Back to Table of Contents
— concept of observation of a personality — theory of dreaming — concept of aesthetics — concept of evolution from the infinite realm of non–sensuous / psychic reality to the finite realm of sensuous and language based reality — concept of evolution from unconscious to conscious mental processes — concept of lateral communication — concept of clinical intuition — concepts of emotional turbulence and catastrophic change. North American contribution lies primarily in furthering the theoretical conceptual elaborations and application to specific clinical conditions, e.g. metaphoric rendition of the generative flux of transformative movements (Grotstein, Reiner), extension of the range of evolution, growth, and psychic functioning (Brown), expansion of the representational range (Grotstein, Brown, Brunet), and integration of Bion’s work into multidimensional approach to primitive states of mind in clinical situations (Ogden, Mitrani, Brunet, and, in a different way, Langs). In addition, contemporary Freudian analysts use the term in the different context of the epigenetic concept of ‘developmental transformation’, and Self psychologists use it in the context of the ‘transformation of the self’. In Europe, the understanding of Bion’s “Transformations” is guided by the thesis that what is transformed is the psychoanalytic object, a constant conjunction of invariants, whose appearance can differ according to the level of transformation it undergoes. Among the numerous contemporary contributions are studies of transformations in dreams and narratives, to ‘deconcretize’ patients’ communication and generate polysemy of meaning (Ferro); view of psychoanalysis as a system of transformations, where somatopsychic processes acquire status of representability capable of translations into thoughts and meaning (Riolo); detailed clinical studies of movement from ‘knowing about’ to ‘being’ (Joseph), and exploration of the area of unrepressed unconscious of psychotic parts of personality with tendency to reduce multidimensional complex spaces into a unidimensional point (Bergstein). Overall, wide ranging differences in interpretation of Bion’s work on “Transformations” and consequent plurality of its contemporary developments notwithstanding, there is an acknowledgement that it presents a substantive way to widen and deepen the field and tools of observation, orienting and ‘sensitizing’ the analyst during the session (and between sessions) to the parts of patients’ personalities, otherwise not readily accessible to the analytic view and discourse, requiring psychic work of transformation in order to bring about change and growth.
1168
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online