Where “Objects” and “Spaces” Are, There Relating-Through-Absence Ought to Be: Commentary on Papers by Joyce Slochower and by Laura Impert and Margaret Rubin

Spero, Moshe Halevi

doi:10.1080/10481885.2011.629570

Cited by 1 publication

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While listening to her associations with songs and realizing that these might be signifiers, I wondered where the songs were returning her to (Lacan, 1956). I was also interested in objects and memories, transference and countertransference, and what these might reveal in therapy (Spero, 2011). Kristeva (1986), while emphasizing poetic language, offers concepts for describing the space of non-verbal occurrence in distinguishing between the two layers of language, the semiotic and the symbolic.…”

Section: But In Passingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In my reverie (Bion, 1962), I wondered who Amelia Rodrigues symbolized for Deborah, and with whom or what Deborah had identified. I imagined that a love object had left Deborah or had died (Freud, 1917; Spero, 2011). I also thought about Deborah's desire to learn about Portugal's culture and language.…”

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Freud's model of mourning (1917), we die with the hero with whom we have identified ourselves, yet we survive him and are ready to die again just as safely with another hero. Spero (2011) claims that new ‘heroes’, or new loved ones, clamour for the same portion of self that is perceived by the unconscious still to be related to the departed loved one.…”

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Spero (2011), the best way to portray what is going on between the mind and its internal object representations, and the persons—present or deceased—outside the mind, is to restrict ourselves to speaking about qualities or quantities of psychic availability and to our capacity to enjoy a relationship‐through‐absence. The concrete properties of the world around us, including space and time, have meaning only by having the capacity to absent them.…”

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Mourning through Poetry: Discovering the Lost Love Object and Symbolization of Desire

Harel¹

2023

Brit J Psychotherapy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deborah was referred to me for psychoanalytic psychotherapy following a suicide attempt and depression. We began a fascinating journey spanning more than 10 years. During therapy, many questions arose concerning the suicidal episode, which she could not register consciously. I tried to understand the reasons for her depression and the attempted suicide through the unconscious process in the therapeutic relationship and through the music and poetry that she brought to sessions. In this paper I describe the process of listening for the signifiers of semiotic and symbolic language, both metaphoric and metonymic, as revealed in poetry and music according to the theories of Kristeva and Lacan. The poetry enabled the patient to retrieve childhood memories, experience the movement from unconscious to conscious, and mourn through the experience of transference and countertransference in the therapeutic relationship. Also illustrated is the transition from singing the music to more symbolic language, turning the patient's sensory experience into language, and connecting her personal experience with the culture of her past. The patient's mourning and the lost love objects are discussed through the prism of classical and object relations theories.

show abstract

Section: But In Passingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Presentationmentioning

confidence: 99%