IPU Spotlight

In der ARTE-Reihe „42 – Die Antwort auf fast alles“ ist IPU-Professorin Benigna Gerisch in der Folge „Optimieren wir uns in den Wahnsinn?“ zu sehen. Darin spricht sie über die psychischen Folgen von gesellschaftlichem Perfektions- und Leistungsdruck und ordnet die kulturelle Bedeutung von Selbstoptimierung aus psychoanalytischer Perspektive ein. Die Folge ist in der ARTE-Mediathek abrufbar. Prof. Dr. Benigna Gerisch hat in mehreren Forschungsprojekten zur Selbstoptimierung geforscht – zuletzt in Kooperation Prof. Dr. Vera King und Prof. Dr. Hartmut Rosa im Projekt „Das vermessene Leben“.

„Marilyn Monroe’s Last Session“, ein Stück von IPU-Professor Andreas Hamburger und Dr. Vivian Pramatarov-Hamburger, wird am Nationaltheater Sofia aufgeführt. Gegenstand ist die letzte Begegnung zwischen Marilyn Monroe und ihrem Psychoanalytiker Ralph Greenson am Abend vor Marilyns Tod; das Stück lotet aus, was zwischen den beiden in dieser Stunde geschehen sein könnte. Dabei wird auch eine kleine psychoanalytische Hypothese in den Raum gestellt, die hier jedoch noch nicht verraten werden darf. Für alle, die des Bulgarischen nicht mächtig sind, haben die Aufführungen am 15., 16. und 17. September englische Untertitel.

Mit einem von der International Psychoanalytic Association vergebenen Forschungspreis wurde ein gemeinsames Paper von IPU-WiMi Simon Kempe, dem IPU-Lehrbeauftragten Werner Köpp und IPU-Professor Lutz Wittmann ausgezeichnet. In dem hier in voller Länge verfügbaren Beitrag befassen sich die Autoren mit positiven Effekten von steigender Emotionsregulation in Träumen im Verlauf von Psychotherapien.

Die Ergebnisse der an der IPU Berlin gemeinsam unter anderem mit dem Sigmund-Freud-Institut Frankfurt und der Universität Jena durchgeführten Studie »Das vermessene Leben« sind jetzt auch der englischsprachigen Fachöffentlichkeit in kondensierter Form verfügbar. Im Routledge-Verlag haben die IPU-Professorin Benigna Gerisch (Studienleiterin an der IPU), die Co-Leiterin der Studie und IPU-Stiftungsratsmitglied Vera King sowie der Co-Leiter Hartmut Rosa den Band »The Measured Life in the Digital Age: Optimisation by Numbers« herausgegeben. Der hier verfügbare Sammelband zeigt, wie die wachsende Ausrichtung auf digitale Kennzahlen und Optimierung Arbeit und Organisationen, Beziehungen in sozialen Medien und körperliches Self-Tracking prägt, welche Anreize und Risiken daraus für Kultur, Psyche und Gesellschaft entstehen und wie sich dadurch die kulturell definierten Grenzen zwischen Normalität und Pathologie verschieben.

Am 20. September 2025 findet an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf der Tag der Akademie unter dem Titel »SEHNSUCHT & SINNSUCHE – Was sagt die Psychoanalyse dazu?« statt; IPU-Seniorprofessor Martin Teising und IPU-Professorin Annette Streeck-Fischer halten dort Vorträge. Zudem spricht Martin Teising auf der EPCUS-Konferenz »Loss and Hope« der European Psychoanalytical Federation (EPF) in Brüssel und online vom 2.–4. Oktober 2025 und lädt im Namen der EPF dazu ein; die Tagung beleuchtet aus psychoanalytischer Perspektive die Zusammenhänge von Verlust und Hoffnung in Zeiten technischer Umbrüche, Konflikten und ökologischer Krisen.

IPU professor Leonie Kampe has published a new book in the series Analysis of the Psyche and Psychotherapy by Psychosozialverlag. Entitled Abwehr (Defense), she examines this psychodynamic concept from a historical and developmental perspective. In this compact work, availabe here, Kampe concludes by highlighting the significance of the concept for clinical practice and explaining individual defense formations using examples.

In an interview with the youngest participant of the Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance 2024, she also talks about the KSG Leadership Day, which took place at the IPU as part of the Summer School, and has nothing but praise for it. “We were invited to rethink what kind of leadership our times actually need: not just strategic or visionary, but psychologically aware,” summarizes Joya Elias, then manager at the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law in Malta, in the interview, which can be read in full here.

IPU professor Christine Kirchhoff was interviewed on Deutschlandfunk Kultur about reports of women being attacked with syringes. In the interview, which can be listened to here, she explains the impact of such actual attacks, as well as those that are merely announced and/or reported in the media.

IPU-Professor Andreas Hamburger hat in einer Online-Vorlesung an der New Yorker Columbia University zwei der im Jahr 2023 am breitesten rezipierten Filme besprochen. Auf Einladung der dortigen Professorin und Psychoanalytikerin Adele Tutter sprach er im psychoanalytischen Studienprogramm des Instituts für vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft und Gesellschaft zu Verbindungslinien zwischen den Werken Anatomie eines Falls und The Zone of Interest. Einen Mitschnitt der Vorlesung finden Sie hier.

More or less work, lazy or overworked? Thomas Kühn added the scientific perspective to the discussion about the realities of working life in Germany on rbb24 – Der Talk. The program can be viewed in full here. Topics included the four-day week, questions about work-life balance, and the quality of work being carried out today. In the program, hosted by Volker Wieprecht, Thomas Kühn's guests were DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi and Christina Diem-Puello, president of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs.

Rolf Haubl, former director of the Sigmund Freud Institute and professor of sociology and psychoanalytic social psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt, has passed away. Rolf Haubl had close ties to the IPU Berlin. He helped establish the master's program in psychodynamically based organizational development (now MA Leadership and Counseling) and played a key role in shaping it with his wealth of experience as a training analyst, supervisor, and organizational consultant. The IPU Berlin will miss Rolf Haubl as a valued colleague and friend to many. Read the obituary from the SFI Frankfurt/Main here.

Christina von Braun, a cultural theorist closely associated with the IPU both in terms of content and, in the past, as an advisory board member, has published the book Kampf ums Unbewusste (The Struggle for the Unconscious) together with psychoanalyst Tilo Held. In this work, available here, the two take a sharp look at the negative dimensions of unconscious dynamics that shape our social coexistence—whether in the form of anti-Semitism and authoritarian tendencies, in debates about gender roles, or in dealing with fake news and conspiracy narratives. They look at the past two hundred years and ask how an interdisciplinary approach to psychoanalysis can help us better understand and overcome the current social crises.

Philip Jammermann wrote a review of Michael Schüßler's book “Die Sprachen des Leibes und die Leiblichkeit der Sprache” (The languages of the body and the corporeality of language). He is studying in the bachelor's program in Psychology at the IPU and was given the opportunity to contribute his text to the special edition of “Constelaciones. Revista de Teoría Crítica” on the topic of ‘Gender Relations, Sexuality and Capitalism in Critical Social Theory’. In the review, which can be read in full here, he emphasizes as a central strength that Schüßler brings Alfred Lorenzer and his combination of Marxism and psychoanalysis back into focus. On the other hand, Jammermann is critical of the fact that Schüßler thinks of gender and sexuality in traditional categories and ignores current theoretical trends in feminist subject philosophies. Furthermore, he believes that Schüßler's critique of Judith Butler is misguided. Despite these weaknesses, Jammermann recognizes Schüßler's contribution to the debate on corporeality and language.

Simon Kempe has been awarded the EFPP Research Award 2025 by the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (EFPP). With this award, the EFPP honors outstanding scientific work in the field of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Kempe's award-winning paper is part of his cumulative dissertation under the supervision of IPU professor Lutz Wittmann in the IPU research project on affect regulation in dreams in borderline personality disorders.

The IPU professor Christine Kirchhoff and her former research assistant Aaron Lahl have co-edited the recently published book “Laplanche kritisch wiedergelesen - Beiträge zu Körper, Sexualität und Verführung” (Critically Rereading Laplanche – Contributions on Body, Sexuality and Seduction). The volume, which is available here and in which IPU alumni Hauke Kromminga, Henning Lampe and Anna-Myrte Palatini as well as former IPU lecturer Udo Hock also contribute, discusses individual concepts and metaphors of Laplanche, ranging from the enthusiastic to the critical perspectives. The possible implications of his approach for cultural, sexual and gender theory are considered and comparisons are drawn with other metapsychologies, such as Kleinian.

At the beginning of the year, Johanna L. Klinge published an article in the multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal Development and Psychopathology. In the article, which is available in full here, the IPU research associate – together with IPU professor Annette Klein, among others – examines whether low self-regulation in children is a risk factor for or a consequence of internalizing symptoms, or whether both develop together along a common spectrum and can be traced back to common causes. Also in January, Johanna L. Klinge was selected for the Psychodynamic Research Mentorship Program, which is conducted as part of a collaboration between the Erikson Institute at the Austen Riggs Center and the Yale Child Study Center. As one of nine mentees, she will receive support from a mentor at University College London (UCL) and feedback from other international scientists for one year as part of the program. This is in relation to a psychodynamic research project currently underway at the IPU. Interested parties can find details of the program here.

IPU doctoral candidate Alina Brehm, together with IPU professor Phil Langer, has published an article on empathy in research processes in the Forum Qualitative Social Research. In the article (available here), they both examine the meaning and reflection of empathy in emotionally challenging research situations, especially in cases of seemingly “failed” empathy. They discuss methodological strategies for analyzing such encounters in order to demonstrate their epistemological relevance for critical knowledge production – with reference to the concept of “strong reflexivity”. Langer developed the latter together with his colleagues Angela Kühner and Andrea Ploder in 2016. They recently followed up on this with an article (available here) in the journal Psychologie & Gesellschaftskritik titled “It is professional to have feelings”. In this further development of the concept, they examine the interplay between reflexivity, the vulnerability of researchers and academic kindness in order to outline a relational research ethic and possible approaches to highly reflexive university teaching.

In the current issue of the art magazine Monopol, IPU student Alissa Geffert has reviewed the psychoanalytically inspired podcast Fashion Neurosis. In her article (which can be read in full here), Geffert not only sheds light on the format hosted by Sigmund Freud's great-granddaughter Bella Freud with regard to what it reveals about the host and guests, but also with regard to the question of whether it contributes to making psychoanalysis “fashionable”.

At the Motivational and Cognitive Neuroscience (MOCON) Lab IPU researchers explore the neuronal basis of complex human abilities, such as multitasking, prospective memory and cognitive control. Prof. Christine Stelzel is the Lab's principal investigator. Learn more about MOCON Lab on this website.