The Greening of psychoanalysis. Andre Green’s new paradigm in contemporary theory and praxis, edited by R.J. Perelberg and G. Kohon

The essays in this book originated in a conference organized by the British Psychoanalytical Society in September of 2015 as a memorial to the late Andre Green. They make a compelling case for the view that in exploring the analytic process at the limits of analysability—and given the patients who so often now appear in our consulting rooms do we have any other choice?—Green has taken up many of Freud's intimations and moved psychoanalysis towards a new paradigm—beyond neurosis—where the act (agieren) replaces the dream as the paradigmatic object of psychoanalytic investigation and theory. In the words of Fernando Urribarri, who worked closely with Green in the last 15–20 years of Green's life, the thrust of Green's oeuvre offers us the promise of a “new paradigm … and … not just the construction of yet another post-Freudian school or discourse” (p. 134).

This new paradigm encompasses two Freudian models for contemporary clinical practice that coexist in a dialectical relationship: the dream and the act (including play). The dream relates to neurosis, psychic organization and

… sexual desire, structured through fantasies and woven into representations … . This corresponds to the psychoneurotic mode of functioning. It assumes that the containing function of the framing structure of primary narcissism [in the patient] is well enough established to allow the analysis to concentrate on the content, in accordance with a mainly intrapsychic conflict axis. (Urribarri, p. 145)

In contrast, the action model, which Green insists lies at the heart of Freud's second topography (structural theory)

… originates in the movement of the drive. The latter can be linked to representation or can be evacuated through action. In other words, representation is a possible result, rather than a starting point. The action can take several forms (realized or not), but it always causes a short circuit in symbolization … . Deadly repetition compulsion takes the place of desire, while the

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