Henry Zvi Lothane
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Henry Zvi Lothane,
M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
, is a Polish-born American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, educator and author. Lothane is currently Clinical Professor at
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
, New York City, specializing in the area of psychotherapy. He is the author of some eighty scholarly articles and reviews on various topics in psychiatry, psychoanalysis and the history of psychotherapy, as well as the author of a book on the famous Schreber case, entitled ''In Defense of Schreber: Soul Murder and Psychiatry''. ''In Defense of Schreber'' examines the life and work of Daniel Paul Schreber against the background of 19th and early 20th century psychiatry and psychoanalysis.


Life and work

Lothane was born in
Lublin, Poland Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
in 1934, to a Jewish family. With the division of Poland between the Germans and the Soviets in 1939, the family fled to eastern Poland, then under Russian control, where they lived from 1939 to 1941. Shortly before the German invasion of Russia in 1941, Lothane’s father volunteered to emigrate to Russia and thus saved the family from annihilation. In 1946, Lothane’s family returned to Lublin, where he attended elementary school. He later attended high school in Lodz until 1950, when the family immigrated to Israel. Lothane graduated from Ohel Shem high school, in
Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and man ...
, Israel. Having demonstrated a gift for languages, Lothane worked as a military translator during his service in the Israel Defense Forces. After discharge, Lothane studied at the
Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, from which he graduated with an MD in 1960. After completing his internship at the
Beilinson Hospital Rabin Medical Center ( he, מרכז רפואי רבין) is a major hospital and medical center located in Petah Tikva, Israel. It is owned and operated by Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest health maintenance organization. In January 1996, ...
in Petach Tikwa in 1962, Lothane began his residency at the Talbieh Psychiatric Hospital, Jerusalem, headed by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Professor Heinrich Winnick. In 1963 he emigrated with his wife and daughter to the United States and completed his residency training at the
Strong Memorial Hospital Strong Memorial Hospital (SMH) is an 886-bed medical facility, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center complex (abbreviated URMC), in Rochester, New York, United States. Opened in 1926, it is a major provider of both in-patient and ou ...
, Rochester NY, chaired by Prof. John Romano. Lothane was Unit Chief at the Hillside Psychiatric Hospital, in New York, from 1963 to 1969. From 1966 to 1972, Lothane studied psychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in New York City. Since 1969, Lothane has been a member of the faculty at the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
, New York City, where he has risen to the rank of Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. In his private practice, Lothane works as a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. Beginning in 1994, Lothane has worked for the German consulate in New York as a psychiatric expert, evaluating the restitution claims of Holocaust survivors, including those from Auschwitz (the 70th anniversary of its liberation having recently been celebrated). Lothane is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the
American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involv ...
and a member of the
American Psychoanalytical Association The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) is an association of psychoanalysts in the United States. APsaA serves as a scientific and professional organization with a focus on education, research, and membership development. APsaA comprises 3 ...
as well as the
International Psychoanalytical Association The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi. His ...
. He is currently the President of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians. Lothane's publications span a number of themes in psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy. Among the major areas in which Lothane has published are (1) the history of psychoanalysis (including studies of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
, Carl G. Jung,
Daniel Paul Schreber Daniel Paul Schreber (; 25 July 1842 – 14 April 1911) was a German judge who was famous for his personal account of his own experience with schizophrenia. Schreber experienced three distinct periods of acute mental illness. The first of th ...
,
Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first fema ...
, and psychoanalysis under Nazism), (2) methodology, clinical technique and contemporary psychoanalysis, (3) love and sex, and (4) "dramatology," an approach to clinical work and technique which Lothane has developed. In many cases, Lothane’s publications bridge more than one of these themes. For example, Lothane frequently draws on his historical research with the goal of correcting misconceptions of Freud in contemporary discussions of psychoanalytic technique.


The Schreber Case

Daniel Paul Schreber Daniel Paul Schreber (; 25 July 1842 – 14 April 1911) was a German judge who was famous for his personal account of his own experience with schizophrenia. Schreber experienced three distinct periods of acute mental illness. The first of th ...
was a German judge who was admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times (1884, 1893, and 1907) in his life. The second episode, during which he was declared legally insane, became the narrative of a book published in 1903, ''Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken'' ("''Reflections of a Nervous Patient''"), published in English in 1955 under the title ''Memoirs of My Nervous Illness''. Oddly enough, the English translation omitted the subtitle "In what circumstance can a person deemed insane be detained in an asylum against his declared will?" thus leaving out of the title arguably the central point of the book, namely, that Schreber sought to regain his liberty. Thanks to Freud’s groundbreaking 1911 analysis of Schreber’s book, the "Schreber case" became a staple of psychoanalytic literature, one that highlighted Freud’s thesis that Schreber’s second episode of mental illness, especially his so-called paranoia, was caused by passive homosexual desires towards his first psychiatrist,
Paul Flechsig Paul Emil Flechsig (29 June 1847, Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony – 22 July 1929, Leipzig) was a German neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is mainly remembered today for his research of myelinogenesis. Biography Born in Zwickau, h ...
. The Schreber case again became famous in 1959 with the publication of the paper "Schreber: Father and Son," by the American psychoanalyst
William Guglielmo Niederland William Guglielmo Niederland (29 August 1904 – 30 July 1993) was a German- American psychoanalyst and a pioneer in the scholarly field of psychogeography. He was born in Schippenbeil, East Prussia, the son of an orthodox rabbi, and in earl ...
. Niederland famously argued that Schreber was abused as a boy by his father
Moritz Moritz is the German equivalent of the name Maurice. It may refer to: People Given name * Saint Maurice, also called Saint Moritz, the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century * Prince Moritz of Hesse (2007), the son of ...
by means of sadistic child-rearing practices and the use of torturing orthopedic appliances, to which, according to Niederland, Schreber referred in Chapter XI of his book. Morton Schatzman argued essentially the same thesis as Niederland in his 1973 bestseller ''Soul Murder. Persecution in the Family''. In contrast, Han Israels' 1989 biography of the Schreber family argued that Moritz Schreber was unfairly demonized in the literature. In that same year (1989), Lothane’s first paper on Schreber appeared, focusing on the historical record of the relationship between Schreber and his doctors. Lothane’s research was a fundamental revision of the biography and interpretation of the life and work of Daniel Paul Schreber, in part because it was based on new archival and historical research, focusing in particular on historical the gaps left by Freud and Niederland. For example, Freud’s study lacked any mention of Schreber’s mother or of Schreber’s wife, except to the extent Freud speculates about the latter’s role in protecting Schreber from being attracted to men around him. Similarly, Niederland says little about Schreber’s mother and wife, though one might expect each to be very important ''
dramatis personae Dramatis personae (Latin: 'persons of the drama') are the main characters in a dramatic work written in a list. Such lists are commonly employed in various forms of theatre, and also on screen. Typically, off-stage characters are not considere ...
'' in Schreber's life-drama, especially from a psychoanalytic point of view. While Freud and Niederland's works speculated about Schreber’s fantasies concerning Flechsig, neither appears to have put much effort into finding out about Schreber’s actual dealings with Flechsig, evidence of which is recorded in various archives. Lothane’s Schreber research, including the book-length study, ''In Defense of Schreber'', and some thirty articles and reviews published between 1989 and 2014, added new data and correspondingly new analyses unknown to Freud, Niederland, and other researchers, not only about Schreber himself but about the leading figures in Schreber’s life. Perhaps the most original element of Lothane’s approach is the respect he shows for Schreber himself, as a worthwhile thinker in his own right and as a teacher imparting important lessons to psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. ''In Defense of Schreber'' provoked scores of reviews and reactions internationally, ranging from very positive to very negative. For example, psychiatrist Richard Chessick speaks positively of the book as a correction to "innumerable historical errors": "Lothane in his painstaking historical investigation provides us with a thorough understanding of the status of psychiatry at the time, and with a knowledge of what Schreber had to put up with from his wife and various authority figures." Other reviewers were more negative, ''e.g.'', Gerd Busse about the 1992 version of the book and Ernst Falzeder about its 2004 revision. Some of Lothane's unique interpretations of the Schreber case appear in the 2011 movie ''Shock Head Soul'', a film about the Schreber case.


Sabina Spielrein

Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first fema ...
was a Russian-Jewish physician and psychoanalyst, the second woman to join Freud’s circle in Vienna. In 1904, at the age of 19, Spielrein traveled to Switzerland to study at the
University of Zürich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
. Shortly after her arrival, Spielrein had a nervous breakdown and was admitted to the
Burghölzli The ''Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich'' (Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich) is a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. As a research hospital, it is associated with the University of Zürich. It is also called Burghölzli, after t ...
psychiatric hospital as a patient of director
Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler (; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", "schizoid", ...
and his deputy C. G. Jung, then 29 years old. Spielrein became a unique inmate, participating in Jung’s and
Franz Riklin Franz Beda Riklin (22 April 1878, in St. Gallen – 4 December 1938, in Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist. Early in his career, Franz Riklin worked at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zurich under Eugen Bleuler (b.1857–d.1939), and studied ex ...
’s Word Association experiments, and matriculating as a medical student at the Zürich medical school where, in 1911, she became an MD, writing the first psychoanalytic investigation of a schizophrenic patient as her dissertation. After years of practicing as a psychoanalyst in Europe, Spielrien returned to the Soviet Union in 1923 where she taught psychoanalysis and treated both adults and children, until psychoanalysis was banned under Stalin. After the German invasion in 1942, Spielrein and her two daughters were murdered and buried in a mass grave. Spielrein’s collected papers were published in Germany, the most famous of which was on destruction as a cause of becoming, a paper that inspired Freud’s theory of the death instinct. In 1906, Jung reported to Freud that he was treating an unnamed female student, a difficult case which became more difficult up to its dramatic climax in 1909. This fact went unnoticed until 1980, when Jungian analyst Aldo Carotenuto published his book ''A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud'' (English version 1982), based upon Spielrein’s German diary and letters exchanged with Jung and Freud. As a result of that book, it became widely accepted that Spielrein, as a patient, and Jung, while still her psychiatrist, engaged in a sexual affair. This would mean professional misconduct on the part of Jung along with a possible scandal and disgrace, as Jung would suspect Spielrein of spreading rumors about him. This story also implies that Jung and Freud colluded to hush-up the alleged scandal. In 1999 Lothane called attention to primary sources unknown to English authors, ''e.g.'', Spielrein’s Russian-language diary and letters Spielrein wrote to her mother (which Lothane made available in English translation). These sources filled in significant and previously unknown details about Spielrein as a student and about Jung as her teacher in medical school. Lothane’s analysis of the letters argued that Jung lied to Freud in saying that Spielrein was still a patient from 1906 onward. Spielrein herself informed Freud that treatment had ended in 1905 and Jung confirmed that he "treated" her free of charge. While, in letters to Freud, Jung referred to problems in his marriage and to adulterous temptations, Jung kept up the charade of treatment to cover up these real problems and Freud chose not to comment on them. Furthermore, Lothane argues, Spielrein solves the riddle of her relationship with Jung in a letter to her mother, calling her erotically colored friendship with Jung "poetry": "So far we have remained at the level of poetry that is not dangerous, and we shall remain at that level...." Whether they engaged in "dangerous" sex beyond such temptations is a fact known only to them; existing evidence, Lothane argues, does not confirm the story that they engaged in a sexual relationship. In several articles, Lothane criticizes the literature following on Carotenuto’s book, which as a rule assumes Jung’s sexual misconduct and the cover-up of a public scandal. Lothane argues that, even if Jung and Spielrein had consummated sex as professor and medical student, such a situation would still be very different from psychiatric misconduct and would not, for example, be grounds for claiming damages. Spielrein’s interactions with Jung, Lothane maintains, were both dramatic and at times melodramatic, inspired by the motif of the ''
Liebestod "" ( German for "love death") is the title of the final, dramatic music from the 1859 opera ' by Richard Wagner. It is the climactic end of the opera, as Isolde sings over Tristan's dead body. The music is often used in film and television produ ...
'' of Wagner’s opera ''Tristan und Isolde'', although the evidence suggests that, for Jung and Spielrein, this was metaphorical: such moods stimulated creative ideas in both and a nostalgic reminiscence for Spielrein. Spielrein wanted to marry Jung and be a mother to their child, whom she called Siegfried. For Jung she remained a muse, not a mistress. Sex or no sex, their bond was one of mutual support, friendship, and "love writ large" (see below). In English, Lothane points out, there is a difference between loving and liking, but "in other languages love refers either to (1) love writ large, called agape, caritas, philia, sympathia, or to (2) lust, i.e., libido, thus ‘love’ covering both love as sexual desire and sexual pleasure, and love as attachment".


Psychology of love and sex

Starting in 1982, Lothane published a series of papers on what he termed "love writ large": ''i.e.'', love as a feeling, an emotion and an activity, and thus as the foundation of interpersonal relationships in couples and among people in larger social encounters and contexts. For Lothane, love and its antagonist hatred, manifesting as aggression in speech and violence in acts, are not merely feelings but also the most important actions, behaviors, or conducts in interpersonal relations.
Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
has been a neglected and poorly understood topic in psychiatric and psychoanalytic writings, according to Lothane. This view led Lothane to highlight a significant split in Freud: (1) one the one hand, empirically, starting in 1890, first in his practicing of suggestion and later as a psychotherapist, Freud recognized the role of interpersonal love and (2) on the other hand, theoretically, in the 1905 ''Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality'', Freud reduced love to libido, postulating that friendship and love are derivatives of the sexual instinct. It is as a result of the latter theory that Freud has been chastised by a number of critics for lacking an interpersonal approach. For example, see "
relational psychoanalysis Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving ...
". Lothane has argued the opposite thesis, claiming there to be an "interpersonal Freud" that has remained largely unrecognized in the psychoanalytic tradition. Whereas, Lothane maintains, Freud is monadic, ''i.e.'', focused on the intrapersonal experiences of the patient, in his theories of disorder, in his psychoanalytic method Freud is consistently dyadic, ''i.e.'', interpersonal. In 1892, Freud composed an essay on psychotherapy (published in 1905), in which love was discussed as a component of treatment. In 1893-1895, in his epochal '' Studies on Hysteria'', love continued to play a role in treatment, as it did in his second epochal work, ''
The Interpretation of Dreams ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what w ...
''. Lothane elaborated on Freud’s interpersonal approaches to traumatic disorders, the role of humor in psychotherapy, and the method and technique of free association in several papers. In these texts, Lothane preferred
Harry Stack Sullivan Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that "personality can never be isolated from the complex interpersonal r ...
’s use of the term "interpersonal" in contrast to "relational" because, Lothane argued, one can have relations not only with persons but with objects and animals; hence "interpersonal relations" is not a redundancy but is an operational modification. According to Lothane, it was Sandor Ferenczi, more than any of the other major figures in the psychoanalytic tradition, who contributed the most to investigating love in its breadth and in its significance for psychoanalysis. Concerning the breadth of the concept, Ferenczi understood that "love" connotes any number of positive feelings with are central to analytic practice, such empathy, sympathy, and emotionally positive interpersonal processes. These are central to the analytic process because they are central to human and social life in general. Concerning love’s significance, Lothane agrees in principle (1) with Ferenczi that love and bodily tenderness include sexuality but are not reducible to it; (2) with
Michael Balint , , image = Monte Verità Gedenktafel Michael Balint 1K4A4638-b.jpg , caption = , birth_name = Mihály Maurice Bergsmann , birth_date = , birth_place = Budapest , death_date = , death_place = London , occupation = psychoan ...
, Ferenczi’s most prominent follower, who unified primary love and psychoanalytic technique for "love, or primary love (in Balint's phrase), is the necessary leaven...the true mover of the therapeutic process that makes exploration of underlying frustration and conflict, and their eventual overcoming, possible."


Methodology of interpersonal psychoanalysis

Beginning in 1982 and continuing throughout his career, Lothane published numerous studies on the clinical method of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. For example, in 1982 Lothane argued against defining hallucinations and delusions as disorders of perception rather than as phenomena associated with dreaming, daydreaming, and fantasy (as
Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler (; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", "schizoid", ...
argued against
Emil Kraepelin Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin (; ; 15 February 1856 – 7 October 1926) was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's ''Encyclopedia of Psychology'' identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psych ...
and
Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspe ...
). Much of Lothane’s methodological work attempts to clarify the nature of free association and its foundational role in clinical psychoanalysis. From early on, Lothane used concepts of technique elaborated by two of Freud’s direct followers:
Theodor Reik Theodor Reik (; 12 May 1888, in Vienna, Austria – 31 December 1969, in New York) was a psychoanalyst who trained as one of Freud's first students in Vienna, Austria, and was a pioneer of lay analysis in the United States. Education and career ...
's "listening with the third ear" and Otto Isakower’s "analyzing instrument," which Lothane renamed "reciprocal free association," in order to underscore its operational rather than metaphorical status. Continuing the work of his predecessors, in referring to free association as "reciprocal," Lothane seeks to emphasize that: (1) it is not only the analysand but also the analyst who free associates in the clinical situation; (2) there is an interpersonal dynamic between analysand and analyst, such that the material which emerges from the associations of one evoke associations in the other and vice versa, through a reciprocal and interpersonal process. This idea goes back to Freud’s 1895 chapter on the psychotherapy of hysteria, his cases in '' Studies on Hysteria'' and its definition for the patient in ''
The Interpretation of Dreams ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what w ...
''. Freud supplements these ideas for both patient and doctor in his 1912-1915 papers on technique. Some similarity to Lothane’s ideas may be found in psychoanalyst Thomas Ogden’s concept of the "analytic third" and in Jungian August Cwik’s notion of "associative dreaming," though Lothane’s concept seems to emphasize the dynamic between the participants more than either Ogden or Cwik. Lothane retains his explicit roots in Freud and in the classical psychoanalytic tradition while simultaneously emphasizing the interpersonal character of life and of the clinical situation, in contrast to many contemporary relational psychoanalysts. This is possible because Lothane sees many more interpersonal elements in the classical psychoanalytic tradition than
relational psychoanalysts Relational may refer to: Business * Relational capital, the value inherent in a company's relationships with its customers, vendors, and other important constituencies * Relational contract, a contract whose effect is based upon a relationship of ...
tend to. Lothane argues that contemporary relational psychoanalytic theorists have tended to overlook the expressly interpersonal dimensions of Freud. From Lothane’s interpersonal perspective, it is both language and speech acts as well as love and actions of love that are the overarching phenomena in the dramas of life, disorder, and therapy. Consideration of these factors led Lothane to develop his concept of "Dramatology".


Dramatology

Lothane introduced the notion of ''dramatology'' as a way of conceptualizing and illustrating both human interaction in general and the nature of therapeutic interaction in particular. "Dramatology," a term not yet in standard dictionaries, is different from dramaturgy, the art of dramatic composition and its representation on stage or in film. Dramatology shares goals and values with the theory of
dramatism Dramatism, a communication studies theory, was developed by Kenneth Burke as a tool for analyzing human relationships through the use of language. Burke viewed dramatism from the lens of logology, which studies how people's ways of speaking shape ...
proposed by the literary critic
Kenneth Burke Kenneth Duva Burke (May 5, 1897 – November 19, 1993) was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burk ...
. However, dramatology differs from dramatism since it represents a new paradigm for psychotherapy in particular and human interaction in general. Lothane coined the term "dramatology" as a contrast and complement to the already existing term "narratology," i.e. the study conceptualization of human interactions in terms of narration or storytelling. Dramas are events that occur "here and now," whereas stories are created after the events and always in some measure to serve the personal, historical, cultural or political needs of the narrator(s) in question. Lothane notes that, traditionally, psychoanalysis saw its material primarily in narratives of a remembered past, told to the therapist. In contrast, Lothane argues that, while the stories are about the past, the act of telling the story to the therapist is an event in the here and now, thus a current communication, listened to by the therapist as in any everyday conversation. When the listening is augmented by reciprocal free association, the process encompasses not only the conscious content but also taps into its unconscious connections and ramifications to yield a remembrance of things past that is both more complete and insightful. The process of free association is then linked to the function of imagination as a process that is based on the spontaneous emergence of mental images, which also plays an essential role in communication. In Lothane’s words, "I propose the term ‘dramatology’ ... as a paradigm that refers to (1) dramatization in thought: images and scenes lived in dreams and fantasies, and (2) dramatization in act: in dialogues and non-verbal communications such as facial expressions and gestures between ''dramatis personae'' involved in plots of love and hate, faithfulness and betrayal, ambition and failure, triumph and defeat, fear and panic, despair and hope". Lothane refers to this as "language action" rather than "action language," as Bromberg emphasizes in an article on technique in relational analysis. Thus dramatology completes
narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...
. The patient and the therapist alternate in their role of speaker and listener and in the processes of reciprocal free association, continually evoking images, which coalesce into acts of interpretation and confrontation, which in turn create
insight Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intui ...
. In real life, the person who comes to a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst presents as a unique individual in physical appearance, clothing, caste and cultural identity and who communicates in an individual style through words and emotion, tone of voice,
posture Posture or posturing may refer to: Medicine * Human position ** Abnormal posturing, in neurotrauma ** Spinal posture ** List of human positions * Posturography Posturography is the technique used to quantify postural control in upright stance in ...
and gesture of face, body, and limbs, and more. The story the person tells, different from a story written, is in itself the beginning of an ongoing dramatic relationship. If all the person’s behaviors are translated by the psychiatrist into symptoms, syndromes, and systems, and molded into diagnoses, e.g., of a Kraepelinian or a Jaspersian orientation, the result may be that the individual’s uniqueness is lost in the process of abstraction and
generalization A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characte ...
. The psychoanalyst, in addition to the above, may formulate the person’s individual behaviors as the dynamics of
transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...
, rather than the unfolding of a personal and interpersonal drama. While dramatology-inspired interpersonal drama therapy respects the importance of
diagnoses Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems enginee ...
and interpretive dynamic formulas in scientific discourse and elsewhere, it strives to make contact with the living reality of the person in the therapeutic encounter beyond diagnostic labels and formulaic interpretations, using participant observation (
Harry Stack Sullivan Herbert "Harry" Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was an American Neo-Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who held that "personality can never be isolated from the complex interpersonal r ...
),
empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...
, reciprocal free association, and
confrontation Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cult ...
as some of its basic tools. In the process of interpersonal drama therapy the so-called symptoms of disorder are translated back to events in the patient’s life story, of which these symptoms are the manifest derivative forms. In 2011, Duncan Reyburn referred to dramatology, in connection with the philosophy of G. K. Chesterton, as a "dramaturgical" hermeneutic approach that is rooted in a "dramatic understanding of the nature of being".


Mass psychology and Nazism

Freud made history with his 1921 essay on mass psychology (lost in the English translation as ''group psychology'') in highlighting the interpersonal dynamics between a leader and the masses led by him. Citing Le Bon ("the individual forming part of a crowd acquires a sentiment of invincible power, the sentiment of responsibility disappears entirely by contagion,
e is E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
a creature acting by instinct
ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...
the violence, ferocity, enthusiasm and heroism of primitive beings"), to which Freud added: "in the group the individual throws off the repressions of his unconscious impulses, all that is evil in the human mind, a disappearance of conscience, a sense of omnipotence orlove relationships (or, to use a more neutral expression, emotional ties) also constitute the essence of the mass mind; the head — Christ, the Commander-in-Chief — loves all with an equal love as a kind of elder brother, as their substitute father, the similarity with the family is invoked; the individual gives up his ego ideal and substitutes for it the group ideal as embodied in the leader the need for a strong chief." The mainstream analyses of the Nazi phenomenon have primarily targeted
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
’s person, character and biography and only to a limited degree the character of the masses that followed him and the interaction between Hitler and the masses. In contrast, Lothane studied the mass psychology of Nazism by linking ideas from Freud to
Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian doctor of medicine and a psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several influential books, most ...
's 1933 ''Mass Psychology of Fascism'' to illuminate the rise of Nazi tyranny, the persecution of German-Jewish doctors, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, and the Holocaust.Lothane, Z. (1997). Omnipotence, or the delusional aspect of ideology, in relation to love, power, and group dynamics. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 57:25-46; Lothane, Z. (2001). The deal with the devil to "save" psychoanalysis in Nazi Germany. Psychoanalytic Review, 88(2):195-224. In: Special Issue, Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis in the Third Reich, Edited by Zvi Lothane; Lothane, Z. (2003). Power politics and psychoanalysis—an introduction. In: Lothane, Z. Guest Editor, International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Special Issue 2-3, Psychoanalysis and the Third Reich. 18:85-97; Lothane (2015). Henry Zvi Lothane: Wilhelm Reich revisited: Die Rolle der Ideologie in der Charakteranalyse des Individuums versus in der Charakteranalyse der Massen (Wilhelm Reich revisited: the role of ideology in character analysis of the individual vs. character analysis of the masses), in texte. psychoanalyse. ästhetik. Kulturkritik, Linz, Austria Lothane has also noted implication of his analysis of Nazism for understanding the recent rise of violent, militant religious fundamentalisms.


Current project

Lothane is currently working on a book-length study of
Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first fema ...
.


Honors

*1991, The Nancy Roeske Certificate of Excellence for Teaching of Medical Students, by the American Psychiatric Association *1993, Authors’ Recognition Award, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, 1993, for the book ''In Defense of Schreber: Soul Murder and Psychiatry,'' 1992 *1997-98, President, New York City Chapter, American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians *1999, Sigmund Freud Award Lecturer, American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians, New York City, October 23rd, 1999 *2001, Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association *2011, Thomas S. Szasz Award for outstanding contributions to the cause of civil liberties He has also been the President, Union of Concerned Psychoanalysts and Psychotherapists. He is a Member of International Psychoanalytical Association, and an Honorary Member, Polish Psychiatric Association From 1985-2004, he was the Science Editor of the ''Psychoanalytic Review'' ; since 2005 he has been on the Editorial Board of the ''Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless'', since 2000 on the Editorial Board, of the ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis''; since 2005, Corresponding editor of the ''European Journal of Psychoanalysis''


References


Select bibliography

''Books'' Lothane, Z. (1992). ''In defense of Schreber. Soul murder and psychiatry''. Hillsdale, NJ/London: The Analytic Press Lothane, Z. (2004). ''Seelenmord und Psychiatrie Zur Rehabilitierung Schrebers''. Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag. (2nd edition of ''In Defense of Schreber'') ''Articles'' Lothane, Z. (1982). Dialogues are for dyads. ''Issues in ego psychology'', 8:19-24. Lothane, Z. (1982). The psychopathology of hallucinations—a methodological analysis. ''British Journal of Medical Psychology'', 55:335-348 Lothane, Z. (1989). Freud, Flechsig and Weber revisited: an inquiry into methods of interpretation. ''Psychoanalytic Review'', 79:203-262 Lothane, Z. (1989). Vindicating Schreber’s father: neither sadist nor child abuser. ''Journal of Psychohistory'', 16:263–85. Lothane, Z. (1992). The missing link -- Schreber and his doctors. ''History of Psychiatry'', 3:339–350. Lothane, Z. (1993). Schreber’s soul murder: a case of psychiatric persecution. In: De Goei L & Vijselaar J, eds. ''Proceedings 1st European Congress on the History of Psychiatry and Mental Health Care. Rotterdam: Erasmus'': 96–103. Lothane, Z. (1993). Schreber’s feminine identification: paranoid illness or profound insight? ''International Forum Psychoanalysis'', 2:131–38. Lothane, Z. (1995). Der Mann Schreber: Ein Leben, Neue Sicht und Einsicht. ''Psychoanalyse im Widerspruch'', 14:5–15. Lothane, Z. (1996). Die Verknüpfung von Sohn und Vater Schreber mit Hitler: ein Fall vom historischen Rufmord. ''Werkblatt'', 36:108–27. Lothane, Z. (1997). Omnipotence, or the delusional aspect of ideology, in relation to love, power, and group dynamics. ''American Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 57:25–46. Lothane, Z. (1997). Freud and the interpersonal. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 6:175–184. Lothane, Z. (1997). The schism between Freud and Jung over Schreber: its implications for method and doctrine. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 6:103—115. Lothane, Z. (1998). The feud between Freud and Ferenczi over love. ''American Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 58:21–39. Lothane, Z. (1998). Pour une défense de Schreber: meurtre d’âme et psychiatrie. In: Devreese D, Lothane Z, Schotte J, (réd.), ''Schreber Revisité'' (“Figures of the Unconscious: hors série). Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, pp. 11-29. Lothane, Z. (1998). Goethe, Schreber, Freud: Themes in metamorphosis. In: Marchioro, F, ed. ''Il divano, l’immaginario e la cura''. Bolzano: Ricerche-IMAGO-Forschung; p. 67–86. Lothane, Z. (1999). Tender love and transference: unpublished letters of C. G. Jung and Sabina Spielrein. ''International Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 80(6):1189-2004. Lothane, Z. (2001). The deal with the devil to "save" psychoanalysis in Nazi Germany. In: Lothane, Z. (ed.) Special Issue, Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis in the Third Reich, ''Psychoanalytic Review'', 88(2):195–224. Lothane, Z. (2002). Paul Schreber’s sexual desires and imaginings: Cause or consequence of his psychosis? In: Socarides, C W & Freedman, A eds. ''Objects of desire. The sexual deviations''. Madison, CT: International Universities Press Lothane, Z. (2003). Power politics and psychoanalysis—an introduction. In: Lothane, Z. Guest Editor, ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', Special Issue 2-3, ''Psychoanalysis and the Third Reich''. 18:85–97. Lothane, Z. (2003). What did Freud say about persons and relations? ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', 20:609–617. Lothane, Z. (2005). Daniel Paul Schreber on his own terms, or how interpretive fictions are converted into historical facts. In: Holger Steinberg (Hrsg.) ''Leipziger psychiatriegeschichtliche Vorlesungen''. Leipzig:
Evangelische Verlagsanstalt The Evangelische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) is a denominational media company founded in Berlin in 1946. Its shareholders are the and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony. The managing director is Sebastian Knöfel. Book publisher The range inc ...
: 129–156. Lothane, Z. (2006). Mass psychology of the led and the leaders/masses and mobs, democracy and demagogues/Or how prejudice of the leader becomes mass paranoia. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 15:183-192. Lothane, Z. (2007). The power of the spoken word in life, psychiatry and psychoanalysis – a contribution to interpersonal psychoanalysis. ''American Journal of Psychoanalysis'', 67:260–274 Lothane, Z. (2007). The snares of seduction in life and in therapy, or what do young ewishgirls (Spielrein) seek in their Aryan heroes (Jung), and vice versa? ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 16:12-27, 81-94. Lothane, Z. (2007). Imagination as reciprocal process and its role in the psychoanalytic situation. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 16:152–163. Lothane, Z. (2008). The uses of humor in life, neurosis, and in psychotherapy. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 17:180–188, 232–239 Lothane, Z. (2009). Dramatology in life, disorder, and psychoanalytic therapy: A further contribution to interpersonal psychoanalysis. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 18 (3): 135–148. Lothane, Z. (2010). The analysand and analyst practicing reciprocal free association—defenders and deniers. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 19: 155–164. Lothane, Z. (2010). Sándor Ferenczi, the dramatologist of love. ''Psychoanalytic Perspectives'', 7(1):165–182. Lothane, Z. (2010). ''European Journal of Psychoanalysis'', Guest Editor, Special issue, ''Schreber revisited'', 213 pp. Table of contents. Guest Editor’s Introduction pp. 9-16. Lothane, Z. (2010) Romancing psychiatry: Paul Schreber, Otto Gross, Oskar Panizza—personal, social, and forensic aspects. In Felber, Werner, Götz von Olenhusen, Albrecht, Heuer, Gottfried Maria, Nitzschke, Bernd. (eds.) ''Psychoanalyse und Expressionismus''. 7. Internationaler Otto Gross Kongress, Dresden. Lothane, Z. (2010). Schreber as interpreter and thinker. ''Schweizer Archiv für Neurologie und Psychiatrie'', 161(1):42-45. Lothane, Z. (2011). Dramatology vs. narratology: a new synthesis for psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and interpersonal drama therapy (IDT). ''Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy'', 4:29–43. Lothane, Z. (2011). The teachings of honorary professor of psychiatry Daniel Paul Schreber, J.D., to psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, or dramatology’s challenge to psychiatry and psychoanalysis. ''Psychoanalytic Review'', 98(6): 775–815. Lothane, Z. (2011). The partnership of psychoanalysis and psychiatry in the treatment of psychosis and borderline states: its evolution in North America. ''Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry'', 39(3):499-524. Lothane, Z. (2014). Emotional reality: A further contribution to dramatology. http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/0803706X.2014.953996 Lothane. Z. (2015). Wilhelm Reich revisited: Die Rolle der Ideologie in der Charakteranalyse des Individuums versus in der Charakteranalyse der Massen (Wilhelm Reich revisited: the role of ideology in character analysis of the individual vs. character analysis of the masses), in ''texte. psychoanalyse. ästhetik''. Kulturkritik, Linz, Austria. Lothane, Z. (2021). My life with Paul Schreber. ''International Forum of Psychoanalysis'', 30(1):9-18. In the series “German themes in psychoanalysis, Part 4. Devreese, D., Lothane, Z., Schotte, J. (réd.) (1998). ''Schreber revisité Colloque de Cérisy-la-Salle''. Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain


List of reviews of and reactions to Lothane's ''Schreber'' book (Chronological order)

Bluestone, H., M.D., (Past President, The American Psychiatric Association). (1993). The Bulletin: The Voice of Psychiatry in New York State, Vol. 35, No. 4. Anonymous, (1993). Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Spring, 57:276. Ostow, M. (1993) Psychoanalytic Books, A Quarterly Journal of Reviews, 4 no.2:175–182. Stingelin, M. (1993). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7. April, Nr. 82, S.N5. Stingelin, M. (1993). FRAGMENTE Schriftenreihe für Kultur-, Medien- und Psychoanalyse, 41:219–222. Kurzweil, E. (1993). Partisan Review, September, LX, Number 3:469-473. Lefer, J. (1993). Academy Forum, 37, Fall, no. 3:22–23. Lefer, J. (1993). The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, November, 181:710–711. Stensson, J. (1993). International Forum of Psycho-Analysis, 2:128:189–192. In Swedish: (1994) Till Schrebers fürsvar, Divan, Oktober, #9, 99–102. Gonen, J. (1993). Journal of Psychohistory, 21(3):359–362. Grotstein, J. (1993). Psychoanalytic Review, 80 (4):633–639. Anonymous. (1993) The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review, 4:57. Conci, M. (1993). Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane, 27:142–144. Busse, G. (1994). Psyche, 48:83–85. Berman, E. (1994). Haaretz Literary Supplement, 2.2:10,14. Kostewicz, D. (1994). "Die Verantwortung der Diagnose — "Der Fall Schreber," February issue of Neue Illustrierte Welt:15. Dinnage, R. (1994). Grand Delusion, The New York Review of Books, March 3:17–19. Ortigues, E. (1993/4) Psychanalystes, 48:209–219. Goldberg, R. S. (1994). The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 54:103–104. Eckardt, Marianne Horney, (1994). Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 22:356–358. Aragon, M. L. V. & Huidobro, J. M. R. (1994). Revista Espanola de Neuropsiquiatria, 14, #48:175–176. Dally, Ann. (1994). History of Psychiatry, 5:417–420. Gifford, Sanford. (1995). International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 76:193–196. Papp, Alexander. (1995). Journal of European Psychoanalysis, 1:163–166. Corveleyn, J. (1995). Psychologica Belgica, 35:73–75. Pletsch, Carl. (1995). Journal of Modern History, 67:373–374. Janus, L. (1995/6) Psychoanalyse im Widerspruch, 13:95. Allison, D. & Roberts, M. (1995). "Back to the future: missing Schreber yet again". Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 22:27–48. Allison, G. (1995). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 43:573–576. Chessick, R. (1995). American Journal of Psychotherapy, 49:449–450. Decker, H. (1995). American Historical Review, December, 100:612–613. Puccini, D. (1996). Luzifer-Amor, 18/96:193–197. Hurwitz, E. (1996). Schweizer Archiv für Neurologie und Psychiatrie, vol. 146: 41-2. Kelly, K. (1997). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 66:122-125. Roazen, P. (1997). Psychohistory Review, 25:199–201. Raguse, H. (1997). Zeitschrift f. psychoanalytische Theorie und Praxis, 12:201–206. Peters, U. (1998). Fortschritte der Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 66:144. Fabian, E. (1998). Dynamische Psychiatrie/Dynamic Psychiatry, vol. 168/169:140–143. Miller, G. (1998). Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry & Law, 26 (4):687–688. Elitzur, A. (1999) Sihot—Dialogue (Israel), vol. XIII, No. 2:155–159.


External links


Lothane Profile from Mt Sinai Medical Center Publications on Schreber Lothane profile on Researchgate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lothane, Henry Zvi. American psychiatrists American science writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)