"The fear of trying"

As the American Psychoanalytic Association faces mounting external pressures that threaten its very survival, its leadership and members appear increasingly preoccupied with issues of internal governance and training standards. This inward gazing, though in keeping with analysts’ personality and occupational traits, serves to obscure and defend against the anxieties associated with threats from the surround.
Such maladaptive defensive activity contributes to organizational stagnation, dysfunctional conservatism, and a “fear of trying.” Suggestions to combat this self-defeating behavior are offered.

No artigo, Dr. Fischer relembra algumas questões com que frequentemente nos deparamos. As quais reescrevo aqui como oportunidade de conhecer a vossa posição.

What constitutes an analytic process?
What defines cure in psychoanalysis, and what promotes such change?
What is the nature of analytic data, and what are the prospects of establishing meaningful controls?

Newell Fischer refere ainda o conceito de defesa social, referido inicialmente por Elliot Jaques em 1955, e desenvolvido por Isabel Menzies (1967), resultado da observação que faz numa enfermaria considerada como disfuncional.
Conceito que aqui realço por considerar que este permite pensarmo-nos, internamente, ou pensarmo-nos nas instituições que integramos, ganhando com isso formas para arrumarmos os fenómenos que muitas vezes sentimos como inomináveis ou não definíveis.

Menzies defined a social defense as “a socially structured mechanism of defense—which appears as elements in the structure, culture and mode of functioning of the organization. An important aspect of such socially structured defense mechanisms is an attempt by individuals to externalize and give substance in objective reality to their characteristic psychic defense mechanisms. A social defense system develops over time, as the result of collusive interaction and agreement, often unconscious, between members of the organization as to what form it shall take. The socially structured defense mechanisms then tend to become an aspect of external reality with which old and new members of the institution must come to terms”.

Retomando a questão principal do artigo, Fischer refere.

Over the past several years, and in particular in my two years as president, I have become increasingly concerned about the social defenses that have taken hold in our organization to its detriment. I will focus on two areas: (1) our propensity to become preoccupied with our internal functioning as a way of avoiding external threats, and (2) a level of dysfunctional conservatism, an organizational inhibition
to act decisively, what I refer to in my title as “a fear of trying.”

O autor resume a sua posição.

As individuals and as a group, we have selected a field of work in which our gaze is directed largely to the interior. We seek to understand forces beneath the surface, to cast light on hidden demons; we search the shadows for underlying meaning in unconscious fantasy and infantile experience. Our training and our personal analyses complement and refine this propensity for inward gazing and self-exploration. We are suspicious of simple and superficial explanations and seek to uncover what is latent. For many, the most defining aspect of the psychoanalytic
enterprise is that it is a procedure for the investigation of mental processes that are inaccessible in any other way.

A fear of trying: dysfunctional conservatism. Newell Fischer, Journal of The American Psychoanalytic Association, 2006, Vol. 54, 1.

Gostaria de ressalvar que, para além do seu conteúdo, o artigo captou o meu interesse por representar a capacidade de análise sobre a dinâmica de uma equipa, constituída por profissionais de sólida formação, e que, por ser constituída por pessoas e estar inserida num contexto social, apresenta sensibilidades, sobre as quais Dr. Newell Fischer reflecte e apresenta a sua posição.

Ao longo do curso, e após ter concluído o curso, procurei desenvolver alguma prática como Psicóloga Clínica pelo que realizei estágios em diferentes equipas de saúde mental. Penso que não serei injusta ao afirmar que em nenhuma das equipas com as quais trabalhei tive o prazer de me deparar com este tipo de olhar, análise ou desejo de crescimento e construção. Encontrei sim o medo da crítica, o receio de um olhar mais profundo e a resistência a qualquer forma de mudança. Importa referir que não me refiro, obviamente, a cada profissional isoladamente, mas sim a cada um como ser integrante de uma equipa e, como tal, influente e influenciado por esta.

Desejo que a leitura integral do artigo possa despertar um pouco dessa vontade e arrojo que antecede o começar de um novo pensamento, construção de um novo olhar, atitude ou posição.