Visions or Hallucinations? Lacan on Mysticism and Psychosis Reconsidered: The Case of St George of Malta
Mysticism has long featured in discussions among psychoanalysts and mental health practitioners, anthropologists and scholars of religion. In this paper I analyse the life and visions of a twentieth century mystic in the Catholic Mediterranean. Through this case study I seek to compare the psychoanalytic and to a lesser extent the psychiatric discussions of ‘hallucinations’ with the theological explanations of visions. Via a Lacanian discussion of the case of the first Maltese saint I argue that there are interesting points of convergence between the two. An adequate understanding of the cultural context within which v...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jean‐Paul Baldacchino Tags: Mysticism and Psychosis Source Type: research
Symbolic and Anticipated: Winnicott's Attention to the Use of Black in the Consulting Room
This article addresses Donald Winnicott's consistent attention to the idea of black and blackness as manifested in his work in the consulting room from the late 1940s to the 1960s. It describes several very different pieces, published and unpublished, where the use of black is recorded in patients’ material and the different directions they open up: skin colour, psychoanalytic research, representations of trauma and serious disturbance. Both Winnicott and this article argue for caution in ascribing any fixed connotation to black and blackness while recognizing its importance across cultures and historical epochs. In one ...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lesley Caldwell Tags: IPA Congress, Boston 2015: A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity Source Type: research
Winnicott and Gender Madness
This essay draws on Winnicott's deep insights developed in a series of texts over the last decade of his life and addressing questions of gender and sexuality, as these phenomena shape and are shaped by core experiences in the evolution of intersubjectivity. Interweaving Winnicott's work with that of Loewald, Laplanche and Matte Blanco, the essay speculates about possible developmental processes through which complex and shifting gender identifications intersect and interact with experiences of sexuality and desiring. The essay tracks Winnicott's evolving ideas about gender and madness and opens a way of thinking about one...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Adrienne Harris Tags: IPA Congress, Boston 2015: A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity Source Type: research
Analysis on Demand
In his book The Piggle, Winnicott describes a psychoanalytic process that began when his young patient was 2½ years old. He saw her for 15 sessions over a period of about 2½ years and he called this type of setting ‘psychoanalysis on demand’. He concluded that a child should either have analysis as daily sessions or be seen on demand. For an analysis ‘on demand’, the young patient needs a high capacity for continuity and linking to bridge the long intervals between sessions. The author examines in relation to the material of Winnicott's creative case presentation how this capacity was communicated to Winnicott by...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dieter Bürgin Tags: IPA Congress, Boston 2015: A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity Source Type: research
Reading Winnicott Slowly… Winnicott, Language and the Science of Psychoanalysis
The author makes a plea for a reading of Winnicott's writings that searches for Winnicott's way of thinking besides searching for specific ideas and concepts. He addresses the question of Winnicott's language, which, the author suggests, may reveal itself at odds not so much with classical Freudian psychoanalysis, as is often purported, as with an entrenched and dogmatic attitude that reigned in many quarters of the psychoanalytic community around him. A parallel reading of his papers and of his correspondence shows that Winnicott avoided writing in a desiccated, formulaic fashion or in reverence to some leading figure in ...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dominique Scarfone Tags: IPA Congress, Boston 2015: A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity Source Type: research
A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity: Introduction
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lesley Caldwell Tags: IPA Congress, Boston 2015: A Winnicott for Present and Future ‐ Theory, Practice, Diversity Source Type: research
On Separating One from the Other: Images of a Developing Self
Through clinical material from a lengthy analysis, the author reveals how the process of transformations (Bion) – in dreams, fantasies and enactments – enabled one analysand to develop a psychic skin (Bick) made up of mindful understanding and tolerance for the primal dreads of unravelling, crumbling and spilling out (Tustin), which may have been trans‐generationally acquired in perinatal life and that may have been inherent in the patient becoming pre‐maturely aware of bodily separateness from the (m)other. The author also demonstrates how the patient's creative expression of these developments gradually became li...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Judith L. Mitrani Tags: Rozsika Parker Prize 2015 Source Type: research
A Chance to Show His Mettle: War, Creativity and Reparation in the Work of Wilfred Bion
This paper looks in detail at Wilfred Bion's war writings, specifically at his preoccupation with issues of morale and leadership, and at the intense feelings of isolation and disillusionment that accompany his bleakest moments. This reading of the war writings demonstrates that Bion found resources that enabled him not only to survive this harrowing time but also to work creatively to improve the lives of his fellow soldiers, and it is suggested that Melanie Klein's concept of unconscious reparation may be helpful in considering Bion's life and work during this period. An impulse to repair may also be discerned in Bion's ...
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Caroline Ballinger Tags: Rozsika Parker Prize 2015 Source Type: research
Clinical Commentary 36
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - July 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Mark Budden, Ann Home Tags: Clinical Commentary Source Type: research
Editor's Comments
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ann Scott Tags: Editor's Comments Source Type: research
Rozsika Parker Prize 2016
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Announcement Source Type: research
Publications Recently Noted or Received
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Publications Recently Noted or Received Source Type: research
Love in the Age of the Internet: Attachment in the Digital Era edited by Linda Cundy. Published by Karnac, London, 2015; 204 pp; £24.49 paperback
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Holmes Tags: Book Review Source Type: research
Transference‐Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide by Frank Yeomans,
John Clarkin and
Otto Kernberg. Published by American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington, 2015; 411 pp; £40.49
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: David Mann Tags: Book Review Source Type: research
It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness by
Suzanne O'Sullivan. Published by Chatto & Windus, London, 2015; 326 pp; £16.99 hardback
(Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy)
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Mary Pat Campbell Tags: Book Review Source Type: research
