Penultimate interpretation

Abstract

Interpretation is at the center of psychoanalytic activity. However, interpretation is always challenged by that which is beyond our grasp, the 'dark matter' of our mind, what Bion describes as ' O'. O is one of the most central and difficult concepts in Bion's thought. In this paper, I explain the enigmatic nature of O as a high-dimensional mental space and point to the price one should pay for substituting the pre-symbolic lexicon of the emotion-laden and high-dimensional unconscious for a low-dimensional symbolic representation. This price is reification--objectifying lived experience and draining it of vitality and complexity. In order to address the difficulty of approaching O through symbolization, I introduce the term 'Penultimate Interpretation'--a form of interpretation that seeks 'loopholes' through which the analyst and the analysand may reciprocally save themselves from the curse of reification. Three guidelines for 'Penultimate Interpretation' are proposed and illustrated through an imaginary dialogue.

Shakespeare's first sonnet: Reading through repetitions

“…In this context, repetition indicates a natural tendency for increase in entropy as proposed by Freud but also an attempt to signify the meaning of objects that existed on higher level of organization, as proposed by MatteBlanco. It is a form of signification that indicates the existence of objects on a higher level of dimensionality, characterizing the unconsciousness (Neuman 2010 As defined by Ogden (1983: 234), "Internal objects are subdivisions of the ego that are heavily identified with an object representation while maintaining the capacities of the whole ego for though, perception, feeling etc." In this context, "resistance" is understood "in terms of the difficulty the patient has in giving up the pathological attachment involved in his unconscious internal object relationships" (1983: 236).…”