Discomfort remains, within feminist film theory, with representations of women in degrading, humiliating, and submissive positions. For years, feminist film theorists contested these images on film as a sign of misogyny, and feminist film theory evolved in large part due to those battles. Laura Mulvey's influential claim, that male spectators derive pleasure (cinematic and otherwise) from adopting a dominant position and a sadistic behavior toward women on screen, was later on challenged by Gaylyn Studlar, who pointed out the primacy of the pleasure in submission over that of mastery. In her important book on the von Sternberg/Dietrich film cycle, Studlar affirmed the potentially subversive nature of a masochistic aesthetic in film. She, however – and along with many other theorists after her – sees this subversion in the reversal of traditional gender roles (woman as passive, man as active). It has been easy to praise the value of a work portraying women on top. When women end up on the bottom, however, the film is ideologically suspicious and accused of perpetuating stereotypes, if not of encouraging abuse against women. This paper looks at the work of French director Catherine Breillat to see how female masochism operates and what functions it plays for her female characters’ identities. For our analysis, we will be looking at various conceptions of masochism, more particularly, those of Gilles Deleuze, Gaylyn Studlar and Emmanuel Ghent. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper is about my supervision of the two probationary psychologists who were employed in a maximum-security prison to run a high-intensity violence intervention program for maximum-security inmates. The psychoanalytic frame became the initial trigger, a scapegoat, for my dismissal as their forensic psychology supervisor. An informal ministerial enquiry followed. I was re-instated. The context of this breakout/breakdown was the ruptured container of a maximum-security prison which violently torpedoed into the therapeutic container and reflective edge of the consulting room. The prison's walls hide the dark secrets of crimes. The haunting screams of those murdered are silenced but they ricochet down the corridors of the cell-blocks. The inmates held captive cry “Mummy, help me, please help me!”, but their cries have been killed off long ago, neither heard nor answered.

This paper is a tribute to the psychoanalytic frame. It is also an indictment of aspects of the prison system for psychologists and inmates in Australia. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Eunuch Steward is a fable attested across the expanse of northeast Africa and Asia, from Late Bronze Age Egypt to China some time after 1424 ce. In the story, a subordinate young man, accused of invading his master's sexual prerogative, offers a radical act of submission, namely self-emasculation. The popularity of the tale across many cultures is best explained by citing its Oedipal themes: intergenerational male rivalry over a maternal figure, and the castration of the younger male. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beneath the many stereotypes of Chinese characteristics common in the West, there are complexities of Chinese culture and personality not well understood by psychoanalysts and analytic therapists. Knowing something about these can be critically helpful to Western colleagues who wish to teach effectively in China. This presentation outlines cultural issues concerning Confucian and related values, changes in family and marital structure, changes in the role and practice of sex, the effect of widespread national and individual trauma in China in the twentieth century, and changes in the nature of individualism in Chinese personality. These five factors come to bear whenever Western analysts and psychotherapists teach Chinese analytic therapists and/or treat Chinese patients. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mary Koszmary (2007) is one short film from a trilogy by Israeli artist Yael Bartana, which centers on the exhortations of a Polish radical politician calling for the comeback of three million Jews to Poland. This Polish trilogy focuses a lens, both artistic and psychoanalytic, on the place of the unbearable in the human psyche, reality which must be neither attended to nor acknowledged. The example of the unbearable and inassimilable which Bartana chooses is Poland's complicity and cooperation with the murder of her Jews. The Jewish genocide roughly seventy years ago involves inassimilable shame and guilt, defended against by national repression, denial and fetishistic dissociation. Bartana imagines a symptom in today's generation which both refutes and repeats the history enacted by their grandparents. Bartana assumes a deep-set collective trauma manifesting bizarrely two generations later and conjures an unflinching picture of why failure to come to terms with and to mourn traumatic losses is relentlessly a problem in human history. The purpose of this paper is to explore the symptoms of the intergenerationally transmitted collective trauma as these symptoms translate from those of the individual traumatic condition in order to deepen our understanding of the effects of both individual and collective trauma when unresolved over time and particularly over generations. The first step toward healing is to acknowledge. Bartana's film sets up the opportunity for acknowledgment shining a clear cool light on so many modes of obfuscation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A number of psychoanalysts, beginning with Freud, are skeptical about forgiveness, arguing that in the dynamic unconscious we never forgive nor forget. Some psychoanalysts worry that forgiveness risks becoming a shortcut to the hard work of grief and mourning. D. W. Winnicott offers a different perspective on forgiveness. Forgiveness happens not as a matter of conscious choice, but when we have reached that transitional space where we no longer need to hold onto our anger and hurt. Forgiveness, from this perspective, is something that happens at a certain stage virtually as a byproduct of living in the world in a certain way. What that way is, and the role that community plays in facilitating that way, are considered. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper describes a multi-national group of political asylum seekers, designated as “heroes” because they seem to have chosen to resist, when instead they might simply have moved elsewhere. Inspection reveals that they are also chosen by their families to continue a tradition of resistance, which has existed across generations. Once it is their turn, they endure repeated incidents of torture at the hands of oppressors, until finally they are threatened with death. Then, unlike their predecessors, they change course entirely and flee. This action is accomplished with considerable help from their families. Unlike two other resister groups, who tended to remain in the resistor role until they reached victory or death, “heroic” asylum seekers relinquish the thrill of the fight and take flight, seemingly because of a family mandate to do so, in order to move the family elsewhere. An attempt is made to understand the complex motivation behind these acts from a psychoanalytic perspective. What happens once they arrive here, however, is hard to predict. Brief follow-up data indicates that successful adjustment is not guaranteed and will depend on a set of strengths similar to those required of all immigrants. These include a solid early attachment history, past adult experiences which have been affirming, and considerable local group support. In addition, access to services for the survivors of torture can be useful, although referral to these is (shockingly) happenstance. Thus, despite the peaceful trend their arrival may represent, many forces must come together if its goal is to be achieved. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Applied psychoanalysis is the term used to denote the practice of applying psychoanalytic theoretical concepts to a variety of social and cultural domains. This work focuses on the application of psychoanalytic concepts to the understanding of great works of art or literature. Despite its inherent limitations stemming from the lack of an actual meeting with the patient, character analyses of heroes of dramatic plays or art works is part of the history of psychoanalysis. This work argues for the possible advantages of the use of psychoanalysis to the understanding of enigmatic behaviors of biblical central figures. Ancient rabbinic midrash is suggested as an auxiliary tool that help to uncover unconscious layers of the biblical text. This work uses the enigmatic story of the binding of Isaac and the exegetical midrash about it as an example for such a work. A clinical vignette demonstrates the potential utilization of this analytic interpretation for clinical work and for the teaching of complicated psychoanalytic concepts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper proposes a psychoanalytically-informed model for the policing of memory and identity in Israel and Palestine. Borrowing from both empirically- and clinically-validated insights into psychopathology, it purports to account for the increasingly frequent attempts of the Israeli government to suppress alternatives to the extant Zionist narrative using legislative and administrative means. The model explains why, counter-intuitively, these attempts to impose an idealized Zionist narrative have markedly increased in the past several years, at a time when Israel's military power, geographical expansion and economic prosperity are arguably at an all-time high. Supported by examples from both world history and Israeli documents, the proposed model suggests a dynamic link between trauma, annihilation anxiety, hyper-vigilance and defensive behavior on a nation-wide level, which runs as a leitmotiv in both Israeli government actions and in sentiments expressed by a considerable portion of Israeli society, from the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. The model further uses psychodynamic insights to account for the cognitive-emotional rigidity underpinning the discrepancy in the perceptions of reality between Israel's narrative and its sundry worldwide alternatives. The model posits that this growing discrepancy between worldwide public opinion and Israeli internal reasoning may underlie the growing disapproval and isolation of Israel in both diplomatic circles and world media. Finally, following psychodynamically-oriented therapeutic practices, the explanatory power of the model is harnessed to suggest potentially effective remedial attitudes and interventions, whose mutative powers may be of use to psychodynamically-trained mental health professionals who may be involved in future reconciliation efforts between Israel and Palestine. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The aim of this paper is to explore how Shakespeare drew on contemporary life to assist society to manage profound loss, uncertainty and anxiety. This was achieved through providing a forum, both in the “here and now”, via the plays and other works, and through creating a body of work for future generations to mine. This evolved over time to penetrate and fertilize the global community. In these ways Shakespeare helps us all to metabolize anxiety and despair and continue to move forward in the struggle of life. The paper includes a detailed discussion of the interpretations and applications of the works and their relevance to professionals who work within the space in which suffering and despair inhabit. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In 2007 the Northern Territory report on child abuse Little Children Are Sacred, Akelyernernane Meke Mekarle (Aranda) (In our law children are sacred because they carry the two spring wells of water from our country within them) was released. In July–August 2007 the Federal Government enacted the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill, in the name of protecting children from abuse, giving the Federal Government wide control over Aboriginal lands, families, and community services; and the Indigenous Affairs Minister total control over Indigenous community governance. More widely known as the Northern Territory Intervention, this dramatic move began with the Howard Government in 2007 and has been largely continued under the Rudd Government. Taking control of a large number of Aboriginal settlements, the Government instituted the following measures: supply of additional police to affected communities; mass health checks for Aboriginal children, initially mandatory but changed to voluntary; new restrictions on alcohol, kava and pornography; the compulsory acquisition of townships with five-year leases; Commonwealth funding for community services; removal of customary law from bail applications and sentencing in criminal cases; suspension of the system by which visitors to Aboriginal settlements were required to have a permit; quarantining of a portion of welfare benefits to all recipients in designated communities; and the abolition of Community Development Education Projects (CDEP), which had paid unemployed people to work locally. Mal Brough was the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs when the Intervention commenced and he led it with a passion. The army, albeit unarmed, were directed to accompany the new army of people employed to service the Intervention. Intervention measures were exempted from the Racial Discrimination Act, breaching two treaties to which Australia is a signatory – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Labour Government has essentially upheld the measures of the Intervention. Prime Minister Rudd at Yirrkala on 24 July 2008 spoke about the policy of closing the gap, in terms of life expectancy of adults and children under five, infant mortality, the Year 12 completion rate, and literacy and numeracy achievements, and of closing the gap in a practicable and measurable way. Some changes and modifications have been introduced. The CDEP has been partially re-introduced, permits re-introduced and 99-year leases established. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The dominant treatment methods for male sexual dysfunction are currently biomedical and pharmacological. Historical analysis of the therapeutic field, however, shows that this trend is quite recent. This paper provides a historical examination of the treatment of male sexual dysfunction, analyzing the role of psychology and psychoanalysis in the treatment field. At various points in history, sexual therapies have accounted for the biological, psychological and social factors of male sexual dysfunction; this attention, however, has rarely been balanced. By tracing the evolution of treatment models, this paper shows how psychological and psychoanalytic principles have influenced the treatment of male sexual dysfunction. Despite the recent dominance of cognitive behavioral and biomedical techniques, the paper concludes, sex therapy is a discipline in flux, and with the increased push for integrative and multi-modal treatment models, the (re-)introduction of psychodynamic techniques in mainstream sex therapy is a promising possibility for future clinical practice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Proust's original contribution to understanding social exclusion is the focus of this paper. Proust's psycho-logical novel, In Search of Lost Time is used to show how social exclusion is related to early feelings of exclusion from the parental couple in the family. Proust's addition shows how a child who wins his mother's attention by acting as a victim suffers from both guilt and humiliation which he may resolve by defending another victim or by excluding others if he identifies with the aggressor. This paper shows how excluding others from events, opportunities, and equality under the law can be an attempt to repair the humiliation of having been excluded. This expands Anna Freud's idea about identification with the aggressor. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.