title: The controversial discussions and après-coup.
abstract: The author suggests a distinction between what is descriptively named après-coup, and what is dynamically identified as après-coup. This parallels Freud's distinction between the descriptive unconscious and the dynamic unconscious in the topographical model of the mind. The descriptive après-coup refers to the way in which the concept has found a use, especially but not only in the French literature, to refer to retrospective signification in the moment-to-moment progress of a session. The author outlines dynamic après-coup and she suggests it is at the core of Freudian metapsychology. Dynamic après-coup establishes a link between trauma, castration, repetition compulsion, sexuality and temporality in the context of the transference.
authors.affiliation: London, UK. rperelberg@perelberg.com
authors.forename: Rosine Jozef
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Perelberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015984:Causality; D004325:Dreams; D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012043:Regression, Psychology; D014167:Transference, Psychology; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology