Hamlet and psychoanalytic experience

Hamlet draws us into its rendered world, enabling us to experience it with depth, awareness, and resonance, in a mode we recognize as aesthetic. By way of Shakespeare's play--primarily the first act--and a detailed case study, aesthetic and psychoanalytic experience are compared, to suggest that, for our own analytic discourse, we revalue Freud's unease that his case studies read like short stories.     

Transcending the caesura: the reading effects of Borges's fiction

This essay explores the assumption that the sense of perplexity and surprise that characterizes the reading of many of Borges's works of fiction is related to these stories' direct and explicit exposition of transitive thoughts transcending caesurae (Bion, 1977). Borges presents a world in which diverse and even contradictory points of view or interpretations coexist. These texts allow for paradox to be acknowledged and to remain unresolved. The author suggests that Borges's writing style, the form of his stories and essays, allows for the containment of the anxiety that the possibility of evolutionary change may create. Borges's works of fiction symbolize the paradoxical nature of the caesura: inner continuity where there appears to be a break After reviewing Bion's concepts of caesura and transcendence of caesura, the stylistic devices that Borges uses in relation to the coexistence of different perspectives or interpretations will be discussed. A psychoanalytical reading of Borges's Theme of the Traitor and the Hero and The South enriches the understanding of processes of failure and success in transcending caesurae. The relevance of the transcendence of the caesura for analytic listening is underscored.     

Delving into psychoanalytic texts: the notion of the reading third

In this article I introduce the notion of the reading third, which evolves during the reading process. The idea came to my mind while studying Wolfgang Iser’s theory of the reading process, and already knowing about Thomas Ogden’s concept of the analytic third: What is experienced, shaped and understood while reading a text? The notion of the reading third is based on psychoanalytic theory and method like just Ogden’s concept, and on the aesthetic response theory of Iser. Elaborating the reading third, I combine two modes of reading: one understanding and interpreting, and one floating and experiencing mode. To these modes I add two different understandings of truth. The first mode is connected to a traditional, objective and visible truth. The latter mode relies on Wilfred Bion’s concept of O, a special kind of evasive, ephemeral truth. The reading third takes and loses form as one reads, accentuating reading as a highly creative activity, where each reading elicits different understandings, experiences and truths. I give examples of such a way of reading psychoanalytic texts like those of Bion and a work of fiction, Henry James’ short novel The Turn of the Screw.     

Reconstruction and perceptual experience: further thoughts on psychoanalytic listening

Freud's monumental shift to the fantasy theory heralded the view that "it is psychical and not material reality" which is our sole domain of inquiry. Yet despite theoretical agreement and cogent technical admonitions against concerning ourselves with absolute or "external" truths, psychoanalytic listening betrays a stance in which the analyst attunes to a reality other than that of the patient's inner world, assuming the position of arbiter--even if a silent one--of what is or is not "distorted" in the patient's perceptual experience. The central impact of perception as a significant component of the patient's inner experience--past and present--goes unattended. Clinical examples from differing theoretical persuasions are reviewed to demonstrate this occurrence. An alternative mode of listening is considered which assumes an underlying shift in outlook, suspending any notion that we can "know" what is "correct" in the patient's perception, while sharpening attunement to its clinical impact--as may be evidenced by a shift in affect or state, a turn of phrase, or the transient appearance of a symptom or old behavior. It is argued that such a stance will lead to a more singular focus on the patient's psychic reality, permitting the emergence of a deepening realm of psychic phenomena, enhancing the capacity of self-observation, and richly facilitating the reconstructive process.     

Patients reading about themselves: a stimulus to psychoanalytic work

Patients' reading of their psychoanalysts' papers about them as a vehicle for psychoanalytic work is a relatively new phenomenon in the field. Over the past five years, reports of analysts' employment of their writing in this fashion have begun to appear in the analytic literature. This paper presents clinical illustrations of this specific use of analysts' writing. These illustrations were drawn from interviews with analysts who published clinical articles in Psychoanalytic Dialogues between 1995 and 2003. The author considers some of the clinical and scientific implications of this use of papers written for publication.     

The living body in the psychoanalytic experience

Instead of viewing body and psyche as two "substances," the author proposes that they be seen as two ways of experiencing the complex reality of the human being. Clinically, this translates into an exploration of the possibility of including the somatic in the territory of what can be represented--that is, recognizing in somatic and sensory elements and in bodily functions the potential for meaning and language, appreciating their status as precursors of representation. These somatic signals may be detected in a dialogue involving not only the minds of analyst and analysand, but also their bodies. Clinical examples are given involving different bodily functions.     

Between paranoia and creativity: candidates' experience of psychoanalytic training

There is widespread concern regarding various aspects of psychoanalytic education. A recent paper by Patrick Casement, drawn widely from his long experience as a supervisor both in the U.K. and abroad, implied that the British Psychoanalytical Society is not exempt from these concerns. To investigate this, a semistructured, anonymous questionnaire was devised and sent to all candidates and all recently qualified analysts at the society. Overall there was a 58% response rate, with 77% of candidates and 39% of recently qualified analysts responding. Concerns were expressed about aspects of the training, but on the whole these were balanced by appreciation. Although strong criticism was expressed by a minority, it seems that when something goes wrong for a candidate, this experience is felt keenly by the peer group as well. The results are discussed in the context of the current training and ethos of the British Society, as well as in relation to a more widespread move toward "competency-based" education. The maturational tasks facing both candidates and trainers are also addressed.     

Dreams and the holistic nature of interpersonal psychoanalytic experience

Patients’ dreams and analysts’ dreams about patients are assumed to reflect each analytic participant's attitude and psychic conduct toward the other, and an unconscious overlapping of psychic issues and struggles between them as well. This makes it possible to deal with dreams from one‐person and two‐person models of psychological functioning, as well as from an additional psychic dimension that is assumed to be a creation of the analysis itself. As a source of freely moving experience within both participants, one that is assumed to have a life and direction of its own, this latter dimension of analysis permits patient and analyst to undergo more freely the actual experience of the treatment as a modality that is separate from and prior to positivistically grounded determinations that can be made about either the patient or analyst individually, or about the two of them jointly.

This dimension of analysis is said also to reflect a holism that characterizes conscious and unconscious psychoanalytic experience. Dreams and unconsciously generated dreamlike clinical phenomena are presented to try to illustrate this holistic character of analytic work, and to show how either participant's psychic productions maybe used to evoke significant experiences and further clinical knowledge.     

Emotion and narrative fiction: Interactive influences before,during, and after reading

Emotions are central to the experience of literary narrative fiction. Affect and mood can influence what book people choose, based partly on whether their goal is to change or maintain their current emotional state. Once having chosen a book, the narrative itself acts to evoke and transform emotions, both directly through the events and characters depicted and through the cueing of emotionally valenced memories. Once evoked by the story, these emotions can in turn influence a person's experience of the narrative. Lastly, emotions experienced during reading may have consequences after closing the covers of a book. This article reviews the current state of empirical research for each of these stages, providing a snapshot of what is known about the interaction between emotions and literary narrative fiction. With this, we can begin to sketch the outlines of what remains to be discovered.     

Emotion and narrative fiction: Interactive influences before, during, and after reading

Emotions are central to the experience of literary narrative fiction. Affect and mood can influence what book people choose, based partly on whether their goal is to change or maintain their current emotional state. Once having chosen a book, the narrative itself acts to evoke and transform emotions, both directly through the events and characters depicted and through the cueing of emotionally valenced memories. Once evoked by the story, these emotions can in turn influence a person's experience of the narrative. Lastly, emotions experienced during reading may have consequences after closing the covers of a book. This article reviews the current state of empirical research for each of these stages, providing a snapshot of what is known about the interaction between emotions and literary narrative fiction. With this, we can begin to sketch the outlines of what remains to be discovered.     

Psychoanalytic ecumenism and varieties of psychoanalytic experience.

Using the metaphor of ecumenism, the current status of psychoanalysis and the American Psychoanalytic Association is examined. The dialectical tendencies to oppose and to unify are noted in psychoanalytic theory, technique, and practice, as well as in the administrative and political life of our organization. Fostering tolerance for new hypotheses without sacrificing empirical discrimination, and promoting broad participation without lowering standards confront us as major tasks demanding continuing vigilance and effort.     

Transference regression and real experience in the psychoanalytic process.

At the patient's level of reality testing and integration in the transference neurosis, the analyst serves as an effective parent who halpd the 'child' master various danger situations. This results in the patients relearning and development as the analyst provides new experiences for the regressive childhood components of the patient's personality. There is also a sequential or simultaneous cognitive element which is important in the ultimate development of mastery and is particularly useful in the process of working through. This cognitive element, however, cannot be effectively used until there have been repeated new and real experiences for the fixated and/or regressive components of the patient's personality.