1st Edition

Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung Psychoanalytic Perspectives on truth, scandal, secrets, and lies

Edited By Jean Petrucelli, Sarah Schoen Copyright 2017
    290 Pages
    by Routledge

    290 Pages
    by Routledge

    Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung delves into the mysteries of scandalous behavior- behavior that can seem shocking, unfathomable, or self-destructive - that is outrageous and offensive on the one hand, yet fascinating and exciting on the other. In the process, this anthology asks fundamental questions about the self: what the self is allowed to be and do, what must be disallowed, and what remains unknown.

    Clinicians strive to know their patients’ selves, and their own, as fully as possible, while also facing the inevitable riddles these selves present. Covering topics ranging from trauma, politics, the analyst’s subjectivity, and eating disorders and the body, to self-revelation, secrets, evil, and boundary issues, a distinguished group of authors bring the theory, practice, and application of contemporary psychoanalysis to life. In doing so, they use psychoanalytic perspectives not only to illuminate struggles that afflict patients seeking treatment, but to shed light, more broadly, on contemporary human dilemmas.

    This collection offers not a unified voice, but rather the sound of many, each in its own way trying to articulate the indescribable, the unwanted, and the off limits. It is a book that raises more questions than can be answered, complicates as much as clarifies, and contains the essential paradox of trying to talk about aspects of clinical and human experience that can never be fully seen or known. Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung offers invaluable reading to interested mental health professionals as well as to anyone intrigued by the secrets of the self.

    INTRODUCTION: by Jean Petrucelli and Sarah Schoen

    PART I: KEYNOTE ADDRESSES

    CHAPTER 1 The unforbidden Adam Phillips

    CHAPTER 2 Far from the tree Andrew Solomon

    PART II: THE TRAUMATIC FIELD: PSYCHOANALYTIC GROWTH AND THE GROWTH OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

    CHAPTER 3 Reflections on the concept of "a traumatic field" Philip M. Bromberg

    CHAPTER 4 Dissociative enactment and interpellation Donnel B. Stern

    CHAPTER 5 The traumatic field: psychoanalysis as trauma translated Don Troise

    CHAPTER 6 Trauma and psychoanalysis: hierarchies of suffering Jack Drescher

    PART III: UTTERS FROM THE GUTTERS: POLITICAL LOYALTIES AND THE CLASH OF DEEPLY HELD VALUES IN THE CONSULTING ROOM

    CHAPTER 7 Political identity and countertransference Steve Tublin

    CHAPTER 8 The persistence of the past: legacies of homophobia in a gay male therapy dyad Steven Botticelli

    CHAPTER 9 Ruffians, mavericks, bullies, and traders Kenneth Eisold

    CHAPTER 10 Feminism in the consulting room Melissa Ritter

    PART IVSTUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ANALYST'S SUBJECTIVITY

    CHAPTER 11 Commitment fears: why the analyst avoids analysis Sarah Schoen

    CHAPTER 12 A dream as an internal enactment of trauma: the impact on the analyst's self Sheldon Itzkowitz

    CHAPTER 13 Subjectivity and analysts' personal freedom Irwin Hirsch

    PART V: BODY TYRANNY: HYPERAWARENESS AND HYPERDEADNESS WITH EATING-DISORDERED PATIENTS

    CHAPTER 14 Fear, shame, courage: body-to-body interactions as we move towards untapped imperfection.

    CHAPTER 15 What we talk about when we talk about food Judith Brisman

    CHAPTER 16 "So must we to others call": anorexia, dissociation, and the analyst's neglect Susan Sands

    CHAPTER 17 The anguished body Susie Orbach

    PART VI: ON BEING NAKED: SELF-REVELATION, SECRECY, AND SHIFTING TRUTHS

    CHAPTER 18 Dissociation among psychoanalysts about sexual boundary violations Mark J. Blechner

    CHAPTER 19 Seducing patients into treatment: when the naked truth feels too revealing Sandra Buechler

    CHAPTER 20 The "scandalous patient": disgust, fascination, and compassion Sue Kolod

    CHAPTER 21 The scandal within psychoanalysis itself Paul Lippmann

    VII. UNSAFE SURPRISES: EVIL, MORTALITY, DIVERSITY, AND OTHER STRANGERS

    CHAPTER 22 Psychoanalysis, the uncanny, and the banalization of evil Edgar A. Levenson

    CHAPTER 23 Hate and destruction at (and behind) our door Emily A. Kuriloff

    CHAPTER 24 Diversifying psychoanalysis: reasons and resistances Anton Hart

    VIII. SILENCE AND PRIVACY: NEGOTIATING BOUNDARIES BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE-- IN AND OUT OF THE CONSULTING ROOM

    CHAPTER 25 Silence in adolescent psychotherapy Daniel Gensler

    CHAPTER 26 Privacy, self, and other: offline and on Mary-Joan Gerson

    Biography

    Jean Petrucelli is director/co-founder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service, faculty and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute, adjunct clinical professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and editor of five books.

    Sarah Schoen is faculty and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute and the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service, adjunct clinical professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and writes and teaches about contemporary clinical controversies.