Paul Verhaeghe

Paul Verhaeghe (born November 5, 1955 in Roeselare , Belgium ) is a Belgian psychologist , psychoanalyst and full professor at the University of Ghent .

Studies

In 1978 Verhaeghe graduated from the Rijksuniversiteit Gent (RUG) with a degree in psychology . In 1985 he obtained his first doctorate there in psychology on the subject of hysteria and in 1992 a special doctorate in psychodiagnostics . He received his psychoanalytic training first at the École belge de psychanalyse (Belgian School for Psychoanalysis) and the training analysis with Jacques Schotte , then at the École de la cause freudienne . Since 2000 his main interest has been the influence of social changes on psychological and psychiatric difficulties.

Professional background

After his studies he worked in the field of clinical psychology as a psychotherapist in a center for mental health care (Geestelijke gezondheidszorg, GGZ) in Sint-Niklaas . Then as a clinical psychologist - psychotherapist in the special youth welfare service in Eeklo . At the end of 1981 he started his PhD at Ghent University. In 1992 he was appointed university lecturer. In 1996 he achieved the rank of full university professor. He teaches clinical psychodiagnostics , psychoanalytic therapy and gender research . He is head of the Psychoanalysis and Counseling Psychology Section.

As chairman of the specialist group, he motivated a new generation of psychoanalytically trained psychologists to conduct empirical and clinical research. Currently, the focus of the department is on research on the effects of psychotherapeutic processes, seen from a psychoanalytic point of view, as well as on a clinically more useful form of psychodiagnostics. His constant attention to the spread of psychoanalytic therapy in mental health care stems from the establishment of two postgraduate training series.

plant

In 1998, Verhaeghe became known with the publication of “Liefde in tijden van eenzaamheid” (Love in times of loneliness), a psychoanalytic lecture on the relationship between men and women. Regardless of the level of difficulty, the book was an unexpected success and has now been translated into eight languages.

Until 2000 he mainly published articles in which he combined the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan into a clinically useful therapy. With "Over normaliteit en Andere afwijkingen" (About normality and other deviations), published in 2002, he offered an alternative to DSM-IV diagnostics, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , a classification system of the American Psychiatric Association ; the American edition of the book "On being normal and other disorders" received the Goethe Prize from the Canadian Psychological Association . One of the focal points of this work is a redefinition of actual pathology, a forgotten Freudian diagnostic category in which alexithymia (emotional blindness) and a disturbed interpersonal relationship are the focus.

Shortly after 2000, Paul Verhaeghe belonged to a study group established within the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPV) on the points of contact between neurology and psychoanalysis. The collaboration with Jaak Panksepp and Mark Solms, among others, convinced him of the uselessness of any approach that tries to understand people exclusively psychologically or exclusively physically. Because of this, in “Het einde van de psychotherapie” (The End of Psychotherapy) he will adopt a very critical stance against the reduction of psychological and psychiatric problems to neurobiological, hereditary diseases, and in “Identiteit” (identity) against a scientistic approach Psychology.

An essay in book form ( New studies of old villains , 2009) in which he elaborated his view on the Oedipus complex received particular attention in the Anglo-Saxon world.

In 2010 he was invited by the Louise Bourgeois Studios ( New York ) to work on a volume of essays on her work. He was the first to have full access to her diaries and as a result was able to present a new perspective on her work.

From the turn of the millennium, his attention turned to the explosive increase in the number of mental disorders , the dominance of label-based psychodiagnostics ( DSM ) and the connection with social changes. In a lecture in Dublin (2007), Verhaeghe explained that classical psychotherapy is disappearing under the influence of label diagnostics and a certain interpretation of evidence-based research. The organizers put the video of the lecture on the Internet, which attracted a lot of attention to his theses. The further elaboration of it was the occasion for the book "Het einde van de psychotherapie" (2009) (The end of psychotherapy), which required seven reprints in a short time.

Due to the research with his specialist group on the subject of burnout syndrome and depression , his attention increasingly focused on the combined effects of social change and work organization. He worked this out in the Oikos lecture in 2010. The publication of it (Verhaeghe, 2011) and the digital adoption of the text by the website of the liberal expert group Liberales generated the corresponding public interest. In 2011 this work was named "Essay of the Year" by Liberales.

The further deepening of this led him to the thesis that the current identity is based on a compelling neoliberal ideology , and that such an identity formation goes against our evolutionarily ingrained social nature. At the end of January 2012, on a Belgian national strike day, Verhaeghe gave a sharp lecture at the Vooruit Gent art center, in which he viewed the banking crisis as a confirmation of neoliberal ideology ( De neoliberale waanzin , 2012). The elaboration of it at the Paul Verbraeke lecture in Antwerp and the subsequent publication of the text aroused great interest in Flanders . This talk was based on two chapters from “Identiteit” , a book published in autumn 2012 that found its way to a wide audience in both the Netherlands and Flanders, both on the political left and on the right .

In the first part of “Identiteit” Verhaeghe argues that our psychological identity is a construction on an evolutionary foundation. From an evolutionary point of view, humans are a social animal species in which two opposing behavioral tendencies are at work: on the one hand, the focus on community and sharing, on the other hand, the focus on individualism and taking. Which of the two tendencies gets the upper hand in the construction of identity is determined by the social model. In the second part he describes today's society as neo-liberal, whereby he sees neoliberalism as a new version of social Darwinism . According to him, the identity development determined by this is very negative because it goes against the social nature of people. He also finds the negative effects of neoliberalism in the organization of teaching , scientific research and health care . In the last chapter he explains that change has to come from below, as neoliberal ideology has become part of our identity.

criticism

In December 2011 , Verhaege and his specialist group in De Standaard were criticized by some Ghent science philosophers such as Maarten Boudry and Griet Vandermassen for advocating allegedly pseudoscientific psychoanalysis. Verhaeghe's colleague Stijn Vanheule defended psychoanalysis on the radio program Peeters & Pichal against the criticism of Boudry and Vandermassen.

The publication of Identiteit was also received with criticism: Verhaeghe's criticism of neoliberalism , " Scientism " , "Big Pharma" and DSM-V were found to be "greatly exaggerated" ; he should use "neoliberalism" as a scapegoat for all today's problems (which means that Term should become a “container filled with contradictions” ), and paradoxically, despite his “litany against the nonsense” , he should be a nondescript himself.

Awards

• 2007: Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship , Canadian Psychological Association for his work On being normal and other disorders (2004)

Fonts

Paul Verhaeghe published over two hundred articles and several books. A full list of publications can be found on the Ghent University website and on the author's website.

• Tussen hysteria en vrouw. Een away door honderd jaar psychoanalysis. Een we g door honderd jaar psychoanalysis. Acco, Leuven / Amersfoort 1987, ISBN 90-334-1586-0 .
  • English: Does the woman exist? From Freud's hysteric to Lacan's feminine. Rebus Press, London 1999, ISBN 1-900877-05-8 .
• Found in tijden van eenzaamheid. Three negotiate over drift and ask. Acco, Leuven 1998 (10th edition: De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 2011, ISBN 978-90-234-7777-8 )
  • German: love in times of loneliness. Three essays on desire and drive. Translated from the French by Karin Schreiner . Turia + Kant, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85132-310-6 (2nd edition 2017, ISBN 978-3-85132-563-8 ).
• Beyond gender. From subject to drive. Other Press, New York, 2001, ISBN 1-59051-005-4 .
• Over normaliteit en other afwijkingen. Handboek clinical psychodiagnostiek. Acco, Leuven / Leusden 2002, ISBN 90-334-5139-5 .
  • English: On being normal and other disorders. A manual for clinical psychodiagnostics. Other Press, New York 2004, ISBN 1-59051-089-5 .
• with Philippe Van Haute: Voorbij Oedipus? Twee psychoanalytic negotiating over het oedipuscomplex. Boom, Amsterdam 2006, ISBN 90-8506-153-9 .
• Het einde van de psychotherapy. De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 2009, ISBN 978-90-234-4202-8 .
• New studies of old villains. A radical reconsideration of the Oedipus complex. Other Press, New York 2009, ISBN 978-1-59051-282-1 .
• with Julie De Ganck: Beyond the return of the repressed. Louise Bourgois's chthonic art. 2012, ISBN 978-1-900828-37-6 .
• De neoliberal waanzin. Flexible, effient en ... gestoord. VUBPress, Brussel 2012, ISBN 978-90-70289-27-0 .
• Identity. De Bezige Bij, Amsterdam 2013, ISBN 978-90-234-7303-9 .
  • German: And me? Identity in a thoroughly economized society. Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-88897-869-2 .
• Authority and responsibility . Translation: Claudia Van Den Block. Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-95614-127-0 .
• Narcissus in Mourning. The Disappearance of Patriarchy. Lecture at the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna. Turia + Kant, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-85132-779-3 .
  • German: Narcissus in mourning. The disappearance of patriarchy. Lecture at the Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna. Turia + Kant, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-85132-778-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Verhaeghe in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Publicaties Universiteit Gent
• Paul Verhaeghe website
• German website Paul Verhaeghe

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PEV psychoanalytische therapie met volwassenen, Faculteit Psychologie & Pedagogische Wetenschappen Vakgroep Psychoanalyse en Raadplegingspsychologie , (Dutch) accessed on June 28, 2013.
2. ^ Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship: Previous Winners , accessed on June 28, 2013.
3. ↑ Paul Verhaeghe, Stijn Vanheule: Actual neurosis and PTSD. The Impact of the Other ( Memento of the original dated January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Psychoanalytic Psychology . Vol. 22, 2005, No. 4, ISSN 0736-9735 , pp. 493-507. (PDF; 75 kB; English) accessed on July 28, 2013.  
4. ↑ Paul Verhaeghe, Stijn Vanheule, Ann De Rick: Actual neurosis as the underlying psychic structure of panic. Disorder, somatization, and somatoform disorder: an integration of Freudian and attachment perspectives ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: The Psychoanalytic Quarterly . Vol. 76, 2007, No. 4, ISSN 0033-2828 , pp. 1317-1350. (PDF; 7.6 MB; English) accessed on July 28, 2013.  
5. ^ Paul Verhaeghe: De impasse van het monisme: 'Je geld of je leven!' ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Tijdschrift voor psychotherapie . Vol. 29, 2003, No. 6, pp. 496-500. (PDF; 2.16 MB; Dutch) accessed on July 28, 2013. 
6. ↑ Paul Verhaeghe: Geestdrift voor het brein ( Memento of the original from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Tijdschrift voor psychotherapie. Vol. 35, 2009, pp. 59-77. (PDF; 1.4 MB; Dutch) accessed on July 28, 2013. 
7. ^ Paul Verhaeghe, Julie De Ganck: Beyond the return of the repressed: Louise Bourgeois's Chtonic art (PDF; 1.2 MB). In: Philip Larratt-Smith (ed.): Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the repressed. Vol I. Violette Editions, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-900828-37-6 , pp. 115-128.
8. ^ Louise Bourgeois: The Return of the repressed , Freud Museum London exhibition , March 8, 2012–27. May 2012.
9. ↑ Paul Verhaeghe: "Chronicle of a death foretold": The end of psychotherapy. Lecture, Dublin, September 2007.
10. ↑ Paul Verhaeghe: De special effects van een neoliberal meritocratie op identiteit en interpersoonlijke verhoudingen . In: Oikos. 56, 2011, pp. 4-22. (Dutch) Retrieved July 28, 2013.
11. ↑ Joël De Ceulaer: Is psychoanalysis een pseudowetenschap? Het front tegen Freud. In: De Standaard. December 3, 2011, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Maarten Boudry: Pseudo-wetenschap aan de universiteit. In: De Standaard . December 13, 2011, accessed September 19, 2015 . Maarten Boudry: Pseudo-wetenschap aan de universiteit. In: SKEPP website. December 13, 2011, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
     
13. ↑ Tom Naegels: De waarheid as overtuiging. In: De Standaard. December 14, 2011, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
14. ^ Annemie Peeters: Psychoanalysis op Peeters & Pichal. In: Peeters & Pichal. Radio 1 , December 19, 2011, archived from the original on December 20, 2011 ; Retrieved September 19, 2015 . 
15. ↑ Filip Buekens: De conservatieve stem in Paul Verhaeghe. In: De Morgen . August 23, 2012, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
16. ↑ Joël de Ceulaer: Een hel van angst en pijn. In: De Standaard. September 4, 2012, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
17. ^ Maarten Boudry: De neoliberale Nachtmerrie van Paul Verhaeghe. Liberales, October 19, 2012, accessed September 19, 2015 . Maarten Boudry: Neoliberalisme: de ideal zondebok. In: Trouw . December 8, 2012, accessed September 19, 2015 . 
     
18. ↑ deutschlandfunk.de , Andruck - The magazine for political literature. November 21, 2016, Matthias Becker: People's longing for authority. November 24, 2016.