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nesses of the majority culture, silencing and eradicating the minority identity. Maria Cohen from Argentina spoke about the creative possibility of being an outsider by reminding the audience that Freud was a minority and might never have developed psychoanalysis had he been in the majority. References Bion W (1962). Learning from experience. London: Karnac, 1984. Green A (1999). The work of the negative, Weller A, translator. London: Free Association Books.

The financial system and the current economic crisis19

Stephen M. Sonnenberg, Reporter

Holger Himmighofen introduced the panelists. David Tuckett began the discussion, stating that the financial markets froze in mid-2007, creating the financial crisis. He believes this crisis reflects a global loss of trust by investors, who now doubt that they will be paid back on their investments. He believes that markets are still edgy, he points out that credit is tight and liquidity minimal, and that there exist worthless assets and derivatives. Tuckett offered background on how financial advisors think and work. They must construct conviction narratives in order to value assets. These narratives are fantastical. Tuckett asserted that psychoanalytic understanding can allow a neutral analysis of economics and finance, an analysis which is interdisciplinary in its approach. He believes such an investigation reveals that the markets have produced trauma and loss, and these reactions among investors and advisors need to be worked through, that there needs to be a widespread move towards a collective depressive position. Tuckett spoke of his book, Minding The Markets: An Emotional Finance View of Financial Instability (2011), in which he describes interviews he conducted with successful finance managers before the 2007 crisis, and also spoke of his follow-up after the crisis. He found trends within the group: these managers experience uncertainty about their investment decisions, and must create pictures of the future that allow them to deal with the stress of uncertainty. Managers experience aversion and opportunity as they make decisions, as they deal with assets which are only paper, volatile and without intrinsic value. Tuckett elaborated on the fantastical narratives: they are narratives about objects; the asset takes on the characteristics of an object. The asset manager has a conviction about an asset; the conviction is transformed into a fantasy about the asset because fundamentally the manager cannot know how the asset will perform. In fact, taking into account fees, 70% of managers perform below the overall market index, so to work with any confidence as a manager requires such a fantasy. Also, investing with managers requires a co-operative public, which also embraces the fantastical object narrative. Otherwise, the public would not engage in such an investment practice. Tuckett went on to describe divided psychological states and groupfeel among managers – concepts which are useful in developing a psychoanalytic understanding of how investment managers are able to continue in their work. Without such psychological states of mind doubt would overwhelm the advisor. Tuckett spoke of John Maynard Keynes’s idea about animal spirits: Tuckett believes Keynes was thinking about the emotional processes that are inherent in investing, and which contribute to decisions that do not reflect careful evaluation of the value of an investment. For Tuckett, one remedial step is to reduce the level of excitement experienced when an investment decision is made. Excitement erodes good analysis of an asset. Joachim von Weissenberg then focused on unconscious factors that influence economic life and financial matters. He spoke of the theory of the rational actor, the idea that markets are efficient and people are predictable. A consequence of these ideas is the creation of benchmarks, which are perceptions of the over or undervalued nature of an asset. He believes that these perceptions create market trends. Von Weissenberg applied Freud’s ideas about consciousness, preconsciousness, and unconsciousness to how value and price is perceived. He called this a Topographic Price Valuation Theory, and asserted that realism plays only a limited role, an inconsistent role in price evaluation. He brought in the sense of time, and the way preconscious and unconscious expectations in relation to time create perceptions regarding value. He stated that professional economists are not immune from such influences. Von Weissenberg has developed a system in which he explains financial thinking: the unconscious dominates sentiment, the preconscious creates expectations, and what is conscious leads to realistic fun-

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Moderator: Holger Himmighofen (Switzerland). Panellists: David Tuckett (UK), Joachim von Weissenberg (Finland), Juan Carlos Weissmann (Argentina).

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damental valuation of an investment. What dominates market behavior is a regression to less conscious thinking. Von Weissenberg discussed very early developmental hallucinatory processes, which he believes occur in the regression that governs market behavior. Preoedipal fantasies put pressure on realistic market expectations, and superego problems also can influence market behavior. He believes one can think in terms of a market mood which is created by regression. Von Weissenberg spoke of how realism, expectations, and sentiment can interact synchronously or unsynchronously within a market and how bubbles occur because of projection phenomena. Juan Carlos Weissmann spoke about the global nature of finance. He believes the financial crisis continues to affect us all, and that in relation to it we all feel loss of love, loss of home and membership in a group, loss of self-respect and self-esteem, and damage to family structure. Other consequences of this crisis are generalized pain, increase in divorce and spousal violence, depression and suicide, sleep disorders, social withdrawal and loss of friends, and addiction. Weissmann asserted that the body and the psyche are one, and spoke of the skin as a membrane, which perceives, reacts, includes and excludes. Using the concepts of the membrane and the unity of body and psyche in the individual as a model for understanding large systems, his perspective extrapolates from the body and the influence of the inside as distinguished from the outside. Social relations, then, parallel individual relationships, and institutions created by people operate in parallel to individual relationships as well. Thus, he concludes, companies and businesses operate in parallel to the individual, and so does the economic system. He asserts that such a perspective allows for an understanding of the current financial crisis. At this point there was an opportunity for discussion with the audience. Evelina List from Austria responded that she felt uncomfortable with what she heard, because psychoanalytic theories concern individuals and their relationships, but do not explain social phenomena. In that spirit she questioned the entire panel discussion of markets because she believes it is unclear what psychoanalysis has to offer as regards a real understanding of society. Von Weissenberg expressed disagreement, stating that systems theory does allow psychoanalysis to understand large group phenomena, like the behavior of markets. Elvira Selow from Germany spoke of Tuckett’s views of the way customers pressure advisors, stating that this is consistent with an object relations view of what goes on in large groups: psychotic parts of group members (customers) influence social behavior. There is a psychotic resonance, she said, and this fits well with Tuckett’s description of the concept of the fantastic object. Anna Christopoulos from Greece spoke of the anxiety and disillusionment which is felt worldwide, because of the erosion of the middle class, the loss of control people now feel over their financial reality. In this sense, she asserted, we are now in a crisis without precedent, because we are seeing psychopathic behavior by the powerful taking away the agency of ordinary people. This, she said, is happening to people all over the world, and she believes psychoanalytic understanding may contribute to putting an end to such an abuse. Tuckett responded that he could not answer all the questions he heard at once. He spoke of changing power relations in economic systems; he agreed that psychoanalysis does not have an adequate societal theory because we focus on the individual (states of mind, unconscious fantasy, for example), but he does feel that psychoanalysis joining with anthropology and sociology can make a contribution to understanding many large group problems. He used the world’s energy crisis to illustrate his point: he suggested that with psychoanalytic thinking we can examine why we cannot grieve and mourn what we now know we do not have, and then better understand our reluctance to change our use of energy. This is an introspective process, and an essential beginning to dealing with larger group phenomena, with larger societal issues. He ended the panel on that optimistic note. Reference Tuckett D (2011). Minding the markets: An emotional finance view of financial instability. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan.

Watch this space! Research studies in depression: Three studies combining clinical psychoanalytical research with studies of outcome20

David Taylor, Reporter

The strength of psychoanalysis as a form of research and as a therapy derives from its detailed, long-term work with individuals; small numbers of self-selected individuals are seen over the course of any analytic 20 Moderator: Heinz B€ oker (Germany). Panellists: Ulrich Barhke (Germany), Laura Bohleber (Switzerland & Germany), Holger Himmighofen v(Switzerland), David Taylor (UK), Heinz Weiss (Germany).

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