Dialogues with Michael Eigen

Michael Eigen formerly directed an institute program for working with creative individuals at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and was the first Director of Educational Training at the Institute for Expressive Analysis. He was on the Board of Directors at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis for eight years, first as Program Chair, then as editor of The Psychoanalytic Review. In the past 20 years, he has taught and supervised mainly at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis and the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He gives a weekly private seminar on Winnicott, Bion, Lacan and his own work, ongoing for nearly 40 years.Loray Daws is a registered Clinical Psychologist in both South Africa and British Columbia, Canada. He is currently in private practice and serves as senior Faculty member at the International Masterson Institute in New York. He also serves as assistant editor for the Canadian Global Journal of Health Sciences, evaluator and international advisory board member for the International Journal of Psychotherapy, assistant editor for EPIS (Existential Psychoanalytic Institute and Society), and both teaches and supervises in South Africa, Australia, and Turkey in the psychoanalytic approach to disorders of the self.

"Dialogues with Michael Eigen represents an extraordinary opportunity to listen to the voice of one of the most influential and internationally respected authors of contemporary psychoanalysis. In this case, the form of the interview introduces the reader to a pleasant and fruitful conversation with him. The plurality of topics addressed, the original perspectives in which they are set, the interweaving with personal history, and the advantage given by the experience of many years of clinical work, teaching and writing, make this book a mandatory reading for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. No less extraordinary are the portraits of a whole gallery of pioneers of psychoanalysis, from Freud to Jung, from Klein to Bion, from Winnicott to Laing, and so on. As well as re-exploring in these dialogues, which cover a period of 18 years, the themes dear to the author already exposed in the many volumes of of his prolific writing, the human qualities of Michael Eigen emerge more vividly and directly: discipline, study, competence, creativity, curiosity at 360 degrees for all that is vital inside and outside psychoanalysis. But then above all: wisdom, gentleness, humility, humanity, humor. Perhaps he would respond, in fact, as he does in the book to his interlocutor after a presentation, and as we can imagine, smiling and with a sparkle in his eyes: 'Now if I only knew the guy you're talking about'; or, on another page, 'After that introduction, I hope Michael Eigen shows up'. I can assure readers that in this new book Michael Eigen does show up. And we are grateful to him."–Giuseppe Civitarese, author of Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis (2017) "For Michael Eigen’s many faithful and avid readers, this book provides the singular pleasure of hearing him in conversation; for others, it will be a splendid introduction. Eigen’s independent and generous psychoanalytic spirit allows him to hear in many registers, and to engage and transmit a spiritually inflected psychoanalysis without falling into dogma or exclusion. Each interlocutor draws out aspects of his unique voice, while Eigen evokes creative response from those who interview him. A book to read for pleasure and inspiration."–Donna M. Orange, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; IPSS (Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity)"This book gives us a wonderful insight into one of the most brilliant psychoanalysts of all time. An apt metaphor for his works might be a crossroads: a psychoanalyst who stands in such a place, debating his path, is going neither in one direction or the other; he is literally betwixt and between. This is why, in Mike Eigen's writings and speech, one can recognize a caesura that is not just a paradox, but a space for a deep-thinking performance and quite poetic metaphors, the great substances of his thoughts."–Arnaldo Chuster, M.D., training and teaching analyst, Rio de Janeiro Psychoanalytical Society, Brazil; author of A Lonesome Road: Essays on the Complexity of Bion’s Work (2014)"Dialogues with Michael Eigen give room to an exceptional dialogue with the reader, who becomes more and more involved in a companionship with the author's journey along the years as a psychoanalyst with traumas and psychosis. Each chapter makes us feel at home not only with his books, but with a unique rhythm, between negativity and creativity, individual trials and social forces. They progressively open doors to unexpected sources of life linked to contemporary issues and to the land of the sacred. As psychoanalysis is also an oral tradition, I particularly appreciated the oral style, full of wit and humor, while deepening my reflection. Following Bion's advice to psychoanalysts, ‘you work with your personality’, Michael Eigen awakens the reader with great generosity."–Francoise Davoine, author of History Beyond Trauma (2004)

• About the authorAbout the editorPreface: Soul to soul: living with Michael EigenPreface: So many voices within a voiceAcknowledgementsIntroduction: “Meeting” Michael Eigen: a personal reveriePART 1Emotions as messengers1 Demons and wounds2 Emotional transmissions and fluctuations of experience3 On violence4 Sensitivity and sense5 Psyche singingPART 2Incubation6 Beginning to wait and waiting as beginning7 Silence and intimacy8 Flames and alonenessPART 3Constant struggle and suffering9 Toxins, damage, and processing traumatic emotions10 The ever-healing wound: psychoanalysis and Kabbalah11 I am turning into a barnacle12 I want to be a woman: caesura, blackout, rebirth13 The naked beginnerPART 4Confession and prayer14 Psychoanalytic faithReply: from touch to touch15 Swimming in the psyche16 Faith’s breath17 In the land of the unknownIndex