The Clinical Comprehension of Meaning : The Bion/Meltzer Vertex

In The Clinical Comprehension of Meaning , Carlos Tabbia addresses fundamental questions of psychoanalytic theory and technique, unfolding them for the reader in an elegant, passionate, and poetic style. This book illustrates three pillars of a psychoanalytic clinic: the structure of the personality, the development of thought, and the ability to foster close relationships with patients. These three pillars show the conditions for the creation of meanings and the difficulties that can be manifested in fanatical functioning, psychosomatic disorders and dreaming, as well as isolation and boredom in adolescents. Using clinical vignettes throughout, Tabbia also analyses the issues surrounding the establishment of an intimate relationship, as well as the issues psychoanalysts must face within themselves. Throughout the volume, Tabbia looks to the work of Bion, Meltzer, Freud, and Klein as well as philosophers such as Plato, Wittgenstein, Russell, Max Scheler, and Levinas, and others such as poets and painters. Including a prologue by Alberto Hahn and translated into English for the first time, this seminal text will be of interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as students and candidates undertaking psychoanalytic training. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents About the Author Prologue Introduction 1 The Conceptual Framework 1.1 Psychic Reality 1.2 Values 1.2.1 Philosophical Vertex 1.2.2 The Psychoanalytic Vertex 1.2.2.1 Sigmund Freud 1.2.2.2 Melanie Klein 1.2.2.3 Wilfred R. Bion 1.2.2.4 Donald Meltzer 1.2.3 The Function of the Parental Object 1.2.4 The Combined Object as an Ethics Ideal 1.2.5 Ausiàs, the Combined Object 1.2.6 Respect-Responsibility 2 Elements of A Post-Kleinian Nosology 2.1 Framework for the Observation of the Personality 2.2 Dimensions for Diagnosis 3 The Tripod of Psychoanalytic Practice 3.1 The Structure of Personality 3.1.1 Denial of Psychic Reality 3.1.1.1 An Inaccessible Psychic Reality 3.1.1.2 Opposition to the Analytic Situation 3.1.1.3 Getting Rid of Psychic Reality 3.1.1.4 Synthesis: The Possibility of Thinking 3.1.2 Dissociation and Intrusive Identification 3.1.2.1 Opposing Intrusiveness 3.1.2.2 Fear of Introjection and Madness 3.1.2.3 The Danger of Unreality 3.1.2.4 Anal Grandiosity 3.1.2.5 Manipulating with Passivity 3.1.2.6 Synthesis: On Intrusive and “Aspirated” Identification 3.1.3 Immaturity and Struggle Against the Combined Object 3.1.3.1 An Immature State of Mind 3.1.3.2 In the Belief of Being a Combined Object 3.1.3.3 Obsessiveness 3.1.3.4 On the Threshold of the Depressive Position 3.1.3.5 Synthesis: The Fate of Preconception 3.1.4 The Organisation of the Self and the Analyst’s Interest 3.1.5 Living In Intrusive Identification 3.1.5.1 Clinical Material 3.1.5.2 Conclusion 3.2 Thinking 3.2.1 Observation and Description in the Genesis of Meaning 3.2.1.1 Language 3.2.1.2 Meaning 3.2.1.3 Observation 3.2.1.4 Description 3.2.1.5 Interpretation Is a Description 3.2.2 Fanaticism, Identity, and Thinking 3.2.2.1 The Context of Fanaticism 3.2.2.2 The Group 3.2.2.3 Imagination 3.2.2.4 Abstraction 3.2.2.5 Identity 3.2.3 Difficulties In Dreaming 3.2.3.1 The Models 3.2.3.2 Difficulties in Dreaming 3.2.3.3 Other Difficulties in Dream Symbolisation 3.2.4 The Boredom of the Adolescent and the Analyst 3.2.4.1 The Adolescent and Boredom 3.2.4.2 Language and Groups in the Life of an Adolescent 3.2.4.3 The Analyst’s Boredom 3.2.4.4 Some Answers from the Analyst 3.2.4.5 Your Boredom Bores Me 3.2.4.6 Boredom Created by a Lack of Contact 3.2.4.7 Approaches to Boredom 3.2.5 Writing with the Body 3.2.5.1 Alterations to the Organism 3.2.5.2 Hypochondria 3.2.5.3 Psychosomatics 3.2.5.4 Arnold’s Vicissitudes 3.2.5.5 A Session With Arnoldo 3.2.5.6 Interpretations of the Material 3.3 Intimacy 3.3.1 The Concept of Intimacy in Meltzer’s Thinking 3.3.1.1 Distance 3.3.1.2 Emotions 3.3.1.3 Trust 3.3.1.4 Intimacy in Infantile, Perverse, and Adult States of Mind 3.3.1.5 Julio’s Dream 3.3.2 Passionate Kindness 3.3.2.1 Intimate Relationships 3.3.2.2 On Love 3.3.2.3 The Effects of Love 3.3.2.4 The Clinical Relationship 3.3.2.5 Notes from a Session 3.3.2.6 The Strong Woman Model 3.3.3 Placental Model of Intimacy 3.3.4 Intimacy in Analytic Work 3.3.5 The Isolated Adolescent 3.3.5.1 The Shift from Latency to Adolescence 3.3.5.2 Gerard 3.3.5.3 Alejandro 3.3.5.4 Héctor 3.3.5.5 Conclusion 4 The Analyst’s Task 4.1 The Analyst Faced with Protomental Functioning 4.2 The Analyst’s Mental Availability 4.3 Psychoanalytic Attitude, Faith, Belief, and Intuition 4.3.1 Observing with “Faith”? 4.3.2 Beliefs 4.3.3 A Beam of Tremulous Light... Index "In The Clinical Comprehension of Meaning, Carlos Tabbia addresses fundamental questions of psychoanalytic theory and technique, unfolding them for the reader in an elegant, passionate, and poetic style. This book illustrates three pillars of a psychoanalytic clinic: the structure of the personality, the development of thought, and the ability to foster close relationships with clients. These three pillars show the conditions for the creation of meanings and the difficulties that can be manifested in fanatical functioning, psychosomatic disorders and dreaming, as well as isolation and boredom in adolescents. Using clinical vignettes throughout, Tabbia also analyses the issues surrounding the establishment of an intimate relationship, as well as the issues psychoanalysts must face within themselves. Throughout the volume, Tabbia looks to the work of Bion, Meltzer, Freud, and Klein as well as philosophers such as Plato, Wittgenstein, Russell, Max Scheler, Levinas and others such as poets and painters. Including a prologue by Alberto Hahn and translated into English for the first time, this seminal text will be of interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well students and candidates undertaking psychoanalytic training"-- Provided by publisher