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Studies in Extended Metapsychology: Clinical Applications of Bion’s Ideas

Author: Donald Meltzer

£23.39 – £27.99

In this pioneering work, Bion’s revolutionary modification of the psychoanalytic model of the mind: his theories of thinking, affects, and groups find applications which illuminate and integrate the author’s previous study of Bion in The Kleinian Development.

Author

Donald Meltzer
ISBN

9781912567157
Format

Paperback, e-Book, Print & e-Book
Page Extent

238
Publication Date

April 2018
Subject Areas

Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Theory
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Description

In this pioneering work, Bion’s revolutionary modification of the psychoanalytic model of the mind: his theories of  thinking, affects, and groups find  applications which illuminate and integrate the author’s previous study of Bion in The Kleinian Development. In these studies, which range from protomental states and reversal of alpha-function, through family patterns, to problems in nursery and early childhood, Meltzer develops Bion’s concept of a nonthinking ‘basic assumption’ mentality, setting it against the individual mind, which grows through the digestion of emotional and passionate experiences. This distinction is crucial for the comprehension of some of the darkest areas of psychoanalytic practice: infantile disturbances, the functioning of adolescent groups, and somatizations.

Contents

Contents

Foreword
Meg Harris Williams

Introduction

1. Field or phase – a debate on psychoanalytical modes of thought

2. What is an emotional experience?

3. A Klein-Bion model for evaluating psychosomatic states

4. The protomental apparatus and soma-psychotic phenomena

5. The conceptual distinction between projective identification (Klein) and container-contained (Bion)

6. Clinical use of the concept of vertices: multiplication of vertices as a method reality of testing; shifting of vertices as a mode of defence

7. The limits of language

8. Facts and fictions

9. An enquiry into lies, their genesis and relation to hallucination

10. Clinical application of Bion’s concept ‘transformations in hallucinosis’

11. Clinical application of Bion’s concept ‘reversal of alpha-function’

12. Psychotic illness in early childhood: ten years on from Explorations in Autism

13. A one-year-old goes to day nursery – a parable of confusing times

14. Family patterns and cultural educability

15. Concerning the perception of one’s own attributes and its relation to language development

16. On turbulence

17. A Swiftean diatribe

18. Denouement

References
Index

About the Author

About the Author

Donald Meltzer (1923–2004) was born in New York and studied medicine at Yale. After practising as a psychiatrist specialising in children and families, he moved to England to have analysis with Melanie Klein in the 1950s, and for some years was a training analyst with the British Society. He worked with both adults and children, and was innovative in the treatment of autistic children; in the treatment of children he worked closely with Esther Bick and Martha Harris whom he later married. He taught child psychiatry and psychoanalytic history at the Tavistock Clinic. He also took a special scholarly interest in art and aesthetics, based on a lifelong love of art. Meltzer taught widely and regularly in many countries, in Europe, Scandinavia, and North and South America, and his books have been published in many languages and continue to be increasingly influential in the teaching of psychoanalysis.
His first book, The Psychoanalytical Process, was published by Heinemann in 1967 and was received with some suspicion (like all his books) by the psychoanalytic establishment. Subsequent books were published by Clunie Press for the Roland Harris Educational Trust which he set up together with Martha Harris (now the Harris Meltzer Trust). The Psychoanalytical Process was followed by Sexual States of Mind in 1973, Explorations in Autism in 1975; The Kleinian Development in 1978 (his lectures on Freud, Klein and Bion given to students at the Tavistock); Dream Life in 1984; The Apprehension of Beauty in 1988 (with Meg Harris Williams); and The Claustrum in 1992.

4 reviews for Studies in Extended Metapsychology: Clinical Applications of Bion’s Ideas

  1. KENNETH SANDERS, psychoanalyst –

    ‘Donald Meltzer’s unique talent for clarification is impressively demonstrated in this book devoted to the application of Wilfred Bion’s `ideas of genius’. Meltzer presents and discusses the clinical experiences of people from many different countries with whom he has worked with in seminars, personal discussions and supervisions. Bion’s revolutionary modification of the working model of the mind: his theories of thinking, affects, and groups find applications which illuminate and integrate the author’s previous study of Bion in “The Kleinian Development”.’

  2. HUGO MARQUEZ, MARIA ELENA PETRILLI, MAURO ROSSETTI, Gruppo di Studio Racker, Venice –

    ‘In this collection of essays, Meltzer develops Bion’s concept of a nonthinking group mentality, setting it against the individual mind, which grows through the digestion of emotional and passionate experiences. This distinction is crucial for the comprehension of some of the darkest areas of psychoanalytic practice: infantile disturbances, the functioning of adolescent groups and somatizations.’

  3. ROBERT OELSNER, psychoanalyst, Seattle –

    ‘This is the most profound work on the clinical applications of Bion’s ideas. Meltzer’s mind and life have amalgamated with Bion’s deepest theoretical concepts to refind them in the everyday of clinical practice. Many of the chapters have been co-authored with colleagues that worked, supervised and matured with Meltzer, as many of us who had the good fortune to know him.’

  4. THE MELTZER STUDY GROUP OF SAVONA AND MILAN –

    ‘The richness of these studies, ranging from protomental states and reversal of alpha-function, to problems in nursery and early childhood for children of “confusing times”, defies any neat summarizing of this book and its conclusions. Instead, Meltzer’s ethical emphasis shines through, making clear the necessity to differentiate between truth and lies, thinking and political manipulation, in the internal world as much as the external, and to be guided by the solemnity of the dictate “in the beginning was the aesthetic object”.’

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