This paper reviews significant aspects of the work of Trigant Burrow (1875–1950), an early psychoanalyst who, while less well known than many of his contemporaries, was, as a number of commentators have argued, well ahead of his time. This article discusses four areas of his theory: the preconscious, the nest instinct, and the love subject; primary unity, primary intersubjectivity, and the “I” persona; social images, social neurosis, and the social unconscious; and, finally, group, community, and society. The article argues that the study of Burrow's work is important, firstly, in recognizing the historical antecedents of what may be viewed as a social turn in both psychoanalysis and psychotherapy; and, secondly, in helping psychoanalytic thinking to be more open to diversity with regard to marginalized theory and people.
This paper sets out to explore some of Wittgenstein’s writings as they pertain to Solution Focused Practices (SFP). One of the conclusions of this paper is that SFP is a philosophy, Wittgenstein’s philosophy as a way of life for practitioners, and there is no need for any theory if you understand this. I shall begin by providing a summary of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, then move on to look at Freud’s influence on Wittgenstein. Each was dissolving problems. We then see the importance of describing family-therapy-as-a-system (rather than just the family-as-a-system); or how to think within a system we are part of, and the wider implications of that. This is an ancient problem. We can no longer stand apart from a system we are part of, and apply an Archimedean lever to it, as our traditional technologies have tried to do, but adopt a new “game” from within. Understanding SFP as a language game, or as a form of life, enables this to emerge. As an aside we see that this leads us into the new science of enactivism. There we find the profound ethics for the practitioner that go with that position. De Shazer was following what is known as the ’later Wittgenstein’ when he claimed that “solution focused brief therapy has no theory” (Korman et al., 2020, p. 2). However, sometimes in learning a new skill “training wheels” are useful, but they must be discarded (not internalised) as the skill is mastered (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). An ethics first philosophy follows if this is done.
In the last 20 years, cognitive science has been revolutionized by enactive cognition. However, claims by enactivists that enactive cognition reforms much of our thinking about the nature of minds, and our relationships with nature and each other, have not always been easy to follow and hence a certain perplexity which has been further confounded by arguments between various enactivists. This article offers some clarification of some of the central claims of enactivism by drawing on past figures in philosophy and psychology, borrowing and extending already popularized metaphors, elucidating some key concepts, and explicating one of the central arguments within enactivism. Combining relevant inferences and intuitions from the past with recent ones from radical enactivism facilitates the emergence of a more responsible and responsive understanding of human nature: one that allows us to attune to each other and to nature more fully. Public Significance StatementOne of a number of approaches to embodied cognition, radical enactivism emphasizes the fact that our fast, intuitive, animal thinking mostly dominates our slower, social linguistic thinking. Separating and reintegrating the two furthers the pioneering work undertaken by Wittgenstein and holds the promise of rectifying our alienation from each other and from nature. This article discusses this important development in cognitive science.
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