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This panel was chaired by Giovanna Ambrosio, the overall Chair of the Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis (COWAP), who began by greeting everybody and by introducing the participants in this panel: Elyn Saks, Raquel Berman and Arlene Richards.
Elyn Saks began her autobiographical presentation, Her journey through madness, sharing with the audience her suffering related to her schizophrenic disorder and breakdown. She focused on her feeling of derealization, depersonalization and delusional ideas, bridging her psychological suffering and the vicissitudes of her life and of her family relationships and conflicts. She spoke of her several therapeutic experiences which combined both psychiatric and psychoanalytical approaches. Regarding the theme of the panel Elyn was asked to what degree the gender of the analyst was significant in her treatment. Having been treated by male and female therapists who naturally had different approaches, she focused on how both, independent of their gender, had provided her with a very maternal and paternal containment and holding, allowing a process of integration and identification. She emphasized as the most important issue the greater awareness she gained of her inner conflicts, insight and working through, allowing her a better knowledge of her inner world and how to deal with it.
Arlene Richards presented her paper, Psychoanalysis and desire, sharing with the audience one hour of a young woman's therapy, whose hallucinations, delusions and idea of reference had led to her diagnosis of schizophrenia. She had been in the psychoanalytic treatment for five years and had been medicated to relieve those symptoms. The analyst emphasized that her therapeutic aim was to try to eliminate the negative symptoms. This presentation raised some questions about what could be considered as a psychotherapeutic or a psychoanalytical approach as well as how to deal with a combined treatment of psychoanalysis and psychiatry.
Arlene Richards herself quest