Body-Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis: Development after Bion

243 Pages·2016·7.96 MB·English

by  Riccardo Lombardi

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“What seems to us unique is Riccardo Lombardi’s use of his own

body, of embodied experiences in the analysand and in the entangle-
ment of both analyst and analysand bodies in fantasies shared and
unshared. His approach is designed to teach us confidence in our crea-
tive listening, caution in what we imagine we know, and compassionate
identification with patient’s suffering and our own. Lombardi strikes
us as an analyst determined on the deepest possible encounter with
the analysand’s subjectivity at unconscious, somatic, barely figurable
levels. At the same time, he is always mindful of the interdependence
of consciousnesses across persons inside the consulting room and in
the wider world of families and groups.”
– Adrienne Harris and Lewis Aron, Editors of the
Relational Perspectives Book Series
“Body–Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis is an immensely useful
handbook for the practicing clinician, a guide to recognition of the
crucial role of mind-body dissociation in various forms of psychopa-
thology, as well as a compendium of helpful suggestions concerning
the techniques by which mind-body dissociation can be addressed and
repaired.”
– Owen Renik, Former Editor of the Psychoanalytic Quarterly and
author of Practical Psychoanalysis for Therapists and Patients
“Body–Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis is a most original contri-
bution to the psychoanalytic literature: the reader is asked to adopt a
new orientation, as if someone had suddenly changed all the subway
lines and their stops. This book is extremely rich in clinical presenta-
tions, in which the analyst’s interventions always surprise his patients,
not to mention his readers. Like those very few authors who are able to
turn our psychoanalytic knowledge upside down – as is the case with
James Grotstein and Thomas Ogden – Riccardo Lombardi compels
the reader to make a quantum leap. He opens the door to what has up
to now been unthinkable, exploring the proto-sensorial levels of the
analytic relationship in a unique way.”
– Antonino Ferro, President of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society 
and Consultant Associate Editor of the International
Journal of Psychoanalysis
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Body– Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis
The conflict and dissociation between the body and the mind have
determinant implications in the context of our current clinical practice,
and are an important source of internal and relational disturbances.
Body–Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis proposes the concept as
a new hypothesis, different from traumatic dissociation or states of
splitting.
This approach opens the door to a clinical confrontation with
extreme forms of mental disturbance, such as psychosis or borderline
disorders, and strengthens the relational power of the analytic encoun-
ter, through a focus on the internal sensory – e motional axis in both
analyst and analysand. The book details this importance of the ana-
lyst’s intrasubjective relationship with the analysand in constructing
new developmental horizons, starting from the body – m ind exchange
of the two participants.
Body–Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis will be of use to students,
beginners in psychotherapy, mental health practitioners, and seasoned
psychoanalysts.
Riccardo Lombardi is a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and MD. He has a
full- time private practice in Rome and teaches at the Roman Psychoanalytic
Institute of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He is a Training
and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society. Among his
published works is the book Formless Infinity: Clinical Exploration of
Matte Blanco and Bion, published by Routledge in 2015.
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The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow out of
or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psychoanalysis. The term
relational psychoanalysis was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell1 to bridge the tradi-
tions of interpersonal relations, as developed within interpersonal psychoanalysis and
object relations, as developed within contemporary British theory. But, under the semi-
nal work of the late Stephen A. Mitchell, the term relational psychoanalysis grew and
began to accrue to itself many other influences and developments. Various tributaries—
interpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy
research, and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought—flow into this
tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real
and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.
We refer to the relational tradition, rather than to a relational school, to highlight
that we are identifying a trend, a tendency within contemporary psychoanalysis, not a
more formally organized or coherent school or system of beliefs. Our use of the term
relational signifies a dimension of theory and practice that has become salient across
the wide spectrum of contemporary psychoanalysis. Now under the editorial super-
vision of Lewis Aron and Adrienne Harris, with the assistance of Associate Editors
Steven Kuchuck and Eyal Rozmarin, the Relational Perspectives Book Series origi-
nated in 1990 under the editorial eye of the late Stephen A. Mitchell. Mitchell was the
most prolific and influential of the originators of the relational tradition. Committed to
dialogue among psychoanalysts, he abhorred the authoritarianism that dictated adher-
ence to a rigid set of beliefs or technical restrictions. He championed open discus-
sion, comparative and integrative approaches, and promoted new voices across the
generations.
Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors and works that
come from within the relational tradition, extend and develop that tradition, as
well as works that critique relational approaches or compare and contrast it with
alternative points of view. The series includes our most distinguished senior psy-
choanalysts, along with younger contributors who bring fresh vision. A full list of
titles in this series is available at www.routledge.com/series/LEARPBS.
1 J. Greenberg and S.  Mitchell, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1983).
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Body– Mind Dissociation in

Psychoanalysis
Development after Bion
Riccardo Lombardi
vi
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Riccardo Lombardi
The right of Riccardo Lombardi to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Lombardi, Riccardo, author.
Title: Body–mind dissociation in psychoanalysis :
development after Bion / Riccardo Lombardi.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2017. |
Series: The relational perspectives book series
Identifiers: LCCN 2016011108 | ISBN 9781138100046 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138100053 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315657844 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Mind and body. | Intersubjectivity. | Psychoanalysis. |
Bion, Wilfred R. (Wilfred Ruprecht), 1897–1979.
Classification: LCC BF161 .L586 2016 | DDC 616.89/17–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016011108
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 10004- 6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 10005- 3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 65784- 4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Out of House Publishing
vii
To Carola
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The contrast between man’s ideological capacity to move at random
through material and metaphysical spaces and his physical limitations, is
the origin of all human tragedy. It is this contrast between power and
prostration that implies the duality of human existence. Half- winged  –
half- imprisoned, this is man!
(Paul Klee, Pedagogical Sketchbook [1925],
trans. Sibyl Moholy- Nagy)