Psychoanalytic Excavation

A Look at What Lies beneath the Surface of Human Behavior and Motivation

by Dr. Prudence Gourguechon, MD

Ten Reasons to Support Gay Marriage

President Obama took a stand yesterday in favor of the right of same sex couples to marry. Politically, it probably wasn’t necessary. He would have gotten the votes of the vast majority of people who support marriage equality even if he didn’t endorse it. But he did the right thing morally, and he did the right thing for the mental health of the country. Read More

Superbowl XLVI Ads: A Biopsy of the American Mind

Each year, companies spend a fortune to buy advertising time during the Superbowl game. They aim to make the biggest impact of the year and to cement powerful connections and images that will lead to vital consumer buying decisions. To accomplish that aim the creators of the ads know they have to engage the viewers on an emotional level. Read More

A Pretty Boring Dangerous Method

I apologize in advance. But I can't take it anymore. I freely admit this is not at all a timely posting. I'm just hoping to get my intense aggravation with the Cialis bathtubs finally out of my system. I hoped it would go away. But it hasn't, and now I hope this post will do the trick.

So here goes (better late than never): What's with the bathtubs? Read More

Why we CAN'T know why they did it

What does Alexander Hamilton have in common with Anthony Weiner? A lot. And why is it impossible for us to know why they do what they do? Read More

Super Bowl XLV: What do the ads tell us about ourselves?

Chrysler soars with a hymn to Detroit, Pepsi tells us we're a bunch of craven dopes Read More

Three Rules to Live By--Just in Time for the Holidays

Answering three questions and a little emotional creativity can help you make difficult social decisions and avoid obsessional, guilt ridden, self neglecting or selfish decisions. Read More

Madmen: Don and Peggy take on the Excruciating Necessity of "Being Known"

I think Madmen is an amazing TV show. The 60's shtick is simultaneously fun, painful and interesting. It is disconcerting and intriguing to think that I am more or less Sally Draper's contemporary. I actually remember having a recurrent fantasy when I was just around her age. Read More

So why is the Gores' separation so unsettling?

The Gores marital split up evokes predictable emotional reactions in those of us hearing the news. Our reactions are transference phenomena that say nothing about the Gores, but some interesting things about us. Read More

Shooting in Alabama: Stress does not cause Massacres

Once again, a horrific story about a mass shooting is in the news-Alabama Biologist Amy Bishop allegedly shot and killed three colleagues and wounded three others.

Every story in the media I've seen so far mentions the fact that she was recently denied tenure. This is an experience likely to lead to feelings of anger, humiliation, shame, and resentment in any human being. Read More

The Castrating Woman: Rising from the Unconscious at the Superbowl

Yikes. The Superbowl hadn't even made it to half time yet. But the ads already told a strange story about the nation's collective psyche. Read More

The Military's Closet

President Obama's State of the Union speech on Wednesday, as well as a strong editorial in today's New York Times, both call for the end of the pernicious policy in force in the military since 1993 known as "don't ask, don't tell". The psychological damage caused by this regulation is serious and supports the need for a reversal of the policy. Read More

Ground breaking study of efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy

Something stunning has just occurred in the psychology literature. The premier journal in psychology, The American Psychologist, has just published (February, 2010) an article by University of Colorado researcher Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D. Read More

Psychoanalysis at school in Cicero, IL

Fundamentally, psychoanalysis is about a commitment--no matter who inconvenient or how wierd in the eyes of others--to the inner world as a source of illness and healing both. A program for troubled teens in cicero Illinois demonstrates a radical and exciting application of this commitment. Read More

Evidence Basis for "Evidenced Based"?

We need to be careful with the logic we apply to using the results of evidenced based studies about treatment. Read More

The Meaning of Dreams and Do Dreams have Meaning

One of my morning patients on Tuesday reported a dream in which three approaches to solving a problem were portrayed-one avoidant, one excessively aggressive, and the third a strong but tempered and effective response. Of course the dream itself, as dreams do, conveyed these ideas with vivid images and a rather extreme story line. Read More

Fort Hood: Looking for meaning when there is none

Our human desire for meaning and explanation is a good thing, but when there is a void of meaning or explanation, it can push us into dangerous territory. We hate not knowing why something happened, but it is better that we tolerate the tension of not knowing than find ourselves making up false stories of causation that can do much harm. Read More

Prudence Gourguechon, M.D., is immediate past President of the American Psychoanalytic Association. She has a clinical and consulting practice in Chicago.

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About Psychoanalytic Excavation

The blog is my attempt to take the psychoanalytic couch out of the office and "on the road". I use the psychoanalytic concepts of the unconscious mind, transference, affect regulation, defense and development to understand a wide range of human affairs—in the news, politics, the media, etc. My intent is always to reach a better answer to the question that has always inspired and dogged me, "why do people do what they do?"