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This volume consists of a series of essays, initially inspired over thirty years ago by Freud’s paper on Gradiva -- “she who steps along.” In the story of Gradiva, a young archaeologist, Norbert Hanold, suffers from delusions and is able to unravel the mysteries of his emotional life and mind with the aid of a woman who does not challenge these delusions, but rather “steps along” with Hanold, gradually helping him to disentangle truth from fantasy through what Freud called “cure by love”. Gradiva, originally felt to be the source of Hanold’s malady, eventually becomes the agent of its resolution and of his return to health. This extraordinary tale forms the basis for Mitrani’s concept of “taking the transference”. Through clinical vignettes, various aspects of psychoanalytic technique -- useful from the first encounter between patient and analyst and throughout the process of the development of mind to termination -- are illustrated in detail. These chapters are rooted in and explicate and expand upon the theoretical tenants of Freud, Klein, Bion and Tustin and focus on the act of observing and “taking the transference”, particularly at the infantile level. Salient topics include the importance of listening in the beginning of analysis with those who know little about analysis as well as with those who “know all about it”; technical implications derived from works by Klein, Bion and Tustin; analytic encounters with adults and adolescents, a psychoanalytic take on a contemporary film, and some ways in which psychoanalysis may lend further meaning to neuro-scientific studies on autism.
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PSYCHOANALYTIC TECHNIQUE AND THEORY
PSYCHOANALYTIC TECHNIQUE AND THEORY Taking the Transference
Judith L. Mitrani
First published in 2015 by Karnac Books Ltd 118 Finchley Road London NW3 5HT Copyright © 2015 by Judith L. Mitrani The right of Judith L. Mitrani to be identified as the author of this work has 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-13: 978-1-78220-162-5 Typeset by V Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd., Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
vii
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ix
FOREWORD by Neville Symington
xi
INTRODUCTION
xv
CHAPTER ONE Listening for the emergence of infantile dependency
1
CHAPTER TWO “A rose by any other name”: working analytically in the face of authoritative statements
19
CHAPTER THREE Some technical implications of Klein’s concept of “premature ego development”
33
v
vi
CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR Taking the transference: some technical implications from three papers by Wilfred Bion
59
CHAPTER FIVE Excogitating Bion’s Cogitations: further implications for technique
81
CHAPTER SIX The past presented: bodily centered protections in puberty and adolescence
105
CHAPTER SEVEN “Trying to Enter The Long Black Branches”: some technical extensions for the analysis of autistic states in adults from the work of Frances Tustin
121
CHAPTER EIGHT Minding the gap between neuroscientific and psychoanalytic understanding of autism
147
CHAPTER NINE Surviving unthinkable trauma: dissociation, delusion, and hallucination in Life of Pi
173
REFERENCES