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Begoin, J.
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Depressive
Position, Otherness and Integration in the Psychotherapeutic process
This paper
is centered around what J. BŽgoin considers a turning point in Dr.
Meltzer's thinking around 1986: his emphasis on the concept of the
aesthetic conflict in the encounter between the baby and its environment
and the aesthetic level of interaction between analyst and patient. A link is made between this concept
and the author's particular interest in the understanding of the nature of
mental pain and the defences that are put up against it. A neat and brief
mention of the meaning of the unborn parts of the personality appears in
the second part of the paper which ends with an illustration from the
analysis of an adolescent boy of the importance of dreams to understand the
patient's search for a beautiful encounter with the analyst as the basic
therapeutic factor.
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Begoin, J.
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The Violence of Passion and the Mysteries of Love
I
want to deepen the signification of the differentiation between the
Òenigmatic objectÓ as Donald MELTZER has described it and the Òmysterious
objectÓ that remains always, more or less, the loved object. This
differentiation is based, in
my opinion, on the definition, nature and evolution of passions.
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Borensztejn, C.L, Kohen, N.G., Neborak, S., Nemas, C., Ungar, V.
Ungar
|
Baby
observation as a basis for patterns in clinical work
Our
objective in this work is to develop our ideas on baby observation as a
tool in the process of becoming a psychoanalyst. We shall present a list of
concepts that appear on the threshold of associations to the word observation.
They are perception, interpretation, attention, description and writing
down. We shall study the relationship between observation and each of these
terms.
With regard
to the delimitation of the field of observation, we've noticed that some
workers use the phrase 'Baby observation ', whilst others talk of 'Observation of the dyad
mother-baby' or of the 'mother-baby link'. We think that this diversity of
nomenclature is a sign that something is still in need of definition in
this field. We suggest the hypothesis that a new object of observation has
been created through the work carried out.
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Botbol,
M.
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A Window onto Wuthering Heights
ÒWhat terrible
characters!Ó ÒSo sordid!Ó, ÒHow evil!Ó ÒItÕs a really tough novelÓ...were
some of the comments made when we read (or re-read) the book for the seminar. ÒItÕs an
extraordinary bookÓ, said Meg on starting.The aim of this summary is to try
to systematise (for me) and transmit (to others) some of the rich
experience and evocative themes approached in the seminar.
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Botbol,
M.
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Daily Beauty and Daily Ugliness
This
work explores IagosÕs statement Ò If Cassio do remain/He hath a daily
beauty in his life/That makes me uglyÓ (Othello, Act V, Scene
1) which Meltzer quotes saying : ÒIago is not referring to Desdemona or
Bianca. The Òdaily beautyÓ is an inner beauty of innocence and good
will...Ó (Sincerity, p. 561).
It analyses the characters of Iago and Cassio as exponents of ugliness and
beauty respectively.
Dailiness
is usually ÒaproblematicÓ, and the theoretical path begins with a
reflection on the
analystÕs daily life. A
brief incursion into the field of aesthetics describes the development of
the concept of beauty and its antithesis, ugliness. From the theoretical frame of the
aesthetic conflict, and inside the consulting room, it speaks about
ÒinterestÓ, Òthe beauty of methodÓ and Òvulgarisation of taste as defenceÓ,
making some technical considerations.From the definition of health as Òa
way of living in autonomy, in solidarity and in joyÓ, it ends with some
thoughts about analystsÕ mental health
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Brookes, S.
|
Washington Square: an unconscious contract
This
article offers a reading of Henry JamesÕs short novel ÔWashington SquareÕ
in the light of some thoughts of W. R. BionÕs about the association between
arrogance and its Ôcorresponding stupidityÕ arising as a defence against
psychic pain. The novel provides a soberly realistic and tragic picture of
the deleterious effects of this defence on intrapsychic and personal
relationships.
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Campart, M.
|
Matching Modes of Teaching with Modes of Learning
The paper was
written following a talk by Donald Meltzer called `Matching Modes of
Teaching with Modes of LearningÕ given at a conference in Malmo in
1995. It reviews the theory of
learning to think evolved by Bion and Meltzer, relating it to the context
of contemporary pedagogical theory, and discussing its application to
school education. The
paper also pursues the implications of the 1983 report by Donald Meltzer
and Martha Harris, Child, Family and Community: a psycho-analytical model
of the learning process. It
includes a sketch of the findings of an education programme in Piedmont,
Italy, which has been conducted on these principles.
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Cassese, S.F.
|
The promise of
dawn: some reflections
I illustrate the relationship between the
aesthetic conflict and pseudo-maturity through a literary example based on
the life and works of Romain Gary. Subsequently I examine two other important aspects using clinical
material. These are:
- firstly, the quality of the
original mother-baby relationship which gives rise to a pseudo-mature
personality (shown with an example of infant observation);
- secondly, the transition from
pseudo-maturity to the building up of a separate identity in the course of
psycho-analytic psycho-therapy (with reference to the transference and emerging
from the claustrum).
Finally, I
discuss some theoretical aspects, in particular the evolution of the
concept of pseudo-maturity and intrusive identification in MeltzerÕs work
and compare MeltzerÕs concept
of pseudo-maturity with WinnicotÕs concept of false self.
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Castella, R. and Farre, L.
|
Exporing the identificatory dimension of intrusive
identification – life in the Claustrum
Following
the analysis of an schizophrenic patient and that of a drug-addict allows us
to make conjectures about the way entry into the Claustrum takes place,
the sufferings that are borne
and the satisfactions it procures. The peculiar thought organisation in
this type of patients is to be noted : a strong mixture of arrogance,
stupidity and the permanent infiltration of lies. We tackle the technical aspects involved in the
attempt to stimulate the desire to come out of their closed Claustrum, to
have access to the transference relationship and, with the acceptance
of dependence, be able to
develop. Those technical aspects consist, on the one hand, in promoting the
emergence of claustrophobic anxieties through the detailed description to
the patient of the world he inhabits, and on the other hand, sustaining a
permanent dialogue where - in the Socratic fashion- the production of
thought, its contradictions, the loss of coherence and harmony (Arcesilao
of Pitanea) and the infiltration of falsehood are examined.
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Foulds, M.
|
An appreciation of the work of Donald Meltzer
Report on a
seminar led by Neil Maizels
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Freeden, I.
|
A troll in the consulting room
A clinical
paper that gives an account of analysis of two patients. The first –
a psychopathic woman – has been enabled to lead a successful academic
and social life, but is a failure in terms of psychic integrity. The second
is a post-autistic girl who has made considerable developmental progress.
The account of the first five years of her therapy has been published in
The Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists, 1999, no. 36
under the title: ÔThe
Claustrum and the Reversal of the Alpha-Function: the case of a
Post-Autistic Adolescent GirlÕ.
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Hindle, D.
|
A developmental view of the psychoanalytic method
Report on
Meltzer conference in Florence February 2000
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Hulks, D.
|
Adrian Stokes and the changing object of art
PhD thesis
2002
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Kluwer, R.
|
A new view of the as-if syndrome: the unborn
The As-if
syndrome is a manifestation of the experiential mode of autistic-adhesive
(contiguous) reactions (Ogden). We also find them in the adult in connection with neurotic and
psychotic components. They are
due to the catastrophic experience of separation of bodily unity in the
first weeks or months of life. The syndrome has multifarious forms of
expression and is difficult to recognise because of its
"nothingness" or non-existence.Conspicuous characteristics are:
the subject is inexistent and unlimited; in place of projective there is
adhesive identification, so that not a potential space but two-dimensional
surfaces constitute the world; as a result inverse thought is employed and
there is the continual threat of confusion about subject and object;
instead of feelings sensations, motor faculties and excitation are
accented. There is no containment and thus no inner processing of
experience, so that an impoverished inner personality development exists,
accompanied by the outward impression of normality and good functioning.
Such patients are incapable of taking up a position, assume no
responsibility and use speech as evacuation.Just as autistic children are
not quite born (Tustin), the patient presented here has obviously remained
unborn in his self.
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Krims, M.
|
MenÕs anxiety about love in LoveÕs LabourÕs Lost
Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost has an unusual dramaturgic
structure for a comedy. It begins with a king's preoccupation with death
and ends with a queen in mourning for her father. In between, the
characters court each other in typical comedic style but their courtship
then ends most unconventionally: they part without gratifying their love
for each other. I intend to show how anxiety in the male characters
contributes to this outcome and that a reading of the subtext suggests that
this anxiety is caused by an unconscious linkage of love with aggression
and death. Finally, I shall show where this linkage appears rather
transparently just beneath the surface of the text.
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Maizels, N.
|
IÕm Miss Red! Reworking a premature weaning with a
lonely young girl
This paper
reconsiders the complex biological, emotional and sociological process of
weaning - a topic which, surprisingly, has received relatively little
attention in psychoanalytical theory. Through a clinical example, the
possibility of a premature and 'false' weaning is considered, along with
the vicissitudes of a reworking, later in life. Transference and
countertransference aspects of the case are given particular importance.
|
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Maizels, N.
|
Inoculative identification and bandigung in
HitchcockÕs Strangers on a Train
Following
on from FreudÕs speculation about the necessity for the destructive
instinct to be ÔtamedÕ, this paper explores the idea of mental equivalent
to the process of inoculation.
This process, tentatively referred to as inoculative identification,
requires that an external figure is unconsciously chosen to represent an
internal instinctual danger and is ÔallowedÕ to invade the psyche. The integrative/constructive aim of
this is to strengthen the recognition of danger to good, life-promoting
internal objects. But there is
always the risk that destructive narcissism will Ôtake advantageÕ of this
push for greater integration and encourage a total takeover of the
personality by the invading element.
HitchcockÕs film Strangers
on a Train is used to provide an example.
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Maizels, N.
|
What could be better than nuclear warfare? A quest
for eirenarchic survival
In a previous paper (Maizels, 1985)
I suggested a model of intrapsychic conflict which I now wish to apply,
speculatively, to a group or ÔglobalÕ level. My hope is to generate some new ways of thinking about
our anxieties of nuclear warfare and the destruction of life on Earth, and
about alternatives. Many psychoanalytical thinkers seem to believe that the
task of attempting to understand World War in terms of unconscious processes
is inappropriate—that psychoanalysis lies strictly in the domain of
thoughts about the transference in the Ôhere-and-nowÕ of a two-person
relationship and its repeated, observable patterns. Those who have ventured
to speculate have Ôbee-linedÕ straight for FreudÕs Ôdeath instinctÕ...
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Maizels, N.
|
The wrecking and re-pairing of the internal couple
in Othello and The WinterÕs Tale
A
model of the progress of the internal
parents from a violent, combined object (Klein), with little
differentiation, through to a combining harmonious
and differentiated couple, some examples from Shakespeare's Othello
and The Winter's Tale are discussed. Some suggestions for
the clarification and elaboration of these ideas are considered in the light of these examples, as is some related
clinical material. There is also
the hope of an enhanced understanding of the Shakespeare.
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Maizels, N.
|
Dreams grown falseÉthe `cannibalizationÕ of alpha
fnction and `cancerousÕ mental growth in suicidal states of mind
The capacity for the imaginative reception of
feeling states, through symbolisation and dream thoughts, and for their
transformation into a creative and alive responsiveness, was named
"alpha function" or "alpha process" by Bion.
From some clinical dream material and a short story
by Sylvia Plath, entitled The Wishing Box, the author
outlines an unconscious process that may attack and "devour" the
perception of emotional meaning. This has a drastic, but disguised effect
on creativity and the capacity for love - replacing meaningful symbols with
a flashy, but precocious, contrived and emotionally-sterile sheen of
anti-symbols - a kind of mental cancer.
Both patient and analyst may become fascinated or
stupefied by this 'impressive' imitation of genuine alpha process, unless
the latter recovers a thirst for sincere emotional contact and nourishment.
Then, the difference can be conveyed, with words that feel alive and
hand-made to resuscitate that thirst in the patient.
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Maizels, N.
|
Book reviews
Exploring the work of Donald Meltzer: a festshrift, ed.
A. Hahn and M. Cohen
Inside Lives by M. Waddell
|
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Maizels, N.
|
Working through, or beyond the depressive position?
The author
explores some conceptual and technical issues in relation to the terms
"Depressive Position" and "The Working Through of the
Depressive Position", and in so doing, suggests a new concept —
"The Spiritual Position".
It is proposed that this spiritual position has achievements, such
as a capacity for "meta feeling", and defences, which are
somewhat different, although related to the mourning and reparation of the
working through of the depressive position. Particular attention is
paid to the development of the "whole-object Father" in the
formation of an "observing-ego-in-feeling", and to the
development of the "whole-object Mother" (Nature) in the
formation of a "metamorphosic", feeling, philosophy of Life.
Together, these formations give the mind a "heart", which may
come under attack from an omniscient, Tiresias-like internal object. Some
clinical material is used to illustrate these achievements and defences,
and to highlight the difference of emphasis (as compared with the working
through of the depressive position) that they imply.
|
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Maizels, N.
|
An imaginary Freud-Bion meeting
A humorous
fiction
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Maizels, N.
|
Trees of Knowledge in HardyÕs Woodlanders: some
questions for Bion
The author provides a description of the
various ways in which one person succeeds, or fails, in getting to know
another person, which is derived from ideas implicit in Thomas HardyÕs
novel, The Woodlanders. HardyÕs ideas are compared to, and
contrasted with, BionÕs concepts of ÔreverieÕ, Ônegative capabilityÕ and L,
H, and K links. It is
suggested that Hardy provides a model which integrates knowing and loving,
and which might have important implications in the psychoanalytic treatment
of patients with severe narcissistic disturbances, and which might help to
augment BionÕs concept of maternal reverie. Some case material is used to
emphasise aspects of this concept that could be further illuminated by some
of HardyÕs ideas which are
implicit in his novel.
It is concluded that,
in some psychoanalytic treatments, under great countertransference
pressure, Ônegative capabilityÕ can be used defensively, to cover the lack
of a deep emotional interest in locating lost or damaged good internal
objects in the patient, where it is not infused by a state which Hardy calls
Ôwatchful lovingkindnessÕ, and which is essential to the concept of
maternal reverie.
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Maizels, N.
|
Self-envy, the womb and the nature of goodness
A
reappraisal of the death instinct.
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Negri, R.
|
Foetal personality and very early evidence of
autistic features
(Video
presentation). A preliminary study of five couples of non-identical twins, observed
monthly during their prenatal life starting from the twelfth week, then
weekly after birth up to their second year of age, has allowed me to
individuate/note the characteristics of a specific foetal personality.
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Oelsner,
R.
|
Before and after the break-up
Brief study
on the capacity of the self to dream and to oppose the understanding of
dreams. It is not usual to find
psychoanalytical work about the break-up of treatment, and yet such
a study can illuminate an
otherwise dark spectrum of analytical technique as well as of
psychopathology. The paucity of works of this nature can perhaps be
explained by our desire to be optimistic about our task and keep hoping
that we have the capacity and the tools to carry a treatment through to a
good ending. What constitutes a good ending is of course a debatable subject, but the break-up of
the analysis certainly is not,
and it therefore leaves us troubled in our desire to cure or at least to
understand.
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Oelsner,
R.
|
Adolescence, identity and action
ÒAdolescence:
the self at riskÓ is a paper in which the author deals with what W.R. Bion
called emotional turbulence as proper of the adolescent phenomena. No psychic
growth can take place without emotional turbulence, a kind of leap into the
unknown of which the outcome is undetermined and therefore risky. If this
turbulence occurs too early, in what normally we regard as latency the
outcome is a psychotic breakdown. Strong defenses that hinder the
occurrence of emotional turbulence arrest the growth of the personality
remaining in latency no matter the age. This occurs when the self feels too
much at risk in order to Òlet it goÓ. Adolescence proper can only occur
when the risk is run and the personality is brave enough to face it.
Whether the outcome will be emotional growth or a juvenile schizophrenia
can never be assured even if statistics encourage us to be optimistic.
Three clinical cases with drawing materials are presented. The first one of
an 8 year old boy who had a psychotic breakdown that revealed a premature
and unbearable turbulence. The second material is of a 19 year old
adolescent whose fear of emotional breakdown reinforced his obsessional
defenses causing a development arrest. The third material is that of a 14
year old adopted boy, undoubtedly amid an emotional storm manifested by a
severe polymorphous symptomatology whose outcome is yet to be observed.
Only this patient seemed to have taken the risk of getting into the stormy
situation which the author here describes.
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Plankers, T.
|
On Pre-formed Transference
Tomas
Plankers outlines Donald Meltzer's concept of Preformed Transference and
its precursor within Freud's theory of transference. Preformed transference
prevents the development of transference in analysis and isresponsible for
standstills and interruptions. This is demonstrated extensively in detailed
clinical material. For the analyst the concept of preformed transference
aims at establishing more alertness for the chance such a situation in
analysis might offer, enabling the analyst to adopt a firm position outside
a pseudo-communication which might finally allow him to find a new
perspective on the forms of the patient's defence mechanisms,
their
traumas and their personal involvement in them.
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Rhode, E.
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Coleridge as Therapist: life before words
The insight that what may appear
to be other and even alien to the self may be a familiar within the self
(perhaps in the form of BionÕs imaginary twin) informs the fascination that
many artists of the Romantic period had with infancy, with lunacy, with the
deranged states associated with drugs and with the cultures that once
unfortunately used to be called ÔprimitiveÕ and are now sometimes named
Ôpreliterate.Õ But what is familiar within the self is also Ôother,Õ
sometimes extremely so and in tantalising sense: it may be cryptic or speak
to us with the tongues of the dead (which is a biological way of describing
the otherness of eternity). This mode of communication is like markings on
a stone: In what ways, if any, is it meaningful?
I wrote
this piece many years ago – and Richard Mayne published it in
Encounter (1988). It came into being at a time when I was trying to
ÔunderstandÕ child patients, or the child in adult patients, and gaining
courage and delight from family life. The writings of Coleridge, especially
his Notebooks, stole into my life in a way that I donÕt remember.
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Rhode, E.
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The image in form: symposium paper on Adrian Stokes
(1994) www.pstokes.demon.co.uk
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Sanders,
K.
|
Meltzer and the Influence of Bion
British
Journal of Psychotherapy 22(3) 2006 pp 347-361.
The aim of
this paper is to set out in sequence the evolution of MeltzerÕs ideas and
the influence on them of BionÕs. It has been the combination of his own
explorations of the intrusive form of projective identification with the
non-intrusive form in BionÕs theory of thinking and with his theory of
groups that came to define for Meltzer the essence of two of the three
Post-Kleinian metapsychologies: `geographical and epistemological« while in
BionÕs theory of affects he found the key to a third: the `aesthetic.Õ
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Sanders,
K.
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Sexual problems in general practice
In general
practice an appeal for help with a sexual problem can be taken as a
continuation of the attempt to lessen the confusion between the infantile
and the adult. Often the patient comes hardly expecting a psychological
approach, but having recovered from their surprise I have found the
differentiation of infantile sexuality from adult a useful starting point.
More difficult are those in whom the problem is psychosomatic : symptoms
such as recurrent cystitis, inexplicable menstrual disorders, or
hypochondriacal anxieties about the genitalia or the breasts, may indicate that an emotional
problem has quit the mind and become a type of action or behaviour.
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Sandler, P.D.
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A Sixth Basic Assumption
Clinical
experiences form the empirical basis that seems to back the hypothesis of
this study. It appertains to the realm of psychoanalysis proper and of applied
psychoanalysis. It is dedicated to those colleagues interested in: i. Dealing
psychoanalytically with the so-called ÔcrisesÕ of the psychoanalytic
movement; ii. Studying intra-group tensions; iii. Investigating possible
factors implied in the so-called diminishing numbers of Ôgifted younger
professionals looking for analytic formationÕ (Wallerstein and Kernberg,
1984); iv. Investigating possible factors implied in the feeling that there
is a diminishing quantity of people looking for analysis. The paper was
written before a kind of ÔHitlerÕs bestiality rebornÕ obtruded in the form
of a bin laden with invitations to the basest drives of man. Bion observed
that groups are forged in shared hallucination; therefore, they are a
fertile soil for wars against reality (Bion, 1961, 1965). My experience
shows that groups provide social loci to shelter a psychotic feature,
described by Bion (1965)) as a factor in hallucinosis, namely, the phantasy
of superiority, a function of primary narcissism (Freud, 1914), primary
envy (Klein, 1957), expressing a freezing in the paranoid-schizoid
position. Its outcome is contempt of truth and life[i].
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Ungar, V.
|
Transference and the aesthetic model
Each
model of the mind comes out of the constant combination of certain elements that are related to each
author's conception of the
mind and theory of early emotional development. In this work Donald
Meltzer's trajectory through
S. Freud's, M. Klein's and W. Bion's ideas is used as a model.
The
aim of the work is to articulate Meltzer's conception of transference with
the aethetic approach - present throughout that author's work - so as to
put forward a possible aesthetic model of the mind. Starting from the idea
that theories grow from meeting obstacles, the possible difficulties that
might have been encountered in the operation of the Kleinian-theological
model and might have become the launching points for the new model
suggested are revised.
This
aesthetic model would have a specific concept of truth and would also have
a bearing on the working practice in psychoanalysis, such as the style used
in interpretations, based
fundamentally on the possibility of observing and describing while also
taking into account the content of the interpretations.
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Williams. M.H.
|
Underlying pattern in BionÕs Memoir of the
Future (International
Review of Psycho-Analysis, 1983)
|
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Williams. M.H.
|
BionÕs The Long Week-End (Journal of Child Psychotherapy,
1983)
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Williams. M.H.
|
The Tiger and `OÕ (Free Associations, 1985)
|
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Williams. M.H.
|
Knowing the
Mystery (Encounter,
1986)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
Looking
with the mind: psychoanalysis and literature (Encounter, 1990)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
Inspiration:
a psychoanalytic and aesthetic concept (British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1997)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
The
Aesthetic Perspective in the Work of Donald Meltzer (Journal of Melanie Klein and Object
Relations, 1998)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
Psychoanalysis: an art or a
science? (British
Journal of Psychotherapy, 1999)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
The three vertices: science, art
and religion (British
Journal of Psychotherapy,2005)
|
|
Williams. M.H.
|
Discovering symbolic identity
through life-drawing
(paper
presented at a conference at Oxford in 2004 on the theme of `Drawn from experienceÕ). A symbol-making
situation is one which enables some communication with internal objects to
take place; it allows them to demonstrate the meaning of the feeling or
conflict; and start the process of thinking and understandingÉ
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|
Young, E.
|
On the analystÕs capacity to bear love
An essential but neglected element of the Oedipus myth lies in
the fact that the birth of the baby is considered dangerous. Therefore the
child is cast out, deemed a curse rather than a blessing. Bion brought to
our attention, following Freud's recognition that the Oedipus myth reveals
essential components of sexual development, that the separate elements of a
myth could be recognized in an analytic session and provide coherence. I
believe that this element - the casting out of the infant Oedipus - appears
in psychoanalytic material and, when perceived, lends meaning to
psychoanalytic events. In this paper,
I would like to explore this aspect of the Oedipus myth, which I believe is
revealed in the conviction some analysands hold that their
aliveness, as represented by contact with the analyst in the analytic
session, is catastrophically dangerous to both. This conviction may
originate when the infant fails to meet an object receptive to projective
identification as specified by Bion, the relationship designated as
container/contained. The infant, its contents rejected by the container, is
expelled. This leads to events, as the Oedipus myth describes, in which the
natural processes of life are perverted.
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