The body, adolescence, and psychosis

Lombardi, Riccardo; Pola, Marisa

doi:10.1111/j.1745-8315.2010.00356.x

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…All the noted Bion’s mind-body unit is in contact with the external reality with the internal sensations supported by α-function. In light of this hypothesis, the mind-body relationship must be seen in continuous dynamism: in harmonic condition, body and mind are integrated with each other, while in disharmonic condition a messy sensoriality that hampers thinking predominates (Ferrari, 1992; Lombardi and Pola, 2010; Lombardi, 2016). In “Transformations” (Bion, 1965), Bion introduces the concept of O. O is the origin as in the geometrical example of the Cartesian axes: experiencing O represents the experience of whole sensations and emotions, which are activated in contact with reality.…”

Section: Wilfred Ruprecht Bion: the Theory Of “Alpha Function”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: The Bridge Between Mind and Brain

Cieri

Esposito

2019

Front. Psychol.

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In 1895 in the Project for a Scientific Psychology, Freud tried to integrate psychology and neurology in order to develop a neuroscientific psychology. Since 1880, Freud made no distinction between psychology and physiology. His papers from the end of the 1880s to 1890 were very clear on this scientific overlap: as with many of his contemporaries, Freud thought about psychology essentially as the physiology of the brain. Years later he had to surrender, realizing a technological delay, not capable of pursuing its ambitious aim, and until that moment psychoanalysis would have to use its more suitable clinical method. Also, he seemed skeptical about phrenology drift, typical of that time, in which any psychological function needed to be located in its neuroanatomical area. He could not see the progresses of neuroscience and its fruitful dialogue with psychoanalysis, which occurred also thanks to the improvements in the field of neuroimaging, which has made possible a remarkable advance in the knowledge of the mind-brain system and a better observation of the psychoanalytical theories. After years of investigations, deriving from research and clinical work of the last century, the discovery of neural networks, together with the free energy principle, we are observing under a new light psychodynamic neuroscience in its exploration of the mind-brain system. In this manuscript, we summarize the important developments of psychodynamic neuroscience, with particular regard to the free energy principle, the resting state networks, especially the Default Mode Network in its link with the Self, emphasizing our view of a bridge between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Finally, we suggest a discussion by approaching the concept of Alpha Function, proposed by the psychoanalyst Wilfred Ruprecht Bion, continuing the association with neuroscience.

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Section: Wilfred Ruprecht Bion: the Theory Of “Alpha Function”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: The Bridge Between Mind and Brain

Cieri

Esposito

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…This literature coalesces largely around two strands of work. Firstly, the work of analysts with adult psychotic and perverse patients who have also formulated the significance of their bodies as part of the work of differentiation (Bleger, ; Chasseguet‐Smirgel, ; Lombardi, ; Rey, ), including the way the psychotic patient projects into the analyst's body (Goldberg, ; Lombardi and Pola, ). Secondly, the work of child analysts who have long suggested that the setting may be experienced by some children as synonymous with the analyst's body (Davies, ; Isaacs‐Elmhirst, ).…”

Section: The Embodied Setting: Revisiting Blegermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such bodily experiences need to become ‘thoughts with a thinker’, to play on Bion's () turn of phrase, and eventually to be shared with the patient in order to support the development of a capacity to symbolize. However, with these patients the analyst's ‘sensory acceptance’ (Lombardi and Pola, ) of the patient's projections may be an essential prerequisite before interpretations can be helpful.…”

Section: The Somatic Countertransference and The Somatic ‘Cautionary mentioning

confidence: 99%

The body of the analyst and the analytic setting: Reflections on the embodied setting and the symbiotic transference

Lemma

2014

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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In this paper the author questions whether the body of the analyst may be helpfully conceptualized as an embodied feature of the setting and suggests that this may be especially helpful for understanding patients who develop a symbiotic transference and for whom any variance in the analyst's body is felt to be profoundly destabilizing. In such cases the patient needs to relate to the body of the analyst concretely and exclusively as a setting 'constant' and its meaning for the patient may thus remain inaccessible to analysis for a long time. When the separateness of the body of the analyst reaches the patient's awareness because of changes in the analyst's appearance or bodily state, it then mobilizes primitive anxieties in the patient. It is only when the body of the analyst can become a dynamic variable between them (i.e., part of the process) that it can be used by the patient to further the exploration of their own mind.

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“…I would frequently find myself trying to find a way of ‘getting her to see things’ and try to find new ways of describing what I thought was going on between us. On occasions my frustration would undoubtedly manifest in tone of voice, body language, somatic sensations on my part (Lombardi and Pola, ), or uncharacteristic use of sarcasm or irony.…”

Section: The Countertransferencementioning

confidence: 99%

‘No entry’, an invitation to intrude, or both? Reflections on a group of anorexic patients

Stern

2013

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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This paper describes the twice-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a young woman who had undergone major bowel surgery in her early 20s, with no clear medical indication for the surgery. Whilst the concept of 'No Entry' described by Williams (, b) aptly describes many features of more 'typical' anorexic patients, this paper describes a particular group of anorexic patients, referred by their physicians for multiple medical procedures; and proposes there is a group of anorexic patients, repeatedly referred for medical investigations, into whom particular types of entries occur. These are entries into the body 'legitimized' as medical, with a trajectory towards multiple procedures, examinations and surgical operations. Other entries (outside the medical setting) may occur in a state of altered consciousness, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, such that any wish for intrusion is disowned and denied. In both sets of events, intrusion is both invited, and consciously denied. The case example illuminates some of these features, and aspects of the countertransference are also described. Attention is drawn to relevant research focusing on surgical intrusion. Finally, there is an exploration as to how such patients may invite intrusions into the body through surgery and medical procedures.

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The body, adolescence, and psychosis

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: The Bridge Between Mind and Brain

Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: The Bridge Between Mind and Brain

The body of the analyst and the analytic setting: Reflections on the embodied setting and the symbiotic transference

‘No entry’, an invitation to intrude, or both? Reflections on a group of anorexic patients

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