The Analyst as Listening-Accompanist: Desire in Bion and Lacan

Comparative approaches to psychoanalytic theory are a major source of exposure to different theoretical orientations and clinical technique. However, it is not always clear what the analyst actually does when translating theory into practice. As an attempt at clarification, descriptions are provided of two listening stances or attentional sets that are associated with different modes of analytic listening. These modes reside at a relatively low level of abstraction and are experience-near. The two listening stances are (1) a directed attentional set aimed at the identification of conscious or unconscious repetitious patterns, and (2) a diffuse attentional set receptive to emergent phenomena for the purpose of elaborating unconscious fantasy. These listening modes are combined in everyday practice and usually occur in an oscillating fashion; thus, separation of these listening modes in this discussion is for heuristic purposes. At the same time, these modes are prioritized differently among various theoretical models depending on the analyst’s intention and goals. They also can be correlated with different types of transferences, evoking different types of clinical material that correspond to the analyst’s goals and/or to phases in treatment. Because these attentional modes are governed by different neurophysiological substrates, it is helpful for analysts to have these modes clearly differentiated in their minds, even though engaging these modes tends to be spontaneous and rapidly oscillating. Two clinical vignettes are provided that illustrate the use of these two modes of listening where one or the other is prioritized.

Section: Analytic Listeningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stance, Set, Transference: The Differentiation of Two Modes of Clinical Technique

Celenza¹

2022

“…By contrast, Wilson (2018) has directly tackled the question of the role of language versus the more ineffable part of analytic work from an integrative Lacanian and Bionian perspective. Wilson highlights the differences in Lacan’s and Bion’s view of language: the former encourages analysts to dive into it, believing that anything of importance is found inside the symbolic order; the latter advocates detachment from it, viewing language as a veil of secondary thinking that obscures intuition.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Psychoanalytic Mystic and the Interpretive Word

Nes¹

2022

Explicit and implicit psychoanalytic assumptions concerning the analytic cure include the old “insight/interpretation” versus “relation/experience” duality. A synthesis of these two stances, grounded in recognition of the long denied yet central mystical facet of psychoanalysis and the crucial role of words in the “talking cure” that psychoanalysis still is, recognizes these two aspects of psychoanalysis—mystical communication through psychic overlap and interpretive words—as deeply interdependent. Analytic interpretations emerge from the depths of a mystical experience of psychic unity (as well as separateness) resulting from, but also creating, the patient-therapist caesura. Words shape the contour of this closeness-separateness matrix on which psychoanalysis depends. Moreover, the moment of insight into the psychic reality of the other is shown to often depend on crossing the threshold of the nonverbal toward consciousness and language. Constant movement between verbalization and the nonverbal is illustrated with clinical vignettes stressing the interplay of the mystical and the symbolized, of interpretation and intuition.

“…The analyst’s welcoming way of being “represents and embodies a certain deep inner attitude”—of love and welcoming (p. 207). When patient and analyst are in the mode of emotional sharing and creating, in something that is sensed, the analyst’s participation can be one of partnership, companionship, play, and accompaniment (Markman 2020; see also Wilson 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Embodied Attunement and Participation

Markman¹

2020

The analyst’s embodied attunement and participation arises within an embodied analytic relationship. Understanding this “deep structure” of the interaction and attention to this level of interaction opens up new modes of engagement and therapeutic action. The importance of embodied attunement is supported by recent research and theories that the developing mind is shared and dialogical through bodily communication, by rhythms of cadence, tone, intensity, and movement. The analyst’s embodied awareness of two bodies together and their interpersonal rhythm is the “tool” used to gauge the pulse, vitality of connection, and particular rhythmic qualities of a uniquely shared world. This provides a read on the most elemental way the dyad shares emotional experience (or fails to). The analyst’s embodied participation is interpretation in another mode. Clinical examples illustrate how embodied attunement and intentional participation work in the session, and their therapeutic effect. Failures of attunement are also discussed in terms of how the analyst recognizes these failures and his internal process of reattunement.