Psychoanalytic Field Theory Written by one of the world’s renowned Bionian Field Theory scho­ lars, this foundational volume provides a thorough introduction to all facets of psychoanalytic field theory, one of the most lively and origi­ nal currents of thought in contemporary psychoanalysis, to offer new answers to age-old questions around how psychic change occurs. With clinical examples to illuminate key themes of therapeutic effectiveness, current controversies, and future developments, the book presents a radically intersubjective view of the analytic process that focuses on the plane of unconscious communication common to both analyst and patient, moving beyond the I/you division to access the shared substance of the psyche. It centres the unconscious not as a hellish region of the psyche but as an important function of the personality that gives meaning to emotional experience. Offering clear expositions of complex concepts and linking to more detailed sources of information, this book is important reading for all clinicians, trainees, and students interested in contemporary psychoanalysis. Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD, is a training and supervising ana­ lyst (SPI, APsaA, IPA). He lives in Pavia, Italy. His books include The Intimate Room: Theory and Technique of the Analytic Field; The Violence of Emotions: Bion and Post-Bionian Psychoanalysis; Truth and the Unconscious; and Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis. Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis Aner Govrin, Ph.D. Series Editor Tair Caspi, Ph.D. Executive Editor Yael Peri Herzovich Assistant Editor “Routledge Introductions to Contemporary Psychoanalysis” is one of the prominent psychoanalytic publishing ventures of our day. It will comprise dozens of books that will serve as concise introductions dedi­ catedtoinfluential concepts, theories, leading figures, and techniques in psychoanalysis covering every important aspect of psychoanalysis. The length of each book is fixed at 40,000 words. The series’ books are designed to be easily accessible to provide informative answers in various areas of psychoanalytic thought. Each book will provide updated ideas on topics relevant to contemporary psychoanalysis – from the unconscious and dreams, projective identi­ fication and eating disorders, through neuropsychoanalysis, colonial­ ism, and spiritual-sensitive psychoanalysis. Books will also be dedicated to prominent figures in the field, such as Melanie Klein, Jacques Lacan, Sandor Ferenczi, Otto Kernberg, and Michael Eigen. Not serving solely as an introduction for beginners, the purpose of theseriesistooffer compendiums of information on particular topics within different psychoanalytic schools. We ask authors to review a topic but also address the readers with their own personal views and contribution to the specific chosen field. Books will make intricate ideas comprehensible without compromising their complexity. We aim to make contemporary psychoanalysis more accessible to both clinicians and the general educated public. Psychoanalysis and Colonialism: A Contemporary Introduction Sally Swartz Psychoanalytic Field Theory: A Contemporary Introduction Giuseppe Civitarese Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction Tom Wooldridge Psychoanalytic Field Theory A Contemporary Introduction Giuseppe Civitarese First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Giuseppe Civitarese The right of Giuseppe Civitarese to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-032-11452-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-11451-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-21997-2 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003219972 Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books Contents Introduction vi 1 The origins of field theory 1 2 Basic concepts 10 3 The model of mother–infant relationship 32 4 How does it cure? 42 5 Clinical examples 59 6 Current controversies 94 7 The new psychoanalytic critique 101 8 Future developments 112 References 116 Index 122 Introduction I would like to start immediately by saying that I will not distinguish Bion from Post-Bionian Analytic Field Theory (BFT), especially in relation to its theoretical part. BFT is the most original development of Bion’s thought and makes it of great use on the level of treatment technique thanks to grafts taken from other traditions. In part they overlap, even though in actual fact my reading of Bion is inevitably influenced by BFT; at the same time, I hope that the other theoretical roots of BFT will gradually become clearer. While lying on a continuum that includes classical and Kleinian psychoanalysis, quite a few of Bion’s concepts in fact represent a paradigm shift, as described by Kuhn (1962). A completely new vocabulary is introduced, including in particular the notions of transformation and invariance, O, container–contained, grid, hallucinosis, at-one-ment, reverie, negative capability and faith, selected fact, waking dream thought, alpha function, beta and alpha elements, dream thoughts, Language of Achievement, pre­ conception, basic assumption, non-psychotic part of the personality, messianic idea, Establishment, etc. The concept of projective identification is also used in an idiosyn­ cratic sense, to denote not a pathological phenomenon but a physio­ logical means of communication. In the context of a psychoanalysis based on an essentially one-person psychology, projective identifica­ tion does not yet appear as a truly relational concept. If, however, it is accommodated within a two-person psychology rather than a psy­ chology of the subject seen in isolation, it immediately proves valuable Introduction vii as a way of conferring clinical and technical substance on the concepts of field and proto-mental system.1 In its strongly relational sense as a mode of unconscious communication that also entails actual inter­ personal pressure, projective identification facilitates understanding of the ways and means whereby this shared unconscious area can be formed, and how the actual processes of interindividual influencing can take place. Nor is that all. Bion overturns the traditional conception of the unconscious and dreams. Dreams are no longer the royal road to the unconscious. Instead, dreaming creates the unconscious; “dreaming” here being understood as the ability to assign a personal meaning to experience (or, if you will, to create symbols), which is acquired from the mother at birth. The unconscious becomes a psychoanalytic function of the personality. The identification of the unconscious with sociality, with the symbolic, and with both verbal and non­ verbal language – with everything that underlies the attainment of subjecthood and the specifically human capacity to think thoughts – is perhaps nowhere clearer than in Bion. There can be no confusion with the unconscious that is of interest to the neurosciences, although, of course, the discoveries made in these fields must be taken into account by psychoanalytic theory. According to BFT, patient and analyst give life to intersubjective fields. As noted by Ogden (2009), when a patient enters analysis, he in effect loses his mind, or, in other words, he sets foot in an inter­ mediate psychological area, or one shared with the analyst. The patient sets up a communication that, because it involves him at such a deep level, can be channelled so as to repair dysfunctional areas in his internal group structure and also to reinstate the ongoing con­ versation between the various parts of his mind in their constant search for better ways of “thinking” (here unconscious thought, dreaming, thinking, etc., are to be seen as virtually synonymous) about the emotional problem of the moment. For this reason, the use of the classical concepts of transference and countertransference to denote the characteristics of the analytic field may be misleading, since they presuppose a situation in which analysand and analyst confront each other “face to face” as two positive, pure, complete, and separate subjectivities, each somehow “external” to the other. The relational perspective looks to the profiles in Rubin’s famous ambiguous figure; BFT looks to the vase. viii Introduction Incidentally, the ability to move from one perspective to another of a bi-stable figure also explains why there are some repetitions in the book. This depends, on the one hand, on the fact that, as I know from experience, some theoretical issues are a bit difficult to grasp; on the other, because it is important to see the same thing but from different points of view in order to attain a more integrated vision. Note 1 To explain why individuals have such a strong tendency to link together with each other, Bion postulates the existence of a ‘proto-mental system’. This must obviously be thought of as a totality within which individuals are merely dynamic elements in relation to all the others. All basic assumptions (“mental activities that have in common the attribute of powerful emotional drives” (Bion, 1961, p. 146), ‘the “cement” that keeps the group assembled’ (López-Corvo, 2002, p. 39), are considered to have been deposited within this totality even if they are inactive. For Bion too, therefore, the subject is not conceivable apart from its intrinsic social dimension. An individual’s psyche transcends the physical limits of that individual; it is transindividual. Furthermore, within this system there is no distinction between the bodily and the mental realms. Chapter 1 fi The origins of eld theory The term “field” is one we can find already in Bion. For instance, in a letter to Rickman dated March 7, 1943, he writes: “The more I look at it the more it seems to me that some very serious work needs to be done along analytical and field theory lines to eluci­ date... the present system...” (Conci, 2011, p. 82). What is unequivocally a field theory can then be found in the paper, pub­ lished in The Lancet that same year (Bion and Rickman, 1943), and written jointly by both, entitled “Intra-group Tensions in Therapy: Their Study as the Task of the Group”, which Lacan (1947) described unhesitatingly as a “miracle”. This was to become the first chapter of Experiences in Groups (Bion, 1961). However, it was Madeleine and Willy Baranger who were the first to use the concept of field as the basis of a thoroughly new model in psychoanalysis. In their paper “The Analytic Situation as a Dynamic Field”, originally published in Spanish in 1961–2, they focus on the unconscious couple-related resistances that impede the analytic process – the so-called bastions. Overcoming these resistances is in their view one of the main aims of analysis. Implicit in this model is the notion that the analyst participates in the relationship with all her subjectivity, that she is inevitably caught up in interactive sequences with the patient, and may appreciate their unconscious meaning only at a later stage. Normally, when the talk is of BFT, the names of Willy and Madeleine Baranger, and Antonino Ferro come to mind: specifically, the 1961–2 essay by the Barangers, “The Analytic Situation as a DOI: 10.4324/9781003219972-1