Florida Psychoanalytic Center

Presentation Summary:

Bion (1965) noted that “… no one can ever know what happens in the analytic session, the thing-in-itself, O; we can only speak of what the analyst or patient feels happens, know what the participants say happens, or the emotional state engendered by the verbalization of analyst or patient in the listener.” (p. 33) Our ideas about the psyche, language, and therapeutic action have shifted seismically, resulting in important changes in what and how we interpret, and what we hope our interpretations will do. This paper will address some of the implications of these changes in the interpretive process, with special emphasis on working with patients and psychic organizations beyond those of the typical “neurotic” patient.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe a two-track theory of psychoanalysis, transformational as well as archeological.

2. Use the transformational theories of psychoanalysis to expand their analytic technique.

3. Apply transformational theories to a wider scope of patients.

4. Treat non-neurotic psychic organizations that reflect unrepresented states and the sequelae of trauma.

Presenter:

Howard B. Levine, M.D. is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, PINE Psychoanalytic Center, the Contemporary Freudian Society, and NYU Post-Doc’s Contemporary Freudian Track. He works in private practice in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is also author of Transformations de l’Irreprésentable, editor-in-chief of the Routledge W.R. Bion Studies book series, and a director and founding member of the Boston Group for Psychoanalytic Studies.