Notes on a Theoretical Script for Poetic Living in a Therapeutic Trance, Part 2

Abstract

Abstract as Explanatory Preface The unsaid subtext or surrounding intention of this paper is to explain and dramatize a therapeutic construct of psychotic implication through artistic experience. For this reason, direct exposition of this very idea is left out as well as the controversial role of the idea in the world of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at large. My first introduction to this premise came from classes in Modern Psychoanalysis that taught Hyman Spotnitz's innovations. Spotnitz interprets Freud's theory that psychosis cannot be cured through psychotherapy as an expression of Freud's incapacity or unwillingness to face the psychosis and narcissistic constellation at his personality's core that bound his own aggressive impulses. That such a psychotic core as Michael Eigen puts it, can underscore a neurosis as well as many aspects of everyday life suggests that learning to be aware of, bind and usefully integrate psychotic or primary process states can be beneficial. Of course, many other theoreticians and practitioners thought and worked along similar lines including Winnicott, Bion, and Searles. The point of this text is not so much to engage this historical and ongoing dialogue of epistemology or to evaluate Spotnitz’s critique of Freud, but to present a working text that operates as both a conceptual and emotional journey for a mobile therapeutic container.