Vitalization in Psychoanalysis: Perspectives on Being and Becoming

Description

In Vitalization in Psychoanalysis, Schwartz Cooney and Sopher develop and explore the concept of vitalization, generating new ways of approaching and conceptualizing the psychoanalytic project. Vitalization refers to the process between two people that ignites new experiences and brings withdrawn aspects of the self to life. This book focuses on how psychoanalysis can be a uniquely creative encounter that can aid this enlivening internal process, offering a vibrant new take on the psychotherapeutic project. There is a long tradition in psychoanalysis that addresses the ways that the unique subjectivities of each member of the therapeutic dyad contribute to the repetition of entrenched patterns of relating, and how the processing of enactments can be reparative. But this overlap in subjectivities can also bring to life undeveloped experiences. This focus on generativity and progressive action represents a significant, cutting-edge turn in psychoanalysis. Vitalization in Psychoanalysis represents a deep meditation on this transformational moment in the history of psychoanalytic thought. Pulling together work from major writers on vitalization from all the main psychoanalytic schools of thought, and covering development, theory and clinical practice, this book will be an invaluable guide for clinicians of all backgrounds, as well of students of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of contents Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction Vitalization in psychoanalysis Part I Part II References Part I Vitalization as unconscious action Chapter 1 Vitalizing enactment: A relational exploration Introduction Anne Alvarez: interventions at the level of vitalization and reclamation A relational interpretation of vitalization as enactment Vitalizing enactment Theoretical convergences and expansions Clinical vignette Discussion Vitalizing enactment: formulating the process “Going first,” self-disclosure, and vulnerability Mutative action: intersubjective and intrapsychic transformations and growth Enactment as a progressive lived experience Ongoing process Conclusion Acknowledgments References Chapter 2 An allegiance to absence: Fidelity to the internal void Jennie Separation and absence An unarticulated non-presence Absence in treatment The case of Jennie Discussion References Chapter 3 Activating lifeness in the analytic encounter: The ground of being in psychoanalysis Introduction Emergent enabling registers (of shared experience) Epistemological shift—a new ground for experiencing and meaning making Vitalizing presencing: surplus-life/lifeness; the grace of the punctum; the “face” of a painting; the enigma of beauty; the gro The medium is the message Returning to the session Postscript to the hour Notes Bibliography Chapter 4 The generative unconscious and the capacity to be fully alive The generative unconscious Clinical illustration: working with “Orphans of the Real” Concluding comments Notes References Chapter 5 Between Mythos and Logos: Surrender, vitalization and transformation Solly—an “ordinary” person Sense, myth, and passion: the objective–subjective–intersubjective creation of meaning Notes Bibliography Chapter 6 Vitalizing engagement: The generative transformation of the project of psychoanalysis The dynamics of the psychoanalytic process A rethinking of what it means to “think analytically”: the vitalization of the field by relational psychoanalysis Contributions to the study of vitality in psychoanalysis: the Boston Change Process Study Group Gerald: the early disruption of vitalizing fitting together The generative co-creation of meaning: vitalization through intersubjective relating Michael: vitalization constrained by defenses against early trauma Dream thinking enters the process On not knowing what is happening Conclusion Bibliography Part II The analyst’s vitalizing use of self Chapter 7 Reawakening desire: Shame, analytic love, and psychoanalytic imagination Clinical vignette Acknowledgment Bibliography Chapter 8 Moving from within the maternal: The choreography of analytic eroticism1 The Eros of vitality The dance of maternal eroticism Choreography as artistic expression and as metaphor for clinical process Clinical illustration: a still and arid landscape Analytic ardor: the heretical ethics of the analyst’s eroticism Conclusion Note References Chapter 9 Vitalization as a case-specific emergent process Sam and me First vitalizing enactment The ongoing conundrum Second vitalizing enactment Vitalization as progressive fittedness Note References Chapter 10 Vitality, attunement and the lack thereof Dismissive-avoidant trauma Affect attunement, growth-promoting states of consciousness and therapeutic possibilities The right brain Implicit processes Working with avoidant devitalized patients Summary and conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 11 The analyst as catalyst: Cultivating mind in the shadow of neglect Introduction Case illustration States of unrelatedness/forms of protection Making contact with emotions and objects Enacted experience/unconscious communication Conception and conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Chapter 12 What makes time fly?: Loewald’s concept of time and the resuscitation of vitality Concept of vitality in psychoanalysis Resistance to the play of the transference David and the collapse of time The abiding instant The urgency of time as a defense against linking the past with the future Linking past and future: a return to the game of BS Discussion: vitality, the imagined future, and the growth of the analyst’s mind Conclusion References Index