Showing papers in "Psychoanalytic Quarterly in 2004"
TL;DR: Clinically, the concept of a co-created or shared intersubjective thirdness helps to elucidate the breakdown into the twoness of complementarity in impasses and enactments and suggests how recognition is restored through surrender.
Abstract: Analytic work based on the intersubjective view of two participating subjectivities requires discipline rooted in an orientation to the structural conditions of thirdness. The author proposes a theory that includes an early form of thirdness involving union experiences and accommodation, called the one in the third, as well as later moral and symbolic forms of thirdness that introduce differentiation, the third in the one. Clinically, the concept of a co-created or shared intersubjective thirdness helps to elucidate the breakdown into the twoness of complementarity in impasses and enactments and suggests how recognition is restored through surrender.
924 citations
TL;DR: The author conceives of projective identification as a form of the analytic third in which the individual subjectivities of analyst and analysand are subjugated to a co-created third subject of analysis.
Abstract: The author views the analytic enterprise as centrally involving an effort on the part of the analyst to track the dialectical movement of individual subjectivity (of analyst and analysand) and intersubjectivity (the jointly created unconscious life of the analytic pair--the analytic third). In Part I of this paper, the author discusses clinical material in which he relies heavily on his reverie experiences to recognize and verbally symbolize what is occurring in the analytic relationship at an unconscious level. In Part II, the author conceives of projective identification as a form of the analytic third in which the individual subjectivities of analyst and analysand are subjugated to a co-created third subject of analysis. Successful analytic work involves a superseding of the subjugating third by means of mutual recognition of analyst and analysand as separate subjects and a reap-propriation of their (transformed) individual subjectivities.
273 citations
TL;DR: The author reviews his ideas on subjectivity, objectivity, and the third position in the psychoanalytic encounter, particularly in clinical work with borderline and narcissistic patients, and describes his concept of triangular space.
Abstract: The author reviews his ideas on subjectivity, objectivity, and the third position in the psychoanalytic encounter, particularly in clinical work with borderline and narcissistic patients. Using the theories of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion as a basis, the author describes his concept of triangular space. A case presentation of a particular type of narcissistic patient illustrates the principles discussed.
154 citations
TL;DR: Three usages of the idea of thirdness are delineated and contrasted with the concept of the relational unconscious, which, it is suggested, has the advantage of being both consistent with existing views of unconscious processes and more directly applicable to therapeutic concerns.
Abstract: The relational unconscious is the fundamental structuring property of each interpersonal relation; it permits, as well as constrains, modes of engagement specific to that dyad and influences individual subjective experience within the dyad. Three usages of the concept of thirdness are delineated and contrasted with the concept of the relational unconscious, which, it is suggested, has the advantage of being both consistent with existing views of unconscious processes and more directly applicable to therapeutic concerns. Enactments and intersubjective resistances are viewed as clinical manifestations of the relational unconscious, and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis results, in part, from altering the structure of the relational unconscious that binds analysand and analyst.
119 citations
TL;DR: The author discusses some of the elaborative contributions of Winnicott, Lacan, and Bion, as well as the ideas of Saussure and Peirce, noting how all these incorporate an appreciation of the value and relevance of thirdness in both the theory and practice of psychoanalysis.
Abstract: Many psychoanalytic concepts lend themselves to the notion of thirdness. Starting from a basis of Freudian thought, the author discusses some of the elaborative contributions of Winnicott, Lacan, and Bion, as well as the ideas of Saussure and Peirce, noting how all these incorporate an appreciation of the value and relevance of thirdness in both the theory and practice of psychoanalysis.
71 citations
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TL;DR: Various aspects of the occult as they relate to psychoanalysis are discussed in this article, including the concept of co-thinking and its manifestations in clinical work.
Abstract: Various aspects of the occult as they relate to psychoanalysis are discussed in this article. Drawing on both Freud's writings and Granoff and Rey's (1983) work on the occult in Freudian thought, the author considers the concept of co-thinking and its manifestations in clinical work. The psychoanalytic third is viewed in the context of the occult element known as thought transference, or thought transmission, and is also considered as it bears on psychoanalytic supervision.
40 citations
TL;DR: In three analytic cases, the authors found significant correlations between core analytic activities and patient productivity immediately following the intervention, but only if it had been skillfully carried out.
Abstract: Skillful psychoanalytic technique presumably involves knowing what to say, and when and how to say it. Does skillful technique have a positive impact upon the patient? The study described in this article relied on ratings by experienced psychoanalysts using the Analytic Process Scales (APS), a research instrument for assessing recorded psychoanalyses, in order to examine analytic interventions and patient productivity (greater understanding, affective engagement in the analytic process, and so on). In three analytic cases, the authors found significant correlations between core analytic activities (e.g., interpretation of defenses, transference, and conflicts) and patient productivity immediately following the intervention, but only if it had been skillfully carried out. Findings were independently replicated by psychology interns.
34 citations
TL;DR: For narcissistic patients, primitive fantasies of the imaginer and imagined form an enduring organization, and the enactment of these fantasies in transference and countertransference distorts the way analyst and patient construct meaning as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A transference of the imaginer and the imagined, arising from largely unconscious fantasies of the way parent and child interact to construct a view of reality, is present in all analyses. For narcissistic patients, primitive fantasies of the imaginer and imagined form an enduring organization, and the enactment of these fantasies in transference and countertransference distorts the way analyst and patient construct meaning. Clinical material demonstrates the deepening that occurs when these fantasies are interpreted.
28 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that a kind of narcissistic pathology featuring perverse sexuality may occur in the absence of paternal availability and in the presence of a disordered relationship between the parents, and also suggested that the ways in which aggression is or is not modulated and organized are crucial components of this evolving disorder.
Abstract: The author advances the hypothesis that paternal availability and the relationship between the mother and father are crucial components of evolving character structure in children. He proposes that a kind of narcissistic pathology featuring perverse sexuality may eventuate in the absence of paternal availability and in the presence of a disordered relationship between the parents. He also suggests that the ways in which aggression is or is not modulated and organized are crucial components of this evolving disorder, and that boys are more susceptible to its full manifestation and expression than are girls.
26 citations
CEMA1
TL;DR: The Third: a Brief Historical Analysis of an Idea The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol 73, No 1, pp 267-290 as mentioned in this paper, was published in 2004, and is based on the work of as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: (2004) The Third: a Brief Historical Analysis of an Idea The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol 73, No 1, pp 267-290
25 citations
TL;DR: The authors go on to discuss the many gradients of the analyst's mental functioning, and these are mirrored in the patient's text, an indication of attunement.
Abstract: The authors discuss the position of the analyst as an individual and the idea that his mental functioning can be seen as a meaningful element of the analytic field. The first part of the article shows the importance of the analyst's self-analysis, with particular attention to periods when the analyst is facing a difficult time, self-analysis in supervision, and the exploration of transgenerational influences. The authors go on to discuss the many gradients of the analyst's mental functioning, and these are mirrored in the patient's text, an indication of attunement.
TL;DR: Using detailed clinical vignettes, the author illustrates how the analyst's fantasy of the ideal patient can be used to advance an analysis at the same time as it fuels mutual resistances.
Abstract: Using detailed clinical vignettes, the author illustrates how the analyst's fantasy of the ideal patient can be used to advance an analysis at the same time as it fuels mutual resistances. The author suggests that all analysts carry with them a fantasy of the ideal patient that varies from analyst to analyst and from school to school. Such fantasies are often related to images of an ideal flee-associative process. They are for the most part descriptively unconscious, becoming conscious only when prompted by the clinical moment. As such, they are part of a countertransference, broadly defined, that is responsive to both the analyst's and the patient's conflictual life.
TL;DR: The author discusses other models relevant to clinical work, including the analytic-therapeutic position, the internal analyst, the alive analytic contact, and the phobic position, which forms the basis for further discussion of the internal analytic working process.
Abstract: The development of a third position is a key aspect of the analyst's ability to survive in the analytic relationship. In exploring the value of the third position, the author discusses other models relevant to clinical work, including the analytic-therapeutic position, the internal analyst, the alive analytic contact, and the phobic position. A case example illustrates these models and forms the basis for further discussion of the internal analytic working process.
TL;DR: An in-depth account of a clinical path to forgiveness following a complicated, delayed mourning of an early loss by a man now entering old age is provided.
Abstract: This paper provides an in-depth account of a clinical path to forgiveness following a complicated, delayed mourning of an early loss by a man now entering old age. The search for mourning and forgiveness in light of extreme bitterness in advancing age is highlighted. Despite the intimate connection between mourning and forgiveness, this paper attempts to highlight important differences in their dynamics and psychological aims. Forgiveness is conceived as work, unconsciously motivated, to safeguard and complement the psychological gains of mourning. The distinct features of forgiveness facilitating psychic reorganization, as well as the adaptive function of refusal to forgive as a defense against melancholia, are discussed. The paper concludes that in this case, the motivation for forgiveness was to repair a powerful narcissistic injury.
TL;DR: The author demonstrates how a generative self- Analytic experience may be accomplished through the medium of psychoanalytic writing: a fictional autobiographical form of writing through which a self-analytic experience is created that has much in common with the analytic experience created by the analyst and analysand.
Abstract: Beginning with Freud, psychoanalysts have discovered media through which they may achieve a self-analytic experience (for example, by use of dreams, fantasies, reveries, memories, and even visual images). Each of these media is a kind of "fiction" created by the analyst that provides an imaginative space where he or she may gain access to unconscious life. The author demonstrates how a generative self-analytic experience may be accomplished through the medium of psychoanalytic writing: a fictional autobiographical form of writing through which a self-analytic experience is created that has much in common with the analytic experience created by the analyst and analysand.
TL;DR: A study that investigated what three- and four-year-old girls and boys know about the link between genital difference and gender difference by asking them to construct both a girl doll and a boy doll, using any of an assortment of anatomical features, including both male and female genitals.
Abstract: The author describes a study that investigated what three- and four-year-old girls and boys know about the link between genital difference and gender difference by asking them to construct both a girl doll and a boy doll, using any of an assortment of anatomical features, including both male and female genitals. The results were interpreted as supporting the assumption of a normal early developmental period of psychological bisexuality; as contradicting the theory that when genital difference is discovered, girls are more distressed than boys about their genitals; and as evidence that both girls and boys envy the genital of the opposite sex.
TL;DR: The analyst's trust participates in therapeutic action--through the analyst's emotional openness, "unobjectionable positive counter-transference" (see Fox 1998), the holding environment, and the promoting of adaptive internalizations, among other ways.
Abstract: The analyst's trust, a neglected topic in psychoanalytic discourse, participates in therapeutic action--through the analyst's emotional openness, "unobjectionable positive counter-transference" (see Fox 1998), the holding environment, and the promoting of adaptive internalizations, among other ways. When the analyst's trust--in the patient, in the analyst's self, and/or in the psychoanalytic process--fails, crucial interactions may occur, capable of destroying treatment, or alternatively, of restoring mutual regulatory functions and potentially leading to important mutative processes. Patients benefit from analysts' becoming sensitive to, having useful ways of thinking about, and working with their states of trust and distrust. The author presents clinical examples to illustrate these points.
TL;DR: It is maintained that only the human subject itself can grasp the self reflexively; this view has ant in the Hegelian concept of self-consciousness and is supported by the findings of infant research.
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.
TL;DR: Psychosomatic illness as a disorder of the individual's subjectivity in relation, or a surrender of mind and mindfulness to the other is discussed, with particular attention paid to the form and use of language.
Abstract: This paper discusses psychosomatic illness as a disorder of the individual's subjectivity in relation, or a surrender of mind and mindfulness to the other. Illustrative clinical material highlights the usefulness of Harry Stack Sullivan's (I954) detailed inquiry in locating the psychosomatic patient's own voice in the consulting room. Particular attention is paid to the form and use of language to impede or foster private experience and personal agency.
TL;DR: The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through, and proposes that play can be thought of as not merely symbolic, as aantasy bearer, so to speak, but as a fantasy tester as well.
Abstract: The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be thought of as not merely symbolic, as a fantasy bearer, so to speak, but as a fantasy tester as well. In the process of working through, some analysands attach their unconscious fantasies not only to a transference object, a primary libidinal object, or a significant loved one, but also to actual props within the analytic setting (a Kleenex box, for example), making the analogy with play even more obvious and palpable. Language: en
TL;DR: The analyst's countertransference in work with such patients is discussed in depth, including its use as a unique window into the patient's inner world.
Abstract: Following a brief discussion of the primary types of psychotic transferences, viewed from a theoretical position combining ego psychology with an object relations approach, the author presents detailed clinical material illustrating these transferences. The analyst's countertransference in work with such patients is also discussed in depth, including its use as a unique window into the patient's inner world.
TL;DR: Material from the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a patient with breast cancer demonstrates the emergence of constructive meaning in areas of psychological experience burdened by conflicts regarding the dimension of time and faith.
Abstract: Material from the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a patient with breast cancer demonstrates the emergence of constructive meaning in areas of psychological experience burdened by conflicts regarding the dimension of time and faith. During analytic work, the spontaneous appearance of religious metaphors revealed deeper layers of memory where time, faith, language, and the sense of being listened to once interacted in ways whose significance could be conceptualized, with the help of the countertransference, as a rediscovery of a hearing breast, or even a sacred hearing breast. Implications for the psychoanalysis of religious experience are discussed.
TL;DR: The author attempts to conceive psychic trauma as a coalescence of traumas, since this is perhaps the only way to prevent a subject from being forced back into identification with the catastrophic event, whatever that may have been.
Abstract: Drawing on the writings of Primo Levi and the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan, the author attempts to conceive psychic trauma as a coalescence of traumas, since this is perhaps the only way to prevent a subject from being forced back into identification with the catastrophic event, whatever that may have been. A recurrent dream of Primo Levi's suggests to the author the way that traumas may have coalesced within Levi. The hope would be to restore the entire significance of what remains from that traumatic event to the speech (parole) of the Other, to the speech of every human, even the most helpless, bruised, or destroyed among us.
TL;DR: The author describes an adolescent patient who, while often speaking factual truths, maintained an aura of falsity in her life, and in two interludes of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, that functioned as a barrier to psychological insight.
Abstract: The author describes an adolescent patient who, while often speaking factual truths, maintained an aura of falsity in her life, and in two interludes of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, that functioned as a barrier to psychological insight. To match her falsity, the analyst at times modified his functioning as a "real" therapist and took on her personification of neglectful and false adults. Eventually, the analyst became an object that the adolescent could trust and rely on. In discussing the case, the author introduces and applies Bion's ideas regarding truth and falsity, and three variations of container-contained relationships-symbiotic, commensal, and parasitic-in the context of the case's relational perspective.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss creativity and psychodynamics in the context of psychoanalytic journal The Psychoanalyst's Quarterly: Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 511-515.
Abstract: (2004). Creativity and Psychodynamics. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 511-515.
TL;DR: In this paper, who owns the countertransference is discussed in the context of psychoanalytic countertransferences, and the authors propose an approach to counter-transference.
Abstract: (2004). Who Owns the Countertransference? The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 517-523.
TL;DR: The author uses the life and personal history of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, as revealed through her diaries and letters and in biographies, to illustrate a particular type of psychoanalytic patient.
Abstract: The author uses the life and personal history of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, as revealed through her diaries and letters and in biographies, to illustrate a particular type of psychoanalytic patient. Such patients are resistant to change, particularly when it involves letting go of the internalization of early parental figures. Although some of these patients fail to achieve successful analytic outcomes, Millay is an example of someone with similar circumstances who nevertheless made significant creative contributions.
TL;DR: In this article, a commentary on Lombardi's "Three Psychoanalytic Sessions" is presented, with a focus on the authorship of Lombardi and the three sessions.
Abstract: (2004). Commentary on Dr. Riccardo Lombardi’s “Three Psychoanalytic Sessions”. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 793-799.