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This work is a "beginning", a primer to elucidate general principles on how the psychoanalyst or psychoanalytically informed psychotherapist may optimally provide and maintain the setting for the psychoanalysis, listen to and process the analysand's free associations, and ultimately intervene with interpretations—principally from the Kleinian/Bionian perspective, including the contemporary London post-Kleinians and today's Kleinians and Bionians elsewhere. Grotstein follows that tradition in respecting the foundational work of Klein's original contributions and demonstrating how they naturally emerge into contemporary (post-) Kleinian and "Bionian" thinking.
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“. . . BUT AT THE SAME TIME AND ON ANOTHER LEVEL . . .” VOLUME ONE
“. . . BUT AT THE SAME TIME AND ON ANOTHER LEVEL . . .” VOLUME ONE
Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique in the Kleinian/Bionian Mode VOLUME TWO
Clinical Applications in the Kleinian/Bionian Mode
“. . . BUT AT THE SAME TIME AND ON ANOTHER LEVEL . . .” VOLUME ONE
Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique in the Kleinian/Bionian Mode James S. Grotstein
KARNAC
First published in 2009 by Karnac Books 118 Finchley Road London NW3 5HT Copyright © 2009 James S. Grotstein The rights of James S. Grotstein to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978–1–85575–786–8 Edited, designed, and produced by Communication Crafts Printed in Great Britain www.karnacbooks.com
I dedicate this work to Wilfred Bion, Ronald Britton, Albert Mason, Thomas Ogden, and Antonino Ferro, each of whom has been inspirational to me in countless ways in writing this work. I also dedicate it to my wife, Susan, who has long and patiently endured being a “literary widow” while I was engrossed in writing it. I am profoundly grateful to my patients from across the years, to those whom I have helped and especially—but regretfully—to those I have not. It was the latter who helped push me to reflect upon myself (with four psychoanalyses and many elective supervisions) and to consult many different schools of analytic thought, until I became immersed in the Kleinian—and now post-Kleinian—as well as the Bionian, while still honouring and using the wisdom of the other schools in which I had been trained and/or to which I had been exposed. My professional journey has been an exciting one, but it is constantly informed by the need to make reparation for my failures and then rededicate myself to the psychoanalytic task once more.
CONTENTS
xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PREFACE
xiii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
xvi
1
Introduction 1
Bridges to other schools and to psychotherapy
2
Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
18
3
The evolution of Kleinian through “post-Kleinian” to “Bionian” technique
24
4
Contributions by Klein’s descendants
42
5
“In search of a second opinion”: the task of psychoanalysis
52
The analytic project: what is the analyst’s task?
58
6
vii
7
viii
CONTENTS
7
Some notes on the philosophy of technique
74
8
The psychoanalytic session as a dream, as improvisational theatre, and as sacred drama
91
9
Psychoanalytic depen