Death and Identity: Being and the Psycho-Sexual Drama

237 Pages·2013·0.607 MB·English

by  Michel de M’Uzan

DEATH AND IDENTITY
Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications Series
IPA Publications Committee
Gennaro Saragnano (Rome), Chair and General Editor; Leticia Glocer Fiorini
(Buenos Aires), Consultant; Samuel Arbiser (Buenos Aires); Paulo Cesar Sandler
(São Paulo); Christian Seulin (Lyon); Mary Kay O’Neil (Montreal); Gail S. Reed
(New York); Catalina Bronstein (London); Rhoda Bawdekar (London), Ex-officio
as Publications Officer; Paul Crake (London), IPA Executive Director (ex-officio)
Other titles in the Series
The Art of Interpretation: Deconstruction and New Beginning in the
Psychoanalytic Process
Wolfgang Loch
edited and commentary by Peter Wegner
The Unconscious: Further Reflections
edited by José Carlos Calich and Helmut Hinz
Escape from Selfhood: Breaking Boundaries and Craving for Oneness
Ilany Kogan
The Conscious in Psychoanalysis
Antonio Alberto Semi
From Impression to Inquiry: A Tribute to the Work of Robert Wallerstein
edited by Wilma Bucci and Norbert Freedman; associate editor Ethan A. Graham
Talking About Supervision: 10 Questions, 10 Analysts = 100 Answers
edited by Laura Elliot Rubinstein
Envy and Gratitude Revisited
edited by Priscilla Roth and Alessandra Lemma
The Work of Confluence: Listening and Interpreting in the Psychoanalytic Field
Madeleine and Willy Baranger
edited and commentary by Leticia Glocer Fiorini
Foreword by Cláudio Laks Eizink
Good Feelings: Psychoanalytic Reflections in Positive Emotions and Attitudes
edited by Salman Akhtar
Psychosomatics Today: A Psychoanalytical Perspective
edited by Marilia Aisenstein and Lisa Rappoport de Aisemberg
Foreword by Cláudio Laks Eizirik
Primitive Agony and Symbolization
René Roussillon
Illusions and Disillusions of Psychoanalytic Work
André Green
In the Traces of Our Name: The Influence of Given Names in Life
Juan Eduardo Tesone
DEATH AND IDENTITY
Being and the
Psycho-Sexual Drama
Michel de M’Uzan
Translated by
Andrew Weller
First published in 2013 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2013 by Michel de M’Uzan
The rights of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work have
been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-78049-146-2
Typeset by V Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE vii
TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
PREFACE xi
Dominique Scarfone
PART I: FROM ART TO DEATH
CHAPTER ONE
The same and the identical (1969) 3
CHAPTER TWO
Countertransference and the paradoxical system (1976a) 17
CHAPTER THREE
The work of dying (1976b) 33
PART II: THE MOUTH OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
CHAPTER FOUR
The person of myself (1983) 49
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER FIVE
Slaves of quantity (1984) 67
CHAPTER SIX
During the session: considerations on the analyst’s mental
functioning (1989) 79
PART III: AT THE FRONTIERS OF IDENTITY
CHAPTER SEVEN
The paraphrenic twin or at the frontiers of identity (1999) 101
CHAPTER EIGHT
Death never confesses (1996) 119
CHAPTER NINE
The uncanny or “I am not who you think I am” (2009) 137
CHAPTER TEN
Invitation to frequent the shadows (2006) 147
PART IV: BACK TO OBJECT-RELATIONS
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Object-relations: between whom, between what; for whom,
for what? (2008) 169
CHAPTER TWELVE
Reconsiderations and new developments in
psychoanalysis (2011) 187
REFERENCES 201
INDEX 209
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
PSYCHOANALYTIC IDEAS AND
APPLICATIONS SERIES
IPA Publications Committee
The Publications Committee of the International Psychoanalytical
Association continues, with this volume, the series “Psychoanalytic
Ideas and Applications”.
The aim of this series is to focus on the scientific production of signif-
icant authors whose works are outstanding contributions to the devel-
opment of the psychoanalytic field and to set out relevant ideas and
themes, generated during the history of psychoanalysis, that deserve to
be known and discussed by present psychoanalysts.
The relationship between psychoanalytic ideas and their applications
has to be put forward from the perspective of theory, clinical practice,
technique, and research so as to maintain their validity for contempo-
rary psychoanalysis.
The Publications Committee’s objective is to share these ideas with
the psychoanalytic community and with professionals in other related
disciplines, in order to expand their knowledge and generate a produc-
tive interchange between the text and the reader.
“Death and Identity” puts together twelve of Michel de M’Uzan’s
most valid, original and widely appreciated writings, which cover the
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viii SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
essence of his theoretical and clinical thinking from 1969 up to today.
The theory of psychosomatics and the psyche-soma, the mentalization
process, the development of identity, the fundamental role of life forces,
the creative experience with terminal patients and with borderline
mental organizations, the concepts of chimera and the double, as well as
many other fertile and original ones: all these issues are delineated in
these pages written by a great French psychoanalyst who has always
been able, at the same time, to think in an independent and original
way and to maintain stable and vital the Freudian foundations of his
research.
Anglo-American readers will now benefit from this English version
of de M’Uzan’s fundamental contribution to the development of psy-
choanalysis. Special thanks are therefore due to Andrew Weller for his
careful and accurate translation from French, and to everyone else who
has contributed to make this book possible. As the Chair of the Pub-
lications Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association,
I feel honoured to enrich the “Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications”
series with this volume which will no doubt encounter the favour of
psychoanalysts worldwide.
Gennaro Saragnano
Series Editor
Chair, IPA Publications Committee
TRANSLATOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Michel de M’Uzan and Murielle Gagnebin for
their encouragement and help in finalizing this translation. A warm
thank you, too, to Monique Zerbib who has kindly given a lot of her
time assisting me with this task.
Andrew Weller
Paris, September 23, 2012
ix