March 2020 Scientific Meeting

 
Intuition or the ability to understand something without need of conscious reasoning is an accepted, yet elusive, analytic tool. Bion attempted to describe the process of intuitive understanding through his concept of at-one-ment or becoming O of the session. At-one-ment or moments of complete unity with the analysand’s psychic reality is an extremely complex concept to define much less to operationalize in analytic practice. Nevertheless, Bion came to believe late in his career that the analyst’s at-one-ment with the analysand’s psychic reality is of utmost importance to the psychoanalytic endeavor.

In this presentation, Caron Harrang reviews a paper by Henry Markman (2017) titled ‘Presence, Mourning, and Beauty: Elements of Analytic Process’ focused on the internal work of the analyst necessary for accessing at-one-ment in the clinical situation. For Markman this involves mourning the desire to have a particular impact on the analysand, which is always uncomfortable for the analyst. Although counterintuitive, this approach enhances the analyst’s presence or ability to be open to what is unfolding in the analytic field. Whereas Bion’s theorizing emphasizes the non-sensuous aspects of at-one-ment, Markman holds a different view. His clinical vignettes illustrate how at-one-ment may at times involve heightened sensory experience. Markman’s point of view links to Civitarese’s (2019) notion that an analysand’s experience at the most fundamental level is only meaningful as it is received and processed through the analyst’s somatic reverie. Thus, intuition although extending into the realm of infinite unknowable reality is simultaneously grounded in bodily experience.

Discussion will focus on the practical application of intuition through the process of at-one-ment in the clinical situation.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will acquire a conceptual understanding of Bion’s concept of at-one-ment as distinct from empathy and its relevance to clinical process.

2. Participants will be able to describe the steps in the analyst’s internal process for accessing at-one-ment involving mourning, presence, and availability.

3. Participants will obtain an appreciation of the analyst’s resistances to at-one-ment such that they may be easier to recognize.

About the Presenter:

Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA is an IPA certified training and supervising psychoanalyst with a private practice in Seattle. She is a Past-President of Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute currently serving as a Director on the Board of Directors. She is on the faculty of NPSI and teaches in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program at Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She is Co-director with Joseph Aguayo of the 2020 Regional Bion Symposium and current Secretary for the North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (NAPsaC). Current writing projects include co-editing and authoring a chapter in ‘Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond’ (Routledge, forthcoming).


Location - NPSI at 2701 First Avenue, Suite 120; Seattle, WA 98121 (next door to Chase Bank).

Please enter through the side (north) door adjacent to the small street level parking lot.

7:00 - 7:30 pm - Socializing
7:30 - 9:00 pm - Presentation and Discussion

Continuing Education Credits - 1.5 Hours

NPSI Candidates are welcome to attend meetings at no charge. However, preregistration is encouraged, as space is limited, by sending an email to admin@npsi.us.com.