In psychoanalysis, enlivenment is seen as residing in a sense of self, and this sense of self is drawn from and shaped by lived experience. Enlivening the Self: The First Year, Clinical Enrichment, and the Wandering Mind describes the vitalizing and enrichment of self-experience throughout the life cycle and shows how active experience draws on many fundamental functional capacities, and these capacities come together in support of systems of motivation; that is, organized dynamic grouping of affects, intentions, and goals. The book is divided into three essays: Infancy – Joseph Lichtenberg presents extensive reviews of observation and research on the first year of life. Based on these reviews, he delineates twelve foundational qualities and capacities of the self as a doer doing, initiating and responding, activating and taking in. Exploratory therapy – James L. Fosshage looks where therapeutic change is entwined with development. There are many sources illustrated for enhancing the sense of self, and Frank M. Lachmann pays particular attention to humor and to the role that the twelve qualities and capacities play in the therapeutic process. The wandering mind – Frank M. Lachmann covers the neuroscience and observation that "mind wandering" is related to the immediacy of the sense of self linking now with past and future. Throughout the book the authors’ arguments are illustrated with rich clinical vignettes and suggestions for clinical practice. This title will be a must for psychoanalysts, including trainees in psychoanalysis, psychiatry residents and candidates at psychoanalytic institutes and also graduate students in clinical and counselling psychology programs.

From Autism and Mutism to an Enlivened Self explores the importance of intimacy, interaction with the environment and the mind-body connection in early childhood development, with specific reference to autism. Built around a detailed case study of a severely autistic child, the book offers an illuminating account of the development and successful treatment of autism both from the perspective of the clinician and from the family. In Part I, Diana Thielst (writing under a pseudonym) gives a description of her experience with her daughter who was autistic at birth, minimally verbal at age five, and did not respond to her name. She details the severe family stress and her ineffectual attempts to get professional help. Finally, she hears of consultants who may be able to help in St. Petersburg, Russia. Guided by the consultants, Thielst and her daughter then embark on a uniquely innovative method for Anna to both build a vocabulary and for the first time learn the value of coordinated and cooperative effort. Armed with a vocabulary and a long history of solo pursuits of organizing inanimate objects, Anna suddenly begins to explore "human" interaction as revealed in comics– a turning on to an emotional life of relatedness and intimacy. In Part II, Joseph D. Lichtenberg uses his knowledge of neonate and early infancy to offer the reader an understanding of autism – its history – and a unique comparison of the normal well adapted neonate and infant at one year with the disrupted development of the child with autism. Lichtenberg’s theoretical construct of three major pathways to a healthy adapted development breaks new theoretical ground and gives enrichment to a contemporary portrayal of the autistic experience. With unusually rich clinical material grounded in accessible theory, the authors jointly offer a new perspective on understanding, treating and living with autism. From Autism and Mutism to an Enlivened Self will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists and clinicians working with autistic children.

This book brings together a team of international scholars to attempt to understand David Hume’s conception of the self. The standard interpretation is that he holds a no-self view: we are just bundles of conscious experiences, thoughts and emotions. There is nothing deeper to us, no core, no essence, no soul. In the Appendix to A Treatise of Human Nature, though, Hume admits to being dissatisfied with such an account and Part One of this book explores why this might be so. Part Two turns to Books 2 and 3 of the Treatise, where Hume moves away from the ‘fiction’ of a simple self, to the complex idea we have of our flesh and blood selves, those with emotional lives, practical goals, and social relations with others. In Part Three connections are traced between Hume and Madhyamaka Buddhism, Husserl and the phenomenological tradition, and contemporary cognitive science.

In this volume, the work of British psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott is set in conversation with some of today’s most talented psychodynamically-sensitive political thinkers. The editors and contributors demonstrate that Winnicott’s thought contains underappreciated political insights, discoverable in his reflections on the nature of the maturational process, and useful in working through difficult impasses confronting contemporary political theorists. Specifically, Winnicott’s psychoanalytic theory and practice offer a framework by which the political subject, destabilized and disrupted in much postmodern and contemporary thinking, may be recentered. Each chapter in this volume, in its own way, grapples with this central theme: the potential for authentic subjectivity and inter-subjectivity to arise within a nexus of autonomy and dependence, aggression and civility, destructiveness and care. This volume is unique in its contribution to the growing field of object-relations-oriented political and social theory. It will be of interest to political scientists, psychologists, and scholars of related subjects in the humanities and social sciences.

Narrative and Meaning examines the role of both in contemporary psychoanalytic practice, bringing together a distinguished group of contributors from across the intersubjective, relational, and interpersonal schools of psychoanalytic thought. The contributions propose that narratives or stories in a variety of non-verbal and verbal forms are the foundation of mind, creativity, and the clinical dialogue. From the beginning of life, human experience gains expression through the integration of perception, cognition, memory and affect into mini or complex narratives. This core proposal is illustrated in chapters referencing creativity, psychoanalytic process, gesture, and sensory-motor activity, dreams, music, conflicting narratives in couples, imaginative stories of adopted children, identity, and individuality. Including a major revision in theory based upon an expanded definition of narrative, this book is an essential read for any contemporary psychoanalyst wishing to use narrative in their practice. Featuring essential theory and a wealth of practical clinical material, Narrative and Meaning will appeal greatly to both psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Since the late 1970s, more than 200 biographical plays about famous artists (composers, fine artists, poets, actors etc.) were written and staged in the United Kingdom. The book analyses the range of these plays, arguing that the dramatists often place the main artist character(s) in an adverse situation, inward (e.g., mental illness) or outward (a personal enemy, or an anonymous power, such as war). Against the background of such adverse forces, the artist characters tend come across as flawed human beings. At the same time, most plays take care to provide good insights into the artists’ genius and their artistic integrity in the face of the adversity. The book also addresses the question why there have been so many biographical plays about famous artists over the past twenty-five years, providing answers in the context of theatre history and developments across academic disciplines and society as a whole.

“Creator, do you have a family?” said my youngest. And he answered! Thus began our healing through awareness with Mina (how we address the human person—God—who built our universe), the archangels, and many others in spirit world. Our explosive conversation over the next 18 hours revealed God, angels, humanity, why we are as we are, and our universe as never before imagined. Spirit mediums Christopher McKeon and his daughters Ayako and El shatter the paradigms and magical thinking handed down to us through history by religion, philosophy, mysticism, and science. Experience, as we did, healing of your trauma, pain, and suffering through gaining awareness of your true reality. Included are ten historical spirit persons who give short testimonies of their experiences to help explain certain aspects of our—your—life reality. You'll never feel the same, or look at the world around you the way you did, as your awareness takes flight from unawareness with new wings on new winds. Be prepared for a story of life like nothing you've ever experienced. Best of all, you'll learn how you, too, can talk to Mina, 'angels,' your spirit family and guides, and willing spirit persons to get your own answers (without having to take ours on faith) as a ground-floor participant in the nascent worldwide energy testing community! For Mina, this book is all about healing your pain and suffering by revealing our personal, and larger, human reality. You'll find it all inside. A chapter summary: Part I is a narrative of our experience discovering energy testing and our shocking meet-up with our ‘creator;’ Part II describes how you and our universe are infinite and eternal as existence, time, space, and consciousness, including: —an overview regarding our true natural reality: matter, energy, gravity, mass, lightspeed (normal and actual), relativity and the quantum, black holes, the Big Bang, quantum entanglement/tunneling, how the natural universe interacts with the supranatural (spirit) universe; —what is All Existence of which our universe is a part; —all about consciousness (psyche) and how our physical body interacts with our spirit body; —‘psyche fundamental force’ (Intentionality); —and culture as the individual; Part III describes the origin of humanity and includes: —the birth of humanity; —who and what our creator is —how our universe came to be our home —why human life seems destructive and filled with pain and suffering; Part IV is the real ‘woo-woo’ of the book and includes: —how we exist and live as physicospirit-embodied individuals; —our mind, conscience, PTSD; —killing, abortion, euthanasia, suicide; —lineage and DNA; —what happens at death; —fate, destiny, and free will; —suffering, hope, depression, reincarnation, and the origin of slavery; —happiness, love and hate; —government and society; —evil; —beauty and ugliness; —spirit world; —the chakras and aura as they really are and what they do; —Intentionality; —who and what ‘angels’ really are; —history of Earth’s humanity and radiometric dating; —our physicospirit self; —religion; —what is healing, how to heal; —human freedom; —astral projection, the Akashic Records; —marriage, sex; —animal familials; —ten historical spirit persons' testimony: Duke Wen of Zhou, Hitler, Hannibal Gisco, Mio, Mnidho of Nihoa, Tethys, Jesus, Sun-myung Moon, Muhammad, Buddha; Part V teaches you energy testing so you can learn how to talk to Mina (God), 'angels,' your spirit family, spirit guides, and any willing spirit person to get your own answers to life.