Edgar A. Levenson is a key figure in the development of interpersonal psychoanalysis whose ideas remain influential. Interpersonal Psychoanalysis and the Enigma of Consciousness builds on his previously published work in his key areas of expertise such as interpersonal psychoanalysis, transference and countertransference, and the philosophy of psychoanalysis, and sets his ideas into contemporary context. Combining a selection of Levenson’s own writings with extensive discussion and analysis of his work by Stern and Slomowitz, it provides an invaluable guide to how his most recent, mature ideas may be understood and applied by contemporary psychoanalysts in their own practice.
This book explores how the rational algorithm of psychoanalytic engagement and the mysterious flows of consciousness interact; this has traditionally been thought of as dialectical, an unresolvable duality in psychoanalytic practice. Analysts move back and forth between the two perspectives, rather like a gestalt leap, finding themselves listening either to the "interpersonal" or to the "intrapsychic" in what feels like a self-state leap. But the interpersonal is not in dialectical opposition to the intrapsychic; rather a manifestation of it, a subset. The chapters pick up from the themes explored in The Purloined Self, shifting the emphasis from the interpersonal field to the exploration of the enigma of the flow of consciousness that underlies the therapeutic process. This is not the Freudian Unconscious nor the consciousness of awareness, but the mysterious Jamesian matrix of being. Any effort at influence provokes resistance and refusal by the patient. Permitted a "working space," the patient ultimately cures herself. How that happens is a mystery wrapped up in the greater mystery of unconscious process, which in turn is wrapped into the greatest philosophical and neurological enigma of all—the nature of consciousness.
Interpersonal Psychoanalysis and the Enigma of Consciousness will be highly engaging and readable; Levenson’s witty essayist style and original perspective will make it greatly appealing and accessible to undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, as well as practitioners in these fields.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part 1 The unfolding of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, from Interpersonal Psychiatry to Interpersonal Psychoanalysis
1 An interpersonal therapist (1998)
2 Back to the future: the new psychoanalytic revisionism (1991)
3 Harry Stack Sullivan: from Interpersonal Psychiatry to Interpersonal Psychoanalysis (1992)
4 Shoot the messenger: interpersonal aspects of the analyst's interpretations (1993)
5 A Monopedal version of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis (1995)
6 The last shall be first: some observations on the evolution of interpersonal psychoanalysis (2002)
7 Fifty years of evolving interpersonal psychoanalysis (2006)
Part II Psychoanalytic process
8 Standoffs, impasses, and stalemates (1991)
9 Mistakes, errors, and oversights (1992)
10 Beyond countertransference: aspects of the analyst's desire (1994)
11 Aspects of self-revelation and self-disclosure (1996)
12 Psychoanalytic love and therapeutic despair (2000)
13 On seeing what is said: visual aids to the psychoanalytic process (2003)
14 The enigma of the transference (2009)
15 Psychoanalysis and the rite of refusal (2012)
Part III The philosophy of psychoanalytic theory and practice
16 The uses of disorder: Chaos theory and psychoanalysis (1994)
17 The politics of interpretation (1996)
18 Awareness, insight, and learning (1998)
19 The enigma of the unconscious (2001)
20 Freud’s dilemma: on writing Greek and thinking Jewish (2001)
21 Creativity, genius, and divine madness (2001)
22 Oh what a blow that phantom gave me: observations on the rise of virtual desire (2007)
23 Deeper, wider: some comments on the Gill/Bromberg correspondence (2011)
24 Lost in translation (2011)
25 Psychoanalysis, the uncanny, and the banalization of evil (2016)
Epilogue: interview with Edgar Levenson by Irwin Hirsch and Victor Iannuzzi (2005)
