The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion
... There was a feeling that he was becoming mystical (Carveth, 2018). Several theorists have also questioned and criticized Symington and Symington (1996) elaboration of Bion's mystical elements due to perceived idealization (Young, 2000). With all of this history in mind, it seems clear that the way forward for psychoanalysis is through having more comparative psychoanalysis. ...
... There is an existential element in Bion's thought. "The change occurs in a decision to face pain rather than evade it : : : the analyst can witness a patient changing, from evading pain to facing it" (Symington & Symington, 1996). Kierkegaard too says that neuroses stem from fleeing from anxiety instead of bearing it and moving ahead despite one's anxiety (Kierkegaard, 1980). ...
... Another existential element in Bion's thought can be seen when he talks about the personal act of understanding. Symington and Symington (1996) write about Bion's character by saying the following: ...
Wilfred R. Bion’s clinical thinking was profoundly impacted by his early childhood experiences in India. In this article, the author elucidates Bion’s perspective on how “thought” is different from “thinking.” Bion’s notion of truth and thought takes us from chronological to the timeless. His longing to return to India is also evident in his theorization of “O.” The clinical relevance of Bion’s ideas is much debated and discussed, but rarely has any psychoanalytic writing touched upon the way in which psychoanalysis is linked with the sonic and sacred aspects of Om. Exploring the truth of and the truth in Bionian psychoanalytic thought will take us into the unexplored paths of how the experience of culture meets experience in the clinic. A sincere and critical reflection of the ideas proposed by Bion would certainly help us to locate its unexplored referents. He never came back to India, but his theories and ideas attempted to create contact with his early childhood experiences. Bion left India, but India never left him. Bion was a Hindu boy belonging to a Christian body. The ways in which Bion conceptualizes neurosis and psychosis are elucidated in this study. However, some of his ideas remain a challenge, fathoming which, requires remembering, repeating, and working through the clinical and mystical elements in his writing.
... They are controversial and rarely used within counselling and psychotherapy (McLeod, 2011 (Rogers, 1996), negative capability (Keats, 1899, Symington andSymington 1996 pp.169;Bate, 1939), wise passiveness (Wigod, 1952), not-knowing (Anderson and Goolishian, 1992), un-knowing (Spinelli, 2006) and -most recentlymindfulness (Wallin, 2007). These writers communicate the importance of holding the (Symington and Symington, 1996 (Clough and Nutbrown, 2012 pp.25-48). Methods are set out in Chapter 4/! Firstly I will describe methodological considerations of my chosen research method of analytic autoethnography with grounded theory. ...
... Some writers suggest that autoethnographic reporting of ordinary experiences is not of great value or interest (McIlveen, 2008). The experience of uncertainty is ordinary amongst psychotherapists and widely written about (see for example Cozolino, 2004;Norcross, 2009;Symington and Symington, 1996;Yalom, 2010) and therefore could be considered uninteresting. On the other hand, there are few descriptions or cultural 14 analyses of the experience of (as opposed to the justification for) uncertainty in psychotherapy. ...
... (Fields, 2013 There is a current trend across many modalities towards the incorporation of mindfulness into psychotherapy (Hayes, 2005;Wallin, 2007;IAPT, 2014 This supports theories linking attachment strategies and social planning on large scales (Marris, 1996), and also provides validation of theories of script activation in times of uncertainty (Berne, 1972).! My findings suggest that in order to meet the client with greatest empathy and to achieve better outcomes, I need to tolerate uncertainty. This finding provides validating support for intersubjective theory and relational approaches to psychotherapy (Wallin, 2007;Schore, 2013).! My work accords with the writings of Wilfred Bion on the importance of the therapist's capacity for negative capability (Symington and Symington, 1996). (Delamont, 2007). ...
Uncertainty is unavoidable in relational psychotherapy for the psychotherapist and client (Yalom, 2010). The intersubjective field is so complex that objectivist certainty is unachievable (Bernstein, 1983). If the psychotherapist seeks to avoid uncertainty too quickly, they risk misunderstanding the client’s values and making countertherapeutic interventions. Therefore, the ability to tolerate uncertainty is an important psychotherapist attribute. However, the experience of voluntarily remaining uncertain is uncomfortable for human beings on a personal level, and professional and cultural structures exist for avoidance and control of uncertainty.
In this autoethnographic study I collect data from my Reflexive Journal of Professional Development 2009-2014 and from a free-associative transference dialogue (Romanyshyn, 2013) session. I have developed and piloted a method for psychotherapy research, comprising a combination of analytic autoethnography and grounded theory (Anderson, 2006; Chang, 2008; Pace, 2012). The themes created to describe my experience of uncertainty are: i) creating pseudo certainties ii) losing a secure sense of self in the absence of clear information iii) making and breaking contact in the therapeutic relationship iv) letting go of what I thought I knew so I can find my unconscious knowing v) uncertainty is part of life, it’s not a shortcoming of mine... and vi) (re)discovering real certainties. I engage with current debate and literature to make links with and explore the impact from contemporary psychotherapy culture.
I gained a sense of maturity in tolerating uncertainty in practice as a result of the research. The themes found offer a contribution to debates about psychotherapy modality adherence and the problems inherent to standardised forms of psychotherapy. The themes also offer a reflexivity tool for psychotherapists to consider their process. Areas for further study include addition of the experience of seasoned psychotherapists, a practitioner-research network study and an exploration of the relationship between tolerance of uncertainty and psychotherapy outcome.
... Trauma interrupts and might even destroy the ability to link. Symington and Symington (1996) conjecture that Bion's war writings hold the embryonic analyst in him: "We may conjecture that it was through a knowledge of his soul that he came to understand so well the psychotic in the personality. It was also the seed of his later mysticism" (p. ...
... Bion challenged analysts to practice radical transparency about their thinking and feeling. "If it is possible to isolate a central message which Bion bequeathed to posterity," remark Symington and Symington (1996), "it would be: Think and speak from your own heart and mind. He addressed his mind to an analysis of experience. ...
... While a solid knowledge about family dynamics and underlying intergenerational patterns is a fundamental requirement for an effective supervisory process it bares the risk that the coach supervisor is limiting the exploration of the coach's own perceptions and interpretations of the family dynamics through their expert view and experience. To mitigate this and to keep a curious mindset, the coach supervisor needs to strive for a state of free-floating attention or reverie in the sense of Bion (Symington & Symington, 1996) while conducting the interview and exploring the underlying dynamics. ...
This article builds on an exploratory study (Schlüter, 2021) that examined the influence of intergenerational family patterns and transgenerational transmissions on coaching effectiveness.
It specifically focused on the potential impact of coaches’ intergenerational patterns on their countertransference risks and development of coaching resources. In that study, fifteen executive coaches were socioanalytically interviewed with a focused genogram and a self-as-instrument approach to understand the impact of intergenerational patterns and underlying family dynamics
on coaching effectiveness. Results indicated a relationship between these factors and coaching effectiveness. This was especially the case with regard to the development of functional and adaptive coping behaviour rather than transmitting dysfunctional, maladaptive behaviour only. Given the encouraging results of this study, it seems essential to integrate the reflection of intergenerational patterns and related countertransference risks into the training and supervision of coaches. Due to this, a systematic process on how to leverage this approach in a supervisory setting based on first practical experiences is proposed and discussed.
... While a solid knowledge about family dynamics and underlying intergenerational patterns is a fundamental requirement for an effective supervisory process it bares the risk that the coach supervisor is limiting the exploration of the coach's own perceptions and interpretations of the family dynamics through their expert view and experience. To mitigate this and to keep a curious mindset, the coach supervisor needs to strive for at state of free-floating attention or reverie in the sense of Bion (Symington & Symington, 1996) while conducting the interview and exploring the underlying dynamics. ...
This article builds on an exploratory study (Schlüter, 2021) that examined the influence of intergenerational family patterns and transgenerational transmissions on coaching effectiveness. It specifically focused on the potential impact of coaches' intergenerational patterns on their countertransference risks and development of coaching resources. In that study, fifteen executive coaches were socioanalytically interviewed with a focused genogram and a self-as-instrument approach to understand the impact of intergenerational patterns and underlying family dynamics on coaching effectiveness. Results indicated a relationship between these factors and coaching effectiveness. This was especially the case with regard to the development of functional and adaptive coping behaviour rather than transmitting dysfunctional, maladaptive behaviour only. Given the encouraging results of this study, it seems essential to integrate the reflection of intergenerational patterns and related countertransference risks into the training and supervision of coaches. Due to this, a systematic process on how to leverage this approach in a supervisory setting based on first practical experiences is proposed and discussed.
... Notes from the supervisee and the verbal presentation is always from the supervisee's perspective and does not represent an accurate description of the therapy, as these are prone to non-mentalizing processes. As Bion mentions, our perspective is always coloured by how we process the perception (Symington & Symington, 2010). A verbal presentation is of course particularly useful, as it reveals to you how the supervisee sees the patient. ...
This article is a presentation of mentalization-based supervision with regard to focus, goals and means. The article is based on current theory of mentalization, and clinical practice with mentalization-based supervision. It presents a dimension to be considered in mentalization-based supervision, where the goal of stimulating mentalization is always in focus. This is illustrated in a sequence from a supervision session. It is possible to determine what mentalization-based supervision is and extract what makes it different of other psychotherapy supervision.
... Yine bakım verenin kapsayıcı işlevinin zayıf olması, yani ebeveynin çocuğun ihtiyaçlarını hissedememesi, anlamlandıramaması ve dönüştürememesi, çocuğun kaygı düzeyini arttırır. Bu durum da bebeğin bağlanma örüntülerine yansır ve bazı psikopatolojik belirtiler ortaya çıkabilir (Bion, 1962;Symington & Symington, 1996). Ceza infaz kurumunda bulunan tutuklu ve hükümlü annelerin toplum örneklemindeki annelere oranla daha stresli oldukları ve sosyal destek kaynaklarının sınırlı olduğu bilinmektedir (Boğa, 2016;Çörtü Başar, 2006;Zeytinoğlu, 2012). ...
Önleyici/müdahale edici ya da destekleyici projeler üretmek, sosyal politikalar geliştirilmesi açısından önem taşımaktadır. Kadın kapalı ceza infaz kurumunda annesi ile kalan çocuklar için geliştirilen bu önleyici projenin amacı; 0-3 yaş arası çocukların tüm gelişim alanlarını annelere verilecek eğitim ile birlikte desteklemek, anne ve çocuk arasındaki duygusal bağı güçlendirmek ve etkileşimi arttırmaktır. Proje çalışmasının diğer bir amacı da çocuklar için kullanılan oyun alanını geliştirmek ve düzenli kullanılmasını sağlamaktır. Bu noktalardan hareketle gelişimsel değerlendirmeler yapılmış ve ihtiyacı olan çocuklara sağlanan bireysel psikoterapi sürecinin ruhsal gelişimi nasıl etkilediği incelenmiştir. Çalışma kapsamında, 0-3 yaş grubu 31 çocuk ve anneleri ile çalışılmıştır. Bu doğrultuda eğitim öncesi ve sonrasında annelere; Demografik bilgi formu, Ebeveyn-Çocuk Kapsayıcı İşlevler Ölçeği, ACE Travma Ölçeği, Çocukluk Çağı Travmaları Soru Listesi, Marschack Etkileşim Değerlendirmesi uygulanmıştır. Çocuklara ise proje başlangıç ve bitiminde; AGTE Gelişim Testi, 1-3 Yaş Sosyal Duygusal Değerlendirme Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda ön test ve son test ölçümleri arasında anlamlı farklar olduğu görülmektedir.
... ( Klein, 1988;Ogden, 1989;Stern, 1985;Symington & Symington, 1996 ...
The Neuro-Geometric approach, based on the Developmental, Individual Difference, and Relationship-based Model (DIR), maps development, interaction, and experiences in geometrical terminology, including points, lines, and polygons, to simplify one’s understanding of the multifaceted phenomenon of symbolism and play. The approach proposes that children construct an internal three-dimension representational map that parallels their outside world experience, which may help support and advance symbolic formation. Three milestones of internal representations are defined to simplify the vast sequence of symbolic development: (1) basic symbols, (2) episodic symbols, (3) multifaceted symbols, and abstract thinking. As a foundation for this approach, existing psychoanalytic, intersubjectivity, and developmental theories are discussed in the light of updated neurobiological research. Since the chapter’s scope is the real and mental space, the concept “Potential Space,” which Winnicott (1971) coined, is widely discussed. The implementation of this approach is presented in clinical material and unique intradisciplinary methods that are detailed, including (1) affective container, (2) affective agent, (3) visual–spatial play, and (4) dynamic drawing.
... In this approach, the choreography metaphor is used to indicate that both sides in the interview move towards the activity of completing the dance that is the interview (Janesick, 2010). In the second area, the interview structure and attitude were informed by the ideas of Wilfred Bion that relate to the stance of getting involved in the interview relationship without memory and desire (Symington & Symington, 2002). I understood this position as standing at the centre of the interview logic that is to elicit narratives that are not infected by personal theoretical biases. ...
... The discussion of the psychological/intrapsychic level could also be expanded. A psychodynamic analysis of ingroup and outgroup dynamics could be developed using Bion and Kleins' theoretical concepts of splitting, the good and the bad object, projective identification and containment (Likieman 2001;Symington and Symington 1996). Levine has used Winnicott's theories of the True and False self to explain the appeal of rigid political ideologies (Levine 2018), and his work is applicable to the depth psychology of mutuality and thirdness. ...
This paper develops a theory of how democratic governance is possible. It analyses democracy as a laminated system consisting of three interdependent levels – the political/institutional, the social/interactional, and the psychological/intrapsychic – each of which is necessary for the others to exist. Each level is subject to a regulatory principle that is necessary for it to function appropriately. At the political/institutional level, competing political parties must be governed by the regulatory principle of ‘loser’s consent,’ in which the losing party must agree to cede power to the winning party. At the social/interactional level individuals from opposing political parties must be governed by the regulatory principle of a superordinate identity as citizen, which allows them to transcend their partisan political identities. At the psychological/intrapsychic level individuals must be governed by the regulatory principle of mutuality/thirdness which allows the possibility of an alternative to the binary identities that result from the doer/done-to position.
... Psykoanalyyttisin termein kyse on niin sanotusta container-funktiosta, jossa subjekti, eli esimerkkitapauksessa haastateltavat, ulkoistaa itsestään jotakin turvallisena pitämäänsä kohteeseen, joka vuorostaan aktiivisesti ottaa ulkoistetun kokemuksen vastaan. Containerfunktiossa subjektin motiivina on päästä eroon tuskallisena pitämästään asiasta, ja sen alkuperä on lapsen ja vanhemman tunnevuorovaikutuksessa. (Tokola & Hyyppä 2004, 43;Symington 1996). Ryhmien toimintaa tutkinut psykoanalyytikko Wilfred Bion (1984) alkoi kutsua sijoittavan samastumisen eli projektiivisen identifikaation vastaanottokykyä sisällyttämiskyvyksi (containing function). ...
Artikkelissa käsitellään yhteiskuntatieteiden tutkimusmetodologiassa esiintyvää, yhteiskunnallishistoriallisten rakenteiden ja yksilön kokemusten välistä rakennetta. Se kiinnittyy hallinnan ja ideologioiden kriittisen tutkimuksen metodologiaan. Ongelmakentän tarkentamiseksi analysoidaan kahden tutkimusperinteen tarjoamia välineitä rakenteen ja kokemuksen yhdistämiseen tutkimusmetodiikassa. Perinteet ovat hallinnan analytiikka ja psykoanalyyttinen, yksilöllisiä kokemuksia painottava tutkimustraditio. Erityisesti tarkastellaan mahdollisuutta tuottaa analyysia, jossa otetaan huomioon sekä yhteiskunnan rakenteet että yksilön kokemus. Empiirisenä esimerkkinä käytetään vuonna 2015 valmistunutta tutkimusta, joka käsittelee erään työyhteisön pohjavirtauksia ja ristiriitojen sisäistymistä. Analyysi tuottaa näkökulmia siihen, kuinka rakenteet ja yksilöiden kokemukset voivat tutkimusmetodologiassa täydentää toisiaan sekä kuinka ja millä ehdoin tällainen komplementaarisuus voi olla mahdollista.
Dwuletnia terapia S. Becketta u W.R. Biona w latach trzydziestych XX w. stała się zaczynem twórczego rozwoju tych dwóch genialnych w swoich dziedzinach osobowości – dramatopisarza i psychoanalityka. Autorka śledzi niektóre paralele w obszarze ich zainteresowań oraz zbieżne i rozbieżne sposoby opracowywania podobnych idei na przestrzeni ich życia.
In this chapter we explore the meaning and importance of ‘belonging’ and the related theme of ‘professional identity formation’ within professional legal training. We review literature from various psychologically oriented modalities (including neuroscience, psychology, psychotherapy, group analysis and organisational development) which suggest a strong correlation between belonging and overall capacity to engage with thinking, academic performance and motivation. We then apply the themes identified to two initiatives in the Law School at the Law Society of Ireland Law (LSI), each of which is designed to foster trainee solicitors’ professional identity formation and their sense of belonging within their learning community, as they transition into professional practice and into the wider legal community. Common to both initiatives is a desire to place psychological development at the core of professional training so as to properly equip solicitors for the challenges of a rapidly changing profession. Drawing on the experience of both these initiatives, it is argued that a conscious focus on belonging for students can most helpfully support learning and development in law schools.KeywordsBelongingProfessional identity formationReflective practice groupsEmotional containmentDiversity and inclusion
Psychoanalysis can advance our understanding of responses from the hierarchy of mainstream religious denominations to disclosures of abuse by clergy. This paper takes analytic insights to discuss how and why the Anglican institutional church has responded so callously to disclosures of child sexual abuse within the church. Inhumane responses have led to feelings of institutional betrayal in survivor groups. The subject is explored firstly in the context of organizational and group dynamics, and, secondly, by analysing defences that underly the interaction between the person who has been abused and the member of the church hierarchy who is hearing the disclosure. Defences and deceptions have been consciously and unconsciously used within the organization that have obstructed contact with reality, and so hindered it both in fulfilling its task in responding appropriately to what has taken place, and in adapting to changing circumstances. Churches have been active agents in re-traumatising individuals. Examples to illustrate are taken from hearings on the Anglican Church by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England, UK. The idea of organizational redemption is presented.
Of Clarkson’s (1995) five facets of relating within psychotherapy, the transpersonal relationship is the least known or understood, despite the suggestion that it can be facilitative of rapid change. There is, therefore, a need for research to gather therapists’ experiences and understanding of working in this way, and to place these into the arena for discussion. This exploratory study used interviews and questionnaires to further these objectives, drawing upon transpersonal therapy literature for a framework. Results were analysed using IPA, and suggest that such experiences occur naturally within many kinds of therapy, and may not be recognised as transpersonal by either therapist or client. They arise from the relationship and vary from ‘just knowing’ to a ‘deep and wonderful sense of connectedness’. They leave both parties with an awareness that ‘something special’ has happened, and help clients move on. For 50 per cent of interviewees this aspect of therapeutic relating had been either ignored in their training, or highlighted as something to avoid.
In consequence, therapists may, therefore, be unaware of, or avoiding, this potentially valuable way of working. An initial exploratory study, this research suggests that further enquiry into such experiences would be of value and, in particular, the varying ways in which they are conceptualised within different schools of psychotherapeutic practice.
The principle of containment is fundamental to psychodynamic psychotherapy. This paper explores the idea of containment and the ways in which it might be useful to us in ourwork as counselling psychologists. It begins with a theoretical look at the importance of containment in the early developmental process and how it might be fulfilled or lacking for a child. It then demonstrates how similar aspects might be played out in the therapy room and suggests ways in which counselling psychologists might be able to provide containment for their clients from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Personal examples and case illustrations are used to demonstrate the practical elements of containment in the therapy room
For mere end 40 år siden begyndte det at blive almindeligt at snakke om, at man som professionel hjælper kan blive udbrændt, og fra 1990’erne blev også udtrykket sekundær traumatiseret et udbredt begreb knyttet til risiko ved arbejdet med mennesker (Bang, 2002/2013; Cieslak et al., 2014). Inden forde seneste år er udtrykket omsorgstræthed dukket op – på engelsk ”compassion fatigue” – som en beskrivelse af en slags udtømmelse af den professionelle hjælpers reservoir af gode følelser. ”Medfølelse koster” hedder det blandt andet i danske og norske fagtekster om emnet.Fokus for denne artikel er dette nye begreb, og artiklen er en undersøgelse af, hvordan der i faglitteraturen om og til psykoterapeuter argumenteres for idéen om, at kontakten med lidende mennesker skulle slide på os. Jeg argumenterer for, at der ligger alvorlige misforståelser bag disse beskrivelser afvores arbejdssituation, og jeg overvejer, hvad disse misforståelser kan handle om, og hvilke konsekvenser de kan have for psykoterapeuten (og for patienterne). Jeg argumenterer for, at der er en grundforståelse i denne litteratur omkring det at hjælpe mennesker, som i sig selv kan udgøre en risiko for psykoterapeuten. Inspireret af psykoterapiforskning, og primært psykoanalytisk teori om terapeutens rolle, argumenterer jeg endelig for, at det – enkelt sagt – ikke er arbejdet med at hjælpe andre, som kan dræne os, men måden, vi går til dette arbejde på, og at der faktisk kan være (mulighed for) en beskyttelse i selve den professionelle psykoterapeuts aktive medleven i processen med patienten.
Klinisk erfaring tilsiger, at terapeuten via det affektive samspil med patienten uforvarende kan blive involveret i relationelle mønstre, som sætter den terapeutiske proces i stå. Dette bekræftes af empirisk psykoterapiforskning baseret på emotionspsykologiens tradition for at se på affektiv ansigtsadfærd som indikatorer for ubevidste emotionelle processer. Med udgangspunkt i en klinisk case og eksempler fra psykoterapiforskning argumenteres for, at terapeutens arbejde med egne emotioner kan opløse maladaptive relationelle mønstre og åbne for nye erkendelser og oplevelser for patienten. Terapeuten har brug for sensitivitet over for relationelle processer samt en åben tilgang til egne reaktioner for at kunne gøre det nødvendige emotionelle arbejde. Terapeutens emotionelle arbejde og dette arbejdes effekt på patienten diskuteres med udgangspunkt i psykoanalytisk teori; i denne artikel primært repræsenteret ved Wilfred Bion og Neville Symington.
The paper refers to Neville Symington’s concept of responding versus reacting, pub- lished in 1990, focusing on Bion’s ideas on projective identification as an inter-psychic phenomenon of nonverbal communication. Projective identification as a communica- tive mode uses the other person as a container for unwanted thoughts and feelings, thus leading to reactions which attack the freedom to think one’s own thoughts. In the mode of responding we abstain from projective identification, targeting at human freedom as we try to really answer the needs of the other person.
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Psychoanalysis explains the link between literature and psychoanalysis for students, critics and teachers. It offers a twenty-first century resource for defining and analyzing the psychoanalytic dimensions of human creativity in contemporary society. Essays provide critical perspectives on selected canonical authors, such as William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin It also offers analysis of contemporary literature of social, sexual and political turmoil, as well as newer forms such as film, graphic narrative, and autofiction. Divided into five sections, each offering the reader different subject areas to explore, this volume shows how psychoanalytic approaches to literature can provide valuable methods of interpretation. It will be a key resource for students, teachers and researchers in the field of literature and psychoanalysis as well as literary theory.
This paper is principally concerned with reappraising some of the major disagreements that separated the Viennese and the London Kleinians during the British Psychoanalytical Society's Controversial Discussions. Of particular focus are questions pertaining to the genesis of ego development, the beginnings of object-relating, and the role of unconscious phantasy in respect of these phenomena. The aim of the investigation is to inquire into the light that may be shed on the once intractable conflicts surrounding these questions by bringing to bear more recent developments from psychoanalysis and the neurosciences. First, various key issues from the Controversial Discussions are outlined, before the paper turns to work by Jaak Panksepp and Mark Solms that bears on these older arguments and the Freudian theories that underpinned them. With these conceptual foundations established, three questions are posed and discussed with a view to understanding the implications of recent neuropsychoanalytic thinking for some of the entrenched conflicts that divided the British Society. These questions include: (1) what does it mean for the ego if the id is conscious? (2) What does recent neuroscientific knowledge tell us about whether the ego should be thought of as present from birth? (3) How can we understand and locate unconscious phantasy if the main part of the mind that Freud thought of as unconscious is not so? Research from the arena of infant development—particularly the material and analysis of infant observation—is drawn on to illustrate various conclusions. The paper ultimately concludes that taking such an interdisciplinary approach can reveal renewed justification for aspects of the Kleinian metapsychology.
Children’s participation and involvement has increasingly been on the agenda for the last few decades. The right for children to participate was established in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). However, even though the UNCRC gives the right to participate to all children, national policy and practice seems to draw a line on verbal language and exclude pre-verbal infants from participation. The spur of this paper is to challenge the exclusion of infants, to describe how pre-linguistic children communicate their intentions, and to show how an understanding of children’s participation grounded in intersubjectivity, can inform and reframe the participation of all children as being fundamentally about close relationships with sensitive and containing adults who look within themselves for the voice of the child. The infant’s proto-conversational narrative communicates interests and feelings through sympathetic rhythms of what infant researchers have named “communicative musicality,” and it can surface in the mother’s narrative about the child and their relationship. Intersubjectivity oppose the monadic view of man as separate and left only to imitate others and claims that humans from the very start are intertwined in a fundamental thirdness of co-created reality. Infants are powerful communicators who actively engage in intersubjective relationships with their caretakers only days after birth, and newborns actively influence and even control the mental process of those who communicate with them. Early childhood participation then, would be to find within ourselves the voice of the child. A research project building on the theories and ideas described in the first part of the article, is presented.
Background: Diagnosis of tuberculosis and lower limb fracture and treatment can affect a patient‘s’-
psychological well being. Psychological problems can affect the overall well being of the patient and
make palliation of physical symptoms more difficult. Psychological symptoms reflect on individuals
self esteem and level of psychological distress.
Objectives: Aim of this study is to ascertain and compare the emotional health and self esteem in
patients with tuberculosis and fracture admitted to chest units in University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital, Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu,
Nigeria.
Methods: Study population consisted of 126 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis receiving treatment at
Direct Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) clinics and 126 patients with lower limb fracture at
emergency and out – patients clinic. Socio-demographic interview schedule was used to assess the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents. Symptom Checklist-90 was used to assess the extent of
psychological symptoms in both respondents and Index of Self Esteem was used to assess self esteem.
Results: A significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders was found in the tuberculosis group
(25.4%) than in the orthopaedic group (7.6%). Psychiatric disorders encountered included depression,
anxiety, and paranoid ideation and interpersonal sensitivity (SCL-90). Low self esteem was more prevalent
among patients with tuberculosis compare to fracture. In this study, the level of psychological distress was
higher in patients with tuberculosis compared with patients with fracture (p<0.001). The diagnosis of
tuberculosis may lead to a host of anxiety and worries among patients. For a stigma-ridden disease like
tuberculosis, the intensity of emotional reactions may be much high. We also found that tuberculosis
patients being of a younger age was significantly associated with poorer emotional health and that low self
esteem was more prevalent among participants with tuberculosis compared to those with fracture
(P<0.0001)
In discussing “Synchronicity, Acausal Connection, and the Fractal Dynamics of Clinical Practice” (this issue), a post-Bionian perspective is used to draw out some of the similarities, differences, and implications of a fractal epistemology. In particular, Bion’s concept of O, his theory of transformation, and his clinical approach, are considered in exploring the idea of a “primary substrate,” nonlocal information sharing and synchronicity. Using a brief case vignette, and drawing on clinical examples in the paper, the clinical implications of the authors’ metatheory are considered.
This chapter presents multiple theories and understandings of love. It then focuses on love as an aesthetic experience, as acceptance, as secure attachment, as care, as concern, as giving, as goodness, as identificatory resonance, as joy, as mutual playfulness, and as responsibility (response-ability). Mature love emerges as the quintessential integrator of the polar meanings of existence, such as love and hate. This integrative love is described as the ultimate competence in the life of the individual. It is the primal mood that pervades a harmonious homeworld. It contains conflict and modulates tension due to divided function. It makes it possible for forgiveness to override the desire for fairness. Love bestows beauty, goodness, and truth upon our lives. A mature mother, for instance, is by definition beautiful, fair, and truthful. To be able to love wisely is the highest achievement of psychosocial maturation.
The bodily self naturally desires truthful (accurate) emotional and relational meanings to live by. Meanings refer to anything or anyone out there in the lifeworld. Meanings are not only affect-and-value laden; they are also action meanings. Meanings are co-created and co-actualized, for they are always, already having been made by others. Truths, which are always perspectival, and thus partial and never absolute, are meanings that are accurate manifestations of social reality. Becoming mature means refining the accuracy or truthfulness of our (shared) lifeworld meanings (or co-meanings) – what our selves and others that we care about mean to us. Ultimately, truthful selving, ethical selving, and aesthetic selving unfold together as a unified whole.
If we want to understand Bion’s psychoanalysis and analytic field theory, its most creative development, there is one point we must always bear in mind. Bion conceives individual therapy as group therapy. Consequently, he invites the analyst to put the patient’s past and related causal theories in the background. Rather she should focus on the emotional transformations that occur in the here and now. This is very different from observing the Freudian principles of oneiric and transference distortion, on the one hand, and the (re)construction of the patient’s past history, on the other. It is also different from paying attention to so-called deep unconscious fantasies or enactments. Such a crucial aspect, though, is often misunderstood. Here the concepts of the grid and of the regression or “in search of existence” graph are employed as a way of clarifying it. Trying at any given moment to grasp the direction of the vector that represents the sum of the emotional turbulences affecting the field, whether regressive or progressive (in other words, whether reflecting the growth of the mind or its destruction), implies using a radical technique to achieve receptiveness to the unconscious. The analyst treats all narratives in the session as if they were the recounting of a dream dreamt by the analytic dyad or group of two. A few clinical vignettes are presented by way of illustration.
The article discusses Lisa Beritzhoff’s article titled “Psychoanalysis in the Meantime” (this issue). The author highlights how Beritzhoff avoids the use of a psychoanalysis that is indifferent. She does offer concepts and the standard fodder for a psychoanalytic audience. However, she also introduces something less common; she steps the reader into a world where she shares some of her personal experiences working with refugees in Moria’s transit camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece. She offers new words to describe the reality she encounters. With the new language Beritzhoff scaffolds what would otherwise be an intolerable reality that could shut down the reader. Instead, her piece becomes a page-turner that surprises and hopefully engages a psychoanalytic audience longing to become more involved with pressing social issues. The discussion also highlights ideas crucial to expand psychoanalysis’ reach and develop a practice for the people, rather than for a people.
Bion’s concept of O is examined and it is proposed that it is a valuable yet mysterious concept for psychotherapists to draw upon. Although Bion showed a keen interest in epistemology, that is to say, how we know and understand, he subsequently instructed therapists to eschew knowing and understanding by divesting themselves of memory and desire in order to be maximally exposed to the mystery of each patient. It is suggested, therefore, that such a mode requires a fresh analytic stance. An overview of O surveys the ways in which Bion developed O and a brief survey of its reception is included. Subsequently, the centrality of the urge to know and the experience of not knowing is explored with an examination of Freudian and Kleinian interest in the tireless yet painful Oedipal urge to know. A survey of Bion’s models of containing the search for knowing follows. Finally, a clinical example illuminates the author’s clinical experience of both the patient’s urge to know, and their own experience of not knowing as mediated though the context of Bion’s mysterious concept O.
All his life, Wilfred Bion attempted to devise a narrative form for an account of the traumatic experiences he went through as a tank commander in the First World War. The body of his autobiographical works, which consists of texts written in different stages of his life and remain fragmentary, documents his desperate efforts to wrest a biography of his own from the most appalling tendencies of world history. As a whole, it testifies for and is the result of a lifelong attempt to understand something incomprehensible, to express something unspeakable, to restore something destroyed. It represents something akin to the primal history of the psychic catastrophe that Bion failed to escape from as long as he lived. The article first provides an overview of these autobiographical and literary writings against the background of a brief account of the external facts of Bion’s life. It then undertakes a narrative analysis of the sequences in which Bion tries to find a narrative form for the arguably most terrible event of the entire war which not only was a deeply traumatic experience remaining with him throughout his life, but also resulted in what he felt to be his psychic death. Taken together, these sequences impressively show the painful work of gradually dissolving or at least coming to terms with the psychological catastrophe of a paralyzing trauma, the causes of which reach far beyond the individual and the private. The article sets out to contribute to the still unwritten inquiry into the genetic context in which Bion’s autobiographical, literary, and theoretical writings figure, together with the concepts and writing strategies embodied in them.
This paper addresses the notion of Negative Capability, a phrase coined by the poet John Keats and picked up by the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion. It explores what each man meant by this phrase, where the concept fits within contemporary psychoanalysis, how it relates to psychodynamic practice, and why it is, I believe, crucial to counselling adolescents. Bion’s reference is brief but the quality he identified—the ability to tolerate therapeutic experiences of uncertainty—has been widely endorsed by clinicians, taken up by the British School of Psychoanalysis in particular. I discuss the ways in which I have attempted and struggled to exercise Negative Capability in my practice, with a focus on the challenges and implications of this approach for my young clients; the paper weaves together the two psychoanalytic perceptions of Negative Capability and adolescence. Keats’s concept is significant to Bion’s metapsychology, as many have noted, linked to his theories of alpha function and the growth of thought, the abandonment of memory and desire, ultimate truth and transformation, and container/contained. With recourse to this last idea, I look at how I tolerated radical uncertainty through the vicissitudes of my own adolescence. I explore Fink’s claim that, contrary to what is perhaps commonly believed of psychotherapy, achieving conscious understanding of the unconscious causes of a symptom is not the primary aim of psychoanalysis or counselling, let alone what effects change or is in every case possible. I support Coltart’s emphasis on Bion’s belief that cultivating faith—in the process of therapy, one’s own therapeutic capacity, the client’s capacity to change, the very possibility of psychic transformation—is key to sustaining the difficult, disquieting, and sometimes almost intolerable therapeutic experience of Negative Capability, a quality I have come to consider critical to my work with young people.
The development of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology.
Theory of Personality, Psychopathology, Psychotherapy (1912-1937)
The intention of this book is to give an overview of Adler’s fundamental ideas tracing the development of his theory of psychotherapy during the years between 1912 and 1937: the compensation of inferiority feeling and the founding of the concept of community feeling in emotional experience, in body and mind and in the philosophy of life.
Adler doesn’t adopt an objectifying external perspective; he doesn’t see the overall context from outside from a reflexive distance, but rather looks from his experience of human society onto the contingency of human life. All of his theoretical concepts are bound up in this holistic approach. Adler’s theoretic development shows that the basic concepts of Individual Psychology are not only descriptive labels; they grow out of inner experience.
Adler expresses harsh criticism of all forms of community governed by the “will to power” and pleads for a cooperation in terms of real social interest or community feeling.
The step-by-step development of Alfred Adler’s thinking is described following lectures and papers collected in the third volume of the study edition published in 2010. The quotations are taken from the original versions of Adler’s papers.
Die Entwicklung der Individualpsychologie Alfred Adlers.
Persönlichkeitstheorie, Psychopathology, Psychotherapy (1912-1937).
Die Intention dieses Buches ist, die Ausarbeitung von Adlers grundlegenden Konzeptionen über die Jahre 1912-1937 zu verfolgen: die Kompensation des Minderwertigkeitsgefühls und die Verwurzelung des Konzepts des Gemeinschaftsgefühls in der emotionalen Erfahrung, im Leib-Seelischen und in der Philosophie des Lebens.
Adler nimmt keine objektivierende Außenperspektive ein; er sieht den Gesamtzusammenhang nicht von außen aus einer reflexiven Distanz, sondern er blickt von der Erfahrung der menschlichen Gemeinschaft her auf die Bedingtheit des menschlichen Lebens. In dieser ganzheitlichen Sichtweise sind alle seine theoretischen Linien verbunden. Adlers theoretische Weiterentwicklung zeigt, dass die Grundbegriffe der Individualpsychologie nicht nur beschreibende Kennzeichnungen sind, sondern vom inneren Erleben ausgehen.
Adler übt scharfe Kritik an allen Formen des Zusammenlebens, die vom „Willen zur Macht“ geleitet sind, und setzt sich für ein Miteinander im Sinne einer wirklichen Verbundenheit ein.
Da die im dritten Band der Alfred-Adler-Studienausgabe gesammelten Aufsätze chronologisch nach ihrem Erscheinungsjahr angeordnet sind, ist es möglich, die schrittweise Herausbildung der individualpsychologischen Theorie gut nachzuvollziehen. Die Zitate sind jeweils der Originalversion der Aufsätze entnommen.
Zusammenfassung
Negative Fähigkeit nach W.R. Bion, zu verstehen als Aufnahmefähigkeit für Ungewusstes und Unbewusstes auf Seiten von Teilnehmern und Leitern, stellt eine wichtige Voraussetzung für eine gelungene Balintarbeit dar. Deses, bisher wenig rezipierte Konzept ermöglicht ein vertieftes, tiefenpsychologisch-psychoanalytisches Erfassen der Phänomenologie von Balintarbeit. Zu diesen Phänomenen gehören beobachtbare Widerstände oder Überforderungen von Teilnehmern, aber auch spezifische Techniken, wie die der Prismatischen Balintgruppe. Negative Fähigkeit zeigt Überschneidungen zum ebenfalls von Bion entwickelten Containment-Begriff, geht aber in den psychodynamischen Implikationen deutlich über diesen hinaus.
z. Çocuk kliniğinde karşılaşılan çocuk sorunları ile ailelerin tutumları arasında belli ilişkiler vardır. Bu ilişkilerin geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçme aracıyla tespit edilmesi, tedaviye yardımcı olacak bir enstrüman olabilecektir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ailelerin çocuk yetiştirirken gösterdikleri tutumların ölçülmesine olanak sağlayacak psikanalitik kurama göre uyarlanmış bir ölçme aracı geliştirmektir. Uygulama aşamasında ailelere, araştırmacılar tarafından hazırlanan demografik bilgi formu, geliştirilmesi planlanan ölçek verilmiş; İstanbul il genelinde 1042 adet (0-14) yaş çocuk ailesiyle görüşme yoluyla uygulama yapılmıştır. Ölçeğin geliştirilme aşamaları içinde kapsam geçerliliği, yapı geçerliliği ile iç tutarlılık ve test tekrar test güvenilirlik çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Yapı geçerliliği için açımlayıcı faktör analizi yapılmıştır. İç tutarlılık güvenirliliği test etmek için madde toplam korelasyon ve Cronbach's Alpha değerlerine bakılmış, test tekrar test tekniği için ölçek 3 hafta arayla aynı gruba tekrar uygulanarak sonuçlar karşılaştırılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonunda yüksek geçerlilik ve güvenirlilik değerlerine sahip 5 faktörlü yapı elde edilmiştir. Anahtar Sözcük: Ebeveyn Tutumu, Aile, Çocuk, Ölçek, Kapsayıcı İşlev Anahtar Kelimeler. Çalışmanın bütünlüğünü yansıtan en az 3 en çok 5 anahtar kelime belirlenmelidir. Abstract. In pediatric clinic, there are certain relationships between child problems that is encountered and family attitudes. Developing a reliable and valid scale in order to define this relationship would be a healing instrument. The aim of this study is to develop a measuring instrument that allows us understand parental attitudes while raising children within the scope of psychoanalytic theory. It is applied a demographic survey and the scale which is meant to be developed to 1042 parents whose children are 0-14 years old in the city of İstanbul.In the process of developing the scale, it has been applied content validity, construct validity, internal consistency reliability, test-retest method. To ensure construct validity, it has been applied explanatory analyse. Cronbach's alpha and item-total corelations have been evaluated for internal consistency. For the test-retest analyses, results of the same group are compared within 3 weeks. At the end of the study, it is obtained a structure that consists of 5 factors which has high reliabilty and validity.
The author discusses similarities, differences and identities between the later work of the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the Soto Zen Buddhist teacher Eihei Dogen. The discussion elaborates points that help to explain the interest in Bion by psychoanalysts who work to integrate Buddhism and psychoanalysis. Four major points of convergence structure this discussion. They include: a radical openness to unknowing; a shared orientation to the relation between intuition and cognition; a shift from attention to static mind states to an emphasis on fluid functions and actional relationships; and a radically experiential orientation rooted in the present moment.
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