This series of seminars will explore the analytic concept of faith as a fundamental cornerstone of the analytic process in constant rhythm with its counter-partner negative capability. The focus of our study will be to approach and expand awareness of ‘faith’ both as a tangible and technical aspect of analytic methodology and as an ineffable quality of contact infusing the analytic space. The underlying assumption is that faith may develop as a catalytic factor in the therapeutic endeavor, a factor that welcomes as yet unlived emotional pain, suffering in search of existence. We will explore this assumption that within a therapeutic atmosphere of hospitality and compassion, a potential space for the abject aspects of psychic life can be created.
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait
Without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is
yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in
the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for
thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness
the dancing.
…The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.T.S. Eliot, East Coker
It is as if something pains us and we try to excise the pain without knowing what it is. We grab at this problem or difficulty and attack it thinking, at last, the pain will be solved. If psychoanalysis has taught us anything, it is that we are persecuted by our own nature, which finds voice and resonance in structures of the outside world. In part, social structures, from family to state, are ways we try to organize pain, hoping to diminish, even solve it. I suspect we do not know what is bothering us. Beliefs hide this fact. Faith opens it. “Faith and Transformation” Vol. 2, Eigen, M.
Analytic faith, as introduced by Bion, is not an abstract or religious concept; it is a tangible and robust reality to be relied on in clinical moments of extreme climatic pressure, moments forecasting a conception, one co-created by
analyst/therapist and patient.
How do we as analysts/therapists ready ourselves for the extremes of terror, fear, horror, the conflict between the desire to exist and the impulse to non- existence? What are the mysterious conditions that give rise to analytic faith and how does its presence strengthen the capacity to wait – to wait for arrival of emotional material seeking a place to become?
Readings have been chosen to facilitate thoughtfulness, capacity and curiosity about the ineffables that can transform the analytic climate from one of suspicion to one of com-passion. The seminars, through the theoretical writings and through our individual associations, are designed to provide a resonant space for each participant’s unique quality of presence to be invited into the group conversation. By exploring the interpenetration of opposites such as: certainty/uncertainty (doubt), theoretical knowledge/somatic intuition, evolution/devolution, external/internal, sound/silence, the infinite/finite, we may discover faith as a link. (a presence in the space between.)
In the space between lies the heart of the matter where faith is conceived and may become a living presence, a powerful tool in the analytic process.
Photo credits Artist: Janet Oakes | Stormy Weather | 2019 | Monoprint, acrylic on paper
Registration is closed.
Please email info@wbcps.org for late registrations.
Readings:
Session 1: Oct.28, 2021
Godwin, R.W. (1991). Wilfred Bion and David Bohm: Toward a Quantum Metapsychology. Psychoanal. Contemp. Thought, 14(4):625-654.
Session 2: Nov.25, 2021
Ogden, T. ( 2019), The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 884, 661-684, Ontological Psychoanalysis or “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Session 3: Jan. 27, 2022
Eigen in Seoul: Faith and Transformation. Chapter 2 Day 2. Pp. 37-76.
Session 4: Feb. 24, 2022
Ferro, A. (2013) Seeds of Illness, Seeds of Recovery: The Genesis of Suffering and the Role of Psychoanalysis. Nachträglichkeit and the stork: the analytic field and dream thoughts. Ch.4. Pp. 37-52.
Session 5: Mar.31, 2022
Eshel, O. (2019) Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis, pp. 208-236.
Session 6: Apr. 28, 2022
Balint, M. (1979). The Basic Fault: Therapeutic Aspects of Regression. London/New York: Tavistock Publications. Ch. 25:The unobtrusive analyst, Ch.26: Bridging the gulf. Pp. 173-189
Session 7: May 26, 2022
Eaton, J.L. (2005). The Obstructive Object. Psychoanal. Rev., 92(3):355-372.
Session 8: Jun. 30, 2022
Bergstein, Avner “Bion and Meltzer’s Expeditions into Unmapped Mental Life.” The Ineffable.
