Internet Discussion Forum Summary

Article discussed in this forum:
James L. Fosshage, A relational self psychological perspective     

Journal reviews

Journals reviewed: Allain‐Dupré, Brigitte. ‘Né et non né: réflexions sur la fratrie empêchée’, Cahiers Jungiens de Psychanalyse Lanyado, Monica. ‘The symbolism of the story of Lot and his wife: the function of the “present relationship” and non‐interpretative aspects of the therapeutic relationship in facilitating change’ Commentaries on ‘The symbolism of the story of Lot and his wife’, Journal of Child Psychotherapy Mayer, Elizabeth Lloyd. ‘On “Telepathic Dreams?” An Unpublished Paper by Robert J. Stoller’, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Lawrence, Marilyn. ‘Loving them to death: the anorexic and her objects’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis Eshel, Ofra. ‘Whose sleep is it, anyway? Or “Night Moves”’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis Schore, Allan N. ‘Minds in the making: attachment, the self‐organizing brain, and developmentally‐oriented psychoanalytic psychotherapy’, British Journal of Psychotherapy     

Coincidence,historical repetition,and self-knowledge: Jung,Vico, and Joyce

Jung develops synchronicity as an a causal principle of connection by recounting various examples of meaningful coincidence from experience and by analysing various systems of divination, notably the I Ching. Philosophical theory of causality has given no significant attention to synchronicity; the events of synchronicity are regarded as chance. The Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) developed a doctrine of historical experience and of self-knowledge that grounds the phenomenon of synchronicity in a metaphysics. James Joyce employed Vico's conception of language and historical cycles as the basis of Joyce's final literary work, Finnegans Wake. Vico's metaphysical sense of synchronicity and Joyce's literary formulation offer a grounding of this principle in non-divinatory sources in modern Western thought, something which Jung's discussion does not provide. These philosophical and literary perspectives complement Jung's to offer an expanded context in which to recognize synchronicity and to make sense of it.     

Synchronicity and meaning

It is usually thought that synchronicity, characterised as ‘meaningful coincidence’, is therefore understandable in relation to the concept of ‘meaning’. I will explore the largely unhelpful symbiotic relationship between ‘coincidence’ and ‘meaning’ by comparing synchronicity with synchoricity ‐ coincidence in space rather than time. These two concepts are often mixed together and I will attempt to describe a ‘pure’ synchronicity in order to sharpen our sense of how meaning is felt to arise from coincidence. It will then be suggested that the standard concept of synchronicity is mostly psychologically irrelevant and, when adjusted to remove elements which are explained quite naturally by evolutionary theory, we are left with a concept which has implications both for the metaphysical foundations of Analytical Psychology and the individualistic emphasis one commonly finds in the field.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed:
Jones, J. D. F., Storyteller. The Many Lives of Laurens van der Post.
Fonagy, Peter, Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis.
Hedges, Lawrence E, Terrifying Transferences. Aftershocks of Childhood Trauma.
Fordham, Michael, The Making of an Analyst. A Memoir.     

Luck,Knowledge, and “Mere” Coincidence

There are good reasons for pursuing a theory of knowledge by way of understanding the connection between knowledge and luck. Not surprisingly, then, there has been a burgeoning of interest in “luck theories” of knowledge as well as in theories of luck in general. Unfortunately, “luck” proves to be as recalcitrant an analysandum as “knows.” While it is well worth pursuing a general theory of luck despite these difficulties, our theory of knowledge might be made more manageable if we could find a more restricted notion that captured the core phenomena of luck that are relevant to whether or not someone knows. This essay makes the attempt to delineate such a notion, called “mere coincidence.”