the work in a subject's unconscious, of an inadmissable dark secret (illegitimacy, incest, crime ...) belonging to another (in a superior position, but also the object of love)'".Nachin extends Abraham's definition of the phantom to include "work induced in the subject's unconscious by his/her relationship with a parent, or an important love object, who is the carrier of an incomplete mourning process, or of some other unsurmounted trauma - even in the absence of an inadmissable guilty secret. "(Idem, pp. 10–11)
The clinical manifestations of the "phantom" stem from the "constant and desperate psychic work of the child to fill the gap" of incompleteness. From a metapsychological point of view, the ghost is the psychic work of the child undertaken in order "to understand and treat the parent, in the hope of being in turn itself better understood and cared for. "(p. 12)
Psychiatry
- Pour une pratique psychiatrique moderne (Le Centurion, 1982): [For a modern psychiatric practice]
Psychoanalysis
- Le deuil d'amour (Les éditions universitaires, 1989): [The mourning of love].
- Les fantômes de l'âme (L'Harmattan, 1993): [The ghosts of the soul]
- A l'aide, ya un secret dans le placard (Fleurus, 1999): [Help, there is a secret in the closet].
- La méthode psychanalytique (Armand Colin, 2004): [The psychoanalytic method].
As editor
- Co-editor of the Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok collection (with Jean-Claude Rouchy), the first title of which was published in 2010: Barbro Sylwan and Philippe Réfabert, Freud, Fliess, Ferenczi: The ghosts that haunt psychoanalysis (Éditions Hermann, 2010).
Further reading
- Martha Noel Evans, Fits and Starts: A Genealogy of Hysteria in Modern France (1991)