Bringing together the findings from psychoanalysts across the globe, this book introduces and describes the research practices utilised by the Working Parties that were created by the European Psychoanalytical Federation and later supported by the International Psychoanalytical Association.

The book opens with a discussion of the epistemology of research in psychoanalysis, then the various Working Parties describe their methodology and findings, and finally, in the last chapter, an assessment is made of what contributions this oxygenating movement has made to psychoanalysis. It examines topics including individual and group work, supervision, clinical interpretation, erotic transference and psychosomatics, and contains contributions from many distinguished analysts.

Providing a wealth of information on the place of research in evaluating new clinical methods and tools, this book is key reading for psychoanalysts both in practice and in training.

Bringing together the findings from psychoanalysts across the globe, this book introduces and describes the research practices utilised by the Working Parties that were created by the European Psychoanalytical Federation and later supported by the International Psychoanalytical Association.

The book opens with a discussion of the epistemology of research in psychoanalysis, then the various Working Parties describe their methodology and findings, and finally, in the last chapter, an assessment is made of what contributions this oxygenating movement has made to psychoanalysis. It examines topics including individual and group work, supervision, clinical interpretation, erotic transference and psychosomatics, and contains contributions from many distinguished analysts.

Providing a wealth of information on the place of research in evaluating new clinical methods and tools, this book is key reading for psychoanalysts both in practice and in training.

Symbiosis and Ambiguity is the first English edition of the classic study of early object relations by influential Argentinian psychoanalyst José Bleger (1922-1972). It is rooted in Kleinian thinking and rich in clinical material.

Bleger''s thesis is that starting from primitive undifferentiation, prior to the paranoid-schizoid position described by Klein, autism and symbiosis co-exist as narcissistic relations in a syncretic ‘agglutinated’ nucleus. In symbiosis part of the mind is deposited in an external person or situation; in autism it is deposited in the patient''s own mind or body. The nucleus is ambiguous and persists in adults as the psychotic part of the personality.

Symbiosis tends to immobilise the analytic process, so the analyst must mobilise, fragment and discriminate the agglutinated nucleus, whose ambiguity tends to ‘blunt’ persecutory situations. The psychoanalytic setting functions as a silent refuge for the psychotic part of the personality, where it creates a ‘phantom world’. At some point, therefore, the setting itself has to be analysed and the analytic relationship de-symbiotised, as Bleger observes in a celebrated chapter on the setting.

José Bleger’s work demonstrates the need to analyse early narcissistic object relations as they arise clinically, especially in the setting. More widely, he regards undifferentiation and participation as operating throughout life: in groups, institutions, and society as a whole.

Symbiosis and Ambiguity is the first English edition of the classic study of early object relations by influential Argentinian psychoanalyst José Bleger (1922-1972). It is rooted in Kleinian thinking and rich in clinical material.

Bleger''s thesis is that starting from primitive undifferentiation, prior to the paranoid-schizoid position described by Klein, autism and symbiosis co-exist as narcissistic relations in a syncretic ‘agglutinated’ nucleus. In symbiosis part of the mind is deposited in an external person or situation; in autism it is deposited in the patient''s own mind or body. The nucleus is ambiguous and persists in adults as the psychotic part of the personality.

Symbiosis tends to immobilise the analytic process, so the analyst must mobilise, fragment and discriminate the agglutinated nucleus, whose ambiguity tends to ‘blunt’ persecutory situations. The psychoanalytic setting functions as a silent refuge for the psychotic part of the personality, where it creates a ‘phantom world’. At some point, therefore, the setting itself has to be analysed and the analytic relationship de-symbiotised, as Bleger observes in a celebrated chapter on the setting.

José Bleger’s work demonstrates the need to analyse early narcissistic object relations as they arise clinically, especially in the setting. More widely, he regards undifferentiation and participation as operating throughout life: in groups, institutions, and society as a whole.

Bringing together the findings from psychoanalysts across the globe, this book introduces and describes the research practices utilised by the Working Parties that were created by the European Psychoanalytical Federation and later supported by the International Psychoanalytical Association.

The book opens with a discussion of the epistemology of research in psychoanalysis, then the various Working Parties describe their methodology and findings, and finally, in the last chapter, an assessment is made of what contributions this oxygenating movement has made to psychoanalysis. It examines topics including individual and group work, supervision, clinical interpretation, erotic transference and psychosomatics, and contains contributions from many distinguished analysts.

Providing a wealth of information on the place of research in evaluating new clinical methods and tools, this book is key reading for psychoanalysts both in practice and in training.

Bringing together the findings from psychoanalysts across the globe, this book introduces and describes the research practices utilised by the Working Parties that were created by the European Psychoanalytical Federation and later supported by the International Psychoanalytical Association.

The book opens with a discussion of the epistemology of research in psychoanalysis, then the various Working Parties describe their methodology and findings, and finally, in the last chapter, an assessment is made of what contributions this oxygenating movement has made to psychoanalysis. It examines topics including individual and group work, supervision, clinical interpretation, erotic transference and psychosomatics, and contains contributions from many distinguished analysts.

Providing a wealth of information on the place of research in evaluating new clinical methods and tools, this book is key reading for psychoanalysts both in practice and in training.

Symbiosis and Ambiguity is the first English edition of the classic study of early object relations by influential Argentinian psychoanalyst José Bleger (1922-1972). It is rooted in Kleinian thinking and rich in clinical material.

Bleger''s thesis is that starting from primitive undifferentiation, prior to the paranoid-schizoid position described by Klein, autism and symbiosis co-exist as narcissistic relations in a syncretic ‘agglutinated’ nucleus. In symbiosis part of the mind is deposited in an external person or situation; in autism it is deposited in the patient''s own mind or body. The nucleus is ambiguous and persists in adults as the psychotic part of the personality.

Symbiosis tends to immobilise the analytic process, so the analyst must mobilise, fragment and discriminate the agglutinated nucleus, whose ambiguity tends to ‘blunt’ persecutory situations. The psychoanalytic setting functions as a silent refuge for the psychotic part of the personality, where it creates a ‘phantom world’. At some point, therefore, the setting itself has to be analysed and the analytic relationship de-symbiotised, as Bleger observes in a celebrated chapter on the setting.

José Bleger’s work demonstrates the need to analyse early narcissistic object relations as they arise clinically, especially in the setting. More widely, he regards undifferentiation and participation as operating throughout life: in groups, institutions, and society as a whole.

Symbiosis and Ambiguity is the first English edition of the classic study of early object relations by influential Argentinian psychoanalyst José Bleger (1922-1972). It is rooted in Kleinian thinking and rich in clinical material.

Bleger''s thesis is that starting from primitive undifferentiation, prior to the paranoid-schizoid position described by Klein, autism and symbiosis co-exist as narcissistic relations in a syncretic ‘agglutinated’ nucleus. In symbiosis part of the mind is deposited in an external person or situation; in autism it is deposited in the patient''s own mind or body. The nucleus is ambiguous and persists in adults as the psychotic part of the personality.

Symbiosis tends to immobilise the analytic process, so the analyst must mobilise, fragment and discriminate the agglutinated nucleus, whose ambiguity tends to ‘blunt’ persecutory situations. The psychoanalytic setting functions as a silent refuge for the psychotic part of the personality, where it creates a ‘phantom world’. At some point, therefore, the setting itself has to be analysed and the analytic relationship de-symbiotised, as Bleger observes in a celebrated chapter on the setting.

José Bleger’s work demonstrates the need to analyse early narcissistic object relations as they arise clinically, especially in the setting. More widely, he regards undifferentiation and participation as operating throughout life: in groups, institutions, and society as a whole.