Driving Soma

This book explores these complex issues from a number of different perspectives: the clinical approach of patients with somatic diseases; the metapsychology of the analyst at work, including different aspects and functions of formal regression; the function of figurability of certain bodily enactments.

Plunged into the experience of an analytic session, analysand and analyst can come closer to what Freud terms the "primary processes". A clear-cut distinction between body and mind tends to become blurred while the bodily-egos of both protagonists are more effectively present to each other. How deeply can they affect each other, and can the transformational working through of the drives give access to potential transformations not only within the dimension of the erogeneous body but also of the soma? This book explores these complex issues from a number of different perspectives: the clinical approach of patients with somatic diseases; the metapsychology of the analyst at work, including different aspects and functions of formal regression; the function of figurability of certain bodily enactments; the specific use the analyst can make of his own subjectivity (relationship between subjectivity and neutrality) and how this leads to a specific way of thinking about intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis; and the way in which some works of art can enrich how we confront the body-mind-soma issue in our analytic experiences with our patients.

Autorentext
Patrick Miller is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst based in Paris. He was a member of the Quatrieme Groupe (Paris), which he left in 2004, and is a founding member of S.P.R.F (Societe Psychanalytique de Recherche et de Formation). He is also an IPA training and supervising analyst, and a member of C.A.P.S. (Princeton). Miller is also the author of 'Le Psychanalyste pendant la seance' (2001) and has contributed to many other publications.

Inhalt
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE Is the analyst a person? CHAPTER TWO The repudiation of femininity in analytical listening CHAPTER THREE The psychoanalyst and his/her discontents CHAPTER FOUR The paradoxes of neutrality CHAPTER FIVE The being of the analystCHAPTER SIX The presence of the analyst CHAPTER SEVEN The early shapings of sexuality CHAPTER EIGHT Psychical metabolisations of the body in Piera Aulagnier's theory CHAPTER NINE Auto-engendering and auto-excitation: some hypotheses concerning the qualifying role of the objectCHAPTER TEN The potential impact of psychical processing on the restructuring of neural matterCHAPTER ELEVEN Homeostasis in the process of psychoanalytical treatment CHAPTER TWELVE Psychoanalysis and neurobiology: an imagined dialogue CHAPTER THIRTEEN A thirst from so long ago: soma, body, and early traumas CHAPTER FOURTEEN Pain: a therapeutics of survival? Some elements for further thoughtCHAPTER FIFTEEN Brutality of fact: the power of painting according to Francis BaconNOTES REFERENCES INDEX