In Session, on the Thread of Affect and Emotion: Contemporary Approaches

With contributions from Sara Boffito, Lesley Caldwell, Roosevelt Cassorla, Giuseppe Civitarese, Maria Teresa Flores, Béatrice Ithier, Howard B. Levine, Ruggero Levy, Mauro Manica, Maria Grazia Oldoïni, and René Roussillon.

In Session, on the Thread of Affect and Emotion: Contemporary Approaches is divided into four parts. The first looks at the Freudian and Bionian models and the book begins its journey with an investigation of Freudian metapsychology from René Roussillon. The second part explores the aesthetic dimension of psychoanalysis and the link with truth, with a focus on emotions, dreams, and non-dreams. The third part concerns defensive issues experienced by the analyst and patient in the consulting room and the fourth and final part concerns the intersubjectivity of affect. Mauro Manica and Maria Grazia Oldoïni highlight the shift that occurred with Melanie Klein and confirmed by Wilfred Bion in his theory of early links between love, hate, knowledge.

It is interesting to see the differing approaches of these contributors from many different countries: France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Whilst their approach to affect and emotion is influenced by their own cultural specificities and creativity, they all emphasise not only the shared affect, but also the emotional presence between the two protagonists. In this way, they give access to the deepest affective sediments, making this a must-read for all practising psychoanalysts and those with an academic interest.

Contents
About the editor and contributors
Introduction by Béatrice Ithier

Part I. Freudian model/Bionian model: Which metapsychology for affect and emotion?
1. Freud’s psychoanalytical concept of affect
René Roussillon (Lyon, France)

2. Dawn of the psyche, epiphany of emotion
Béatrice Ithier (Paris, France and Pavia, Italy)

3. Affect, emotion, sensations, feelings: Notes towards a metapsychology of the psychoanalytical experience 31
Howard B. Levine (Boston, USA)

Part II. The aesthetic dimension of psychoanalysis: The link with truth
4. Emotions, dreams, non-dreams, and the aesthetics of validation in the analytic field
Roosevelt Cassorla (Campinas, Brazil)

5. Truth and the aesthetic dimension of psychoanalysis
Ruggero Levy (Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Part III. Which defences?
6. The emotional or its absence from the session: Defensive issues experience by the analyst or the patient
Maria Teresa Flores (Lisbon, Portugal)

7. Affect and emotion in the consulting room
Lesley Caldwell (London, England)

Part IV. The intersubjectivity of affect
8. Emotions and affects in analysis: Becoming O
Mauro Manica and Maria Grazia Oldoïni (Genoa, Italy)

9. The world of us: Towards an intersubjective theory of affect
Giuseppe Civitarese and Sara Boffito (Pavia, Italy and Milano, Italy)

Index

Béatrice Ithier is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and a full member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and the Italian Psychoanalytical Society (Pavia). She is recognised as a child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalyst by the International Psychoanalytical Association and is an honorary member of the Institute of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Warsaw, where she teaches. She was a former editor of the Revue française de psychanalyse and of the Organising Committee of the Congress of French- Speaking Psychoanalysts. She is the author of numerous books and articles (International Journal of Psychoanalysis, Revue française de psychanalyse) published in France and elsewhere; of international analytical culture, she is involved in the Kleinian and post- Kleinian, Bionian, and post-Bionian heritage.

‘These essays, chosen for their originality, clarity, and honesty in self-evaluation and the dynamic of the analytical encounter, consider the intrapsychic relationship between patient and analyst that aims to transform and heal the voids, disintegrations, and primal traumatic disruptions of mental functioning. This important book guides psychoanalysts and psychotherapists often confounded by patients who are cut off from and therefore unable to put into words their emotional experience. It is through the process of projective identification and the awareness of the patient’s unconscious affect that the analyst can help the patient.’

‘The book we have in our hands is like a work of art. It weaves a plot (recalled in the cover image) of solid theory, intertwining and retracing psychoanalytic thought from the origins to the most recent authors. But it doesn’t stop there. It dares to explore the unthought – fragments of plots that delve into the void of representation, the absolute white or black of the abyss. On this canvas of dense plot, each author paints emotional clinical experiences with tenderness, passion, and sincerity. The final sensation is akin to witnessing a dialogue between people unafraid of exposing themselves to judgement, reaffirming the creative authenticity of this book.’

‘This book offers a unique opportunity to bring together analysts from different nationalities and psychoanalytic communities to explore the theoretical and clinical differences between Freud’s and Bion’s approaches to the metapsychology of affect and emotion. The stakes of “in-session” work reveal possible convergences between these two approaches. Indeed, the reference to the concept of negative capability emphasises the role of doubt and surprise in the analytical process, while the notion of enactment points to an emotional two-person work between analyst and analysand.’

'A new way of seeing the therapeutic process that will add depth and richness to your work [...] There were many moments where I learned new ways of seeing the client and the therapeutic dyad, and where I felt encouraged to be bolder as a therapist, especially around embracing not-knowing as a route to new truths and understanding'