Michele Minolli

Bio: Michele Minolli is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Self & Countertransference. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 3 publications receiving 28 citations.

Identity and relational psychoanalysis

Abstract: The author discusses the topic of identity in psychoanalysis. He underlines the lack of interest among analysts in exploring this concept. He wonders what the difference is between Identity and the Freudian Ego, and between Identity and the Self. Having in the past been explained in its connection to the Object and to the Self through identification and narcissism, Identity should be conceived as the process of self‐mirroring today, which is the result of the subject's experience in his relationship with the other and of the incidence of a self‐reflective function. Regarding the human being as a system, this implies a tendency to recognise oneself. Instead of thinking about identity as a psychological instance or a conceptual alternative to the Ego or of the Self, it can be conceptualised as a specific feature of the human system, which is at the basis of individual psychological development.

Solving the problems of duality: the third and self-consciousness.

Abstract: Locating the concept of the third in the debate about countertransference that began in the 1950s, the authors maintain that it originated to solve problems stemming from the recognition that the analytic encounter takes place between two individual subjects. This recognition can lead to discomfort for the analyst, once objective criteria to interpret reality have been lost due to adhesion to a dialectical constructionist perspective; it also implies a deeper involvement arising from the abandonment of neutrality. The concept of the third is often invoked to help avoid these risks. However, the authors maintain that only the human subject itself can grasp the self reflexively; this view has a referent in the Hegelian concept of self-consciousness and is also supported by the findings of infant research.

The Analyst's Participation in the Process

Abstract: Using a clinical vignette, in which self-disclosure appears as a starting point, the authors investigate the connection between method and techniques. As the recent literature on the subject generally maintains, the classical analysts' neutral position can no longer be accepted. Analysts are always fully engaged in the intersubjective relationship and pass their values on to their patients through their professional roles - which can be understood as self-disclosure in a wider meaning. However, self-disclosure, and in more general terms the analyst's participation in the process, need technical criteria of reference. By deepening the relationship between method and techniques, established by Rapaport, the authors maintain that method is determined by theory and in turn gives meaning to techniques. As a consequence, techniques play a minor role with regard to theory and method. The opening of psychoanalysis to the relational perspective is bringing about the decrease of technique as an absolute value in fa...

Childhood and Society.

Abstract: Erik Eriksen is a remarkable individual. He has no college degrees yet is Professor of Human Development at Harvard University. He came to psychology via art, which explains why the reader will find him painting contexts and backgrounds rather than stating dull facts and concepts. He has been a training psychoanalyst for many years as well as a perceptive observer of cultural and social settings and their effect on growing up. This is not just a book on childhood. It is a panorama of our society. Anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war, and arrogance in young Nazis are scrutinized under the psychoanalytic magnifying glass. The material is well written and devoid of technical jargon. The theme of the volume is that it is human to have a long childhood which will leave a lifelong residue of emotional immaturity in man. Primitive groups and

Organizational Change and the Analytic Third: Locating and Attending to Unconscious Organizational Psychodynamics

Abstract: This article examines the concept of the analytic third in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed organizational change. The analytic third is often defined as the psychological (triangular) space between self and other, subject and object, fantasy and reality – the third dimension that emerges from two persons fully engaged in the exploration of unconscious meanings, reasons, motives and actions. In neo-Kleinian object relations, it is viewed as the intersubjective dimension of transference and counter-transference, or the emergence in analytic work of the observation and experience of “I-as-subject” and “Me-as-object” (Ogden, 1994). The analytic third is what we create when we make genuine contact with one another at a deeper emotional level of experience whether in dyads, groups, communities, or organizations. It might be understood as akin to but not synonymous with Winnicott's (1971) notion of the transitional and potential space, where culture, play, creativity and imagination, reside. A case illustration is provided to better articulate the nature of the analytic third in the processes of observing, participating, and intervening in organizations.