Intros to Contemp. Psychoanalysis – Donald Meltzer

Organised by:

Tavistock Relationships

Description

With Meg Harris Williams & Aner Govrin (Chair).

We are delighted to offer an in-depth conversation with Meg Harris Williams and Aner Govrin, editor of the Routledge Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis series, on Meg’s book for the series Donald Meltzer: A contemporary Introduction.

Aner invites Meg to describe Meltzer’s contribution to the understanding of borderline and psychotic states, focusing in particular on his concept of the Claustrum. This will be seen in the context of his expanded view of the Kleinian model of the mind to incorporate both Bion’s ideas, and the further clinical understanding of the variety of modes of identification, including his own formulation of adhesive identification as an alternative narcissistic mode to projective identification.

Meltzer’s view of the vicissitudes of personality development is characterised by both its clinical depth and its wider association with literature and philosophy, particularly the philosophy of symbol-formation. As a result of not only his own experience with children in analysis, but also of intensive work with people doing infant observation, via the method of Esther Bick, he was able to expand our view of primitive personality development and its persistence in the adult mind in both its detrimental and its enriching capacities, and to give clinical substance to many of Bion’s more abstract formulations.

The increased complexity of the psychoanalytic model of the mind enables a more flexible approach to clinical practice and the analytic situation, which is associated with Meltzer’s espousal of the Kleinian-based concept of the internal combined object and its central function in thinking and symbol formation, together with the many ways this may be either structurally inadequate, or avoided owing to infantile or destructive aspects of the personality.

This discussion promises to engage clinicians, scholars, and readers interested in how contemporary psychoanalysis continues to evolve in its understanding of human relationships.

Please note a recording is not included when signing up.

For more information about this event, please visit
https://trtogether.com/events/intro-contemporary-psychoanalysis-meltzer

For more information about Tavistock Relationships, please visit https://tavistockrelationships.org

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