|
In this paper, the author starts by examining the recent
occurrence
of an increasing receptivity and critical exchange between
different
schools of psychoanalysis thought. Among its consequences
have been
convergences in the understanding of countertransference,
especially through
the hypotheses of projective identification and countertransferential
enactment.
The prevalence of these hypothesis points towards the
fact that the
community of analysts is bringing about an informal
and convergent clinical
research conducted by a wide and heterogeneous range
of its members. The
importance and epistemological relevance of this kind
of ‘informal clinical
research’ for the construction of psychoanalytical
knowledge is emphasized.
This process in psychoanalysis is compared with the
evolution of knowledge
in other scientific areas, highlighting their similarities
and their differences.
The author shows how Freud‘s ‘mystic writing-pad’
model can be expanded
to represent the object of psychoanalytical investigation
and to bring a better
understanding of the reason why the hypotheses of projective
identification
and countertransferential enactment occupy such a central
position in
psychoanalysis. In addition, consideration is given
to how this kind of
research can help in the difficult task demonstrates
how, using this approach,
some of the important divergences in contemporary psychoanalysis
can be
viewed from a new perspective.
|