{"id":1114,"date":"2026-05-23T22:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T20:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2026-05-26T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:09:08","slug":"%f0%9f%a7%a0-inhibition-symptom-and-anxiety-a-hundred-years-later-a-report-from-the-ptpa-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/blog\/2026\/05\/23\/%f0%9f%a7%a0-inhibition-symptom-and-anxiety-a-hundred-years-later-a-report-from-the-ptpa-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83e\udde0 Inhibition, Symptom and Anxiety \u2013 A Hundred Years Later \u2013 A Report from the PTPa Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\ud83e\udde0 Inhibition, Symptom and Anxiety \u2013 A Hundred Years Later \u2013 A Report from the PTPa Conference<\/h1><\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t
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.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 23 May 2026, the Main Auditorium of the Warsaw School of Economics became the venue for an exceptional gathering of psychoanalysts and friends of psychoanalysis, which Barbara S\u0142awik attended for the third time. The Polish Psychoanalytic Society<\/strong> organised a conference devoted to the centenary of one of Sigmund Freud’s most important works –\u00a0Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety<\/em>\u00a0(1926). The anniversary event provided an opportunity to reflect on what remains alive in Freud’s theory of anxiety, what has gained new support from empirical research, and what calls for revision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\udf1f Special Guests<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Prof. Dr Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber \ud83e\uddec Signal Anxiety, Embodied Memories and Trauma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Training data analyst Psychoanalyst and training member of the German Psychoanalytic Society (DPV), member of the IPA, and a distinguished researcher bridging psychoanalysis with cognitive science and neuroscience. Moderator: Justyna Paw\u0142owska.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Leuzinger-Bohleber offered a far-reaching reinterpretation of Freud’s concept of signal anxiety in light of contemporary neuropsychology and trauma research. The central theme of the lecture was\u00a0embodied memories<\/strong>\u00a0– traces of past experiences stored not only in the mind but in the body – and their role in the development and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and psychosomatic conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freud described signal anxiety as a warning function of the ego – the signal arises in response to threat and activates defence mechanisms before the psyche becomes overwhelmed. The speaker showed that contemporary neurobiology confirms this logic: the amygdala responds to threat faster than consciousness can process it, which corresponds to Freud’s description of the automatic triggering of defence. In the case of trauma – particularly early childhood trauma – the signal becomes dysregulated: the body sounds the alarm even when no objective threat is present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speaker drew on findings from longitudinal studies on the effectiveness of psychoanalysis in treating chronic post-traumatic conditions, demonstrating that the method is especially effective precisely where trauma has been encoded not verbally but somatically. Embodied memories – movement patterns, muscular tensions, autonomic responses – require analytic work that reaches beyond language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly moving was the thread concerning children who experienced neglect or violence in early childhood and who – though they often have no conscious memory of these events – carry them in their bodies throughout their adult lives. Leuzinger-Bohleber argued compellingly that psychoanalysis – through the therapeutic relationship, affect regulation, and work on transference – can create a space in which these embodied traces of trauma may at last be worked through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 Paul Denis \ud83d\udd0d Inhibition, Isolation, Splitting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Training and supervising analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society, member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). Moderator: Jakub Bobrzy\u0144ski.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Denis took up the theme of three key defence mechanisms described by Freud in 1926, analysing their interrelations and clinical consequences. The central concept of the lecture was\u00a0psychic reality<\/strong>\u00a0– the patient’s subjective inner world, governed by its own logic, independent of external facts – and the question of how this reality is constituted by defence mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speaker carefully distinguished the three titular mechanisms from one another and from repression.\u00a0Inhibition<\/strong> concerns the functions of the ego – action, thinking, sexuality – and is a response to anxiety, yet does not produce a symptom.\u00a0Isolation<\/strong>\u00a0separates content from its associated affect: the thought remains accessible to consciousness but is stripped of its emotional charge, which Denis illustrated with examples from obsessional neurosis.\u00a0Splitting<\/strong>, by contrast, destroys the coherence of the ego – contradictory representations coexist without interacting, preventing integration and the continuity of experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Particularly interesting was the section devoted to castration anxiety – one of the fundamental anxieties organising the human psyche. The speaker argued that the fear of castration is not merely an archaic artefact of Freudian theory but a living clinical concept: it expresses the subject’s fundamental vulnerability to the demand of the Other, the fear of losing what is constitutive of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lecture closed with a reflection on the continuing relevance of the Freudian project: although language and cultural context have changed, the three mechanisms – inhibition, isolation, and splitting – remain the everyday reality of the analytic consulting room. Paul Denis emphasised that their precise differentiation carries significant clinical consequences: an accurate diagnosis of the operative defence mechanism determines the strategy and direction of therapeutic work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcac Discussion Panel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day closed with a wide-ranging panel discussion featuring Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Paul Denis, Justyna Paw\u0142owska, and Jakub Bobrzy\u0144ski. The conversation gave participants the opportunity for direct dialogue with the speakers – including around the points of tension between the two lectures: the neurobiological approach versus classical structural theory, empirical research versus clinical observation, and the present day versus the legacy of 1926.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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from the left: Barbara S\u0142awik, Maryna Kotynia, Emilia Stempla, Aga Szczypior-Bulanda, Justyna Dworczyk<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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from the left:<\/em> Beata Bereza-Jab\u0142onowska, Magdalena Piekarska, Barbara S\u0142awik<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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from the left:<\/em> Barbara S\u0142awik, Marzena Skrocka<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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from the left:<\/em> Barbara S\u0142awik, Justyna Dworczyk, Marzena Skrocka<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud83e\udde0 Inhibition, Symptom and Anxiety \u2013 A Hundred Years Later \u2013 A Report from the PTPa Conference . On 23 May 2026, the Main Auditorium of the Warsaw School of Economics became the venue for an exceptional gathering of psychoanalysts and friends of psychoanalysis, which Barbara S\u0142awik attended for the third time. The Polish Psychoanalytic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalia.pl\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}