The “Voice” of Breakdown: On Facing the Unbearable Traumatic Experience in Psychoanalytic Work

Eshel, Ofra

doi:10.1080/00107530.2015.1103646

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nonlinearity is in my opinion also embodied in the dissociative defense mechanism characteristic of trauma (Balint, 1992;Bromberg, 2014;Davies & Frawley, 1994;Eshel, 2016;Fairbain, 1952;Herman, 2015;Modell, 1990;Stern, 2004;Winnicott, 1974). Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism involving the splitting of the self, while the fragmented parts continue to exist -and repeat -in many directions simultaneously and paradoxically (as opposed to a single linear axis).…”

Section: Repetition and Space In Trauma Symptomatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Art as “The Third Skin”:

Berger

2024

JOS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the potential of using art-based research to analyze repetitive paintings made after trauma, to understand psychological mechanisms that stem from the body. To this end, I propose a multi-disciplinary approach combining psychoanalysis and art, to describe the concept of the “third skin,” as a psychological-spatial repetitive mechanism originating in the body and stiving towards healing, which is activated following trauma and manifested materially in art. The foundation for this lies in a spatial etiology that I have identified in trauma, which I have named “spatial repetition,” and which provides the basis for a methodology that enables to see repetitive artwork as a visual embodiment of repetition in trauma, as well as a lens through which to understand it.

show abstract

Section: Repetition and Space In Trauma Symptomatologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Art as “The Third Skin”:

Berger

2024

JOS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the many years that have passed since I treated Nir, I have come to realize that transformation in the most cut‐off, blocked, deadening, empty, desperate, and despairing psychic zones—zones of psychic breakdown, madness, annihilation, and catastrophe—may become possible only when the analyst/therapist is willing and able to be‐within (and with‐in ) the patient's experiential world and within the grip of the analytic process, with the ensuing patient‐analyst deep‐level interconnectedness or “witnessing” psyche‐with‐psyche (Eshel , , , , , , , ). This interconnectedness, which becomes at‐one‐ment when the analyst puts him‐/herself entirely within the patient's emotional reality, is difficult and demanding, an unyielding, ongoing struggle with the underlying catastrophe to reach a new and formative, deep experiencing, beyond epistemological exploration‐K.…”

Section: Clinical Example: a Voice From A Haunting Dungeon Of Madnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Extension to Revolutionary Change in Clinical Psychoanalysis: The Radical Influence of Bion and Winnicott

Eshel

2017

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper addresses the radical departure of late Bion's and Winnicott's clinical ideas and practices from traditional psychoanalytic work, introducing a revolutionary change in clinical psychoanalysis. The profound significance and implications of their thinking are explored, and in particular Bion's conception of transformation in O and Winnicott's clinical-technical revision of analytic work, with its emphasis on regression in the treatment of more disturbed patients. The author specifically connects the unknown and unknowable emotional reality-O with unthinkable breakdown (Winnicott) and catastrophe (Bion). The author suggests that the revolutionary approach introduced by the clinical thinking of late Bion and Winnicott be termed quantum psychoanalysis. She thinks that this approach can coexist with classical psychoanalysis in the same way that classical physics coexists with quantum physics.

show abstract

“…The effects of childhood sexual trauma on psychic organization and thought development have created a need for psychotherapy and for psychoanalytically trained clinicians to address the issue (Casoni, ; Castellano & Bodner, ; Davies, ; Davies & Frawley, ; Eshel, , ; LaFarge, ; Sinason, ; Target, ). The contemporary psychoanalytic practice model for adult survivors of childhood sexual trauma is consistent with a relational approach to psychoanalytic work, and it contains cognitive, representational, and psychodynamic elements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintaining the Tension Between the Classic Seduction Theory and the Role of Unconscious Fantasies: A Contemporary Reconsideration

Harel¹

2020

Brit J Psychotherapy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article describes the long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a young woman who had experienced trauma during her childhood. The details of the trauma were unknown, as all memory of the trauma had been repressed. Past trauma is analysable through a prism of transference, dreaming and dreams, mental states and thinking processes that offer an opportunity to explore and analyse the influence of both reality and fantasy on the patient. The presented case describes a therapeutic process that strives to discover hidden meanings through the unconscious system and illustrates the movement from unconscious to conscious during exploration of the patient's personal trauma in treatment. The author discusses the importance of classical and contemporary psychoanalytic models of childhood sexual trauma through the discovery of manifest and latent content, unconscious fantasies and actual events of trauma. It is suggested that the complexity of trauma is clarified by the tension between these models and by the inclusion of aspects of both of them for a complete understanding.

show abstract

The “Voice” of Breakdown: On Facing the Unbearable Traumatic Experience in Psychoanalytic Work

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Art as “The Third Skin”:

Art as “The Third Skin”:

From Extension to Revolutionary Change in Clinical Psychoanalysis: The Radical Influence of Bion and Winnicott

Maintaining the Tension Between the Classic Seduction Theory and the Role of Unconscious Fantasies: A Contemporary Reconsideration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About