'Truth shall spring out of the Earth’: Clinical implications of the notion of psychoanalytic intuition
presented by Avner Bergstein

Synopsis

In this paper the author reflects on the analyst's attempt to approach the unknowable, ultimate reality of the psychoanalytic experience. Drawing on both Freud's conception of 'attention' and Bion's emphasis on the power of observation, the paper explores the clinical implications of the notion of intuition as a primary tool in this endeavour. With the aid of detailed clinical material, the author highlights the perpetual 'to and fro' movement between cohesion and dispersion, between conception and intuition, between the finite and the infinite in pursuit of the ineffable, suggesting that intuition entails the capacity to apprehend reality in transience—a state of mind continuously oscillating between the sensuous and psychic aspects of reality. Moreover, in following the path of Bion's evolving thinking on the analyst's intuition, this paper offers an integrated view of the dialectic interplay between Bion's earlier writings and his later ones, reflecting the very perpetual movement that Bion is trying to depict between different modes of apprehending reality.

When

Online via Zoom Monday 20th May 8-9.30pm

Cost

$88 inc GST

Biography

Avner Bergstein is a training and supervising psychoanalyst and faculty member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society. He works in private practice with adults, adolescents and children and has worked for several years at a kindergarten for children with autism. He has authored numerous papers elaborating on the clinical implications of the writings of Bion and Meltzer and his papers are translated into many languages. He is author of the book Bion and Meltzer's Expeditions into Unmapped Mental Life: Beyond the Spectrum in Psychoanalysis. He is a visiting lecturer at several psychoanalytic institutes, and conducts reading seminars focusing on the writings of WR Bion. He is also the recipient of the IPA 2021 Elizabeth Young-Bruehl Prejudice Award.