Meaning, Mind, and Self Transformation: Psychoanalytic Interpretation and the Interpretation of Psychoanalysis

337 Pages·2014·1.556 MB·English

by  Victor Schermer, James S. Grotstein

MEANING, MIND, AND
SELF-TRANSFORMATION

MEANING, MIND, AND
SELF-TRANSFORMATION
Psychoanalytic Interpretation
and the Interpretation of
Psychoanalysis
Victor L. Schermer
First published in 2014 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2014 by Victor L. Schermer
The right of Victor L. Schermer to be identified as the author of this work has
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: 978-1-78049-112-7
Typeset by V Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ix
FOREWORD xi
by James S. Grotstein
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix
AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE 1
CHAPTER ONE
Psychoanalysis at a crossroads: between science and
humanism—a path to understanding 5
PART I: INTERPRETING INTERPRETATION:
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HERMENEUTICS
CHAPTER TWO
Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, ancient and modern
thought, and the hermeneutics of Greek antiquity
and Judaic sources 29
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER THREE
Romantic era hermeneutics 57
CHAPTER FOUR
Twentieth-century Continental philosophy: Husserl,
Heidegger, Derrida 75
PART II: HERMENEUTICS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC
PSYCHOTHERAPY
CHAPTER FIVE
The psychoanalytic situation: scientific “laboratory” or
interpretive process? 103
CHAPTER SIX
Dimensions and dualities: the architecture of psychoanalytic
interpretation 113
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hermeneutics in the unfolding process 135
CHAPTER EIGHT
Interpretation and self-transformation 159
PART III: PARADIGMS OF CONTEMPORARY
PSYCHOANALYTIC UNDERSTANDING
CHAPTER NINE
Melanie Klein: the phenomenology of the unconscious 187
CHAPTER TEN
Donald Winnicott: the infant’s being-in-the-world 201
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Self psychology, intersubjectivity, and relational psychoanalysis:
“American originals” 213
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER TWELVE
Bion’s psychoanalytic work: from positivism and Kant
to psychospirituality and beyond 239
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Psychoanalysis and neuroscience: an uneasy marriage 257
REFERENCES 282
INDEX 298
To my patients, who have graced and entrusted me with their
inner lives—their meanings, minds, and self-transformations
And in loving memory of my friends and mentors, Gunther Abraham,
Bertram Cohen, and John Sonne
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor L. Schermer, MA, LFAGPA is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist
in Philadelphia, PA. He received a master’s degree in psychology from
the University of Pennsylvania and certification with honors in psycho-
analytic psychotherapy from the Institute for Psychoanalytic Psycho-
therapies where he later served as a faculty member. He is a Life Fellow
of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
Schermer has published seven previous books and over forty jour-
nal articles and reviews about psychoanalysis, group psychotherapy,
object relations theory, self psychology, psycho-spirituality, and the
psychoanalytic interpretation of poetry and cinema. He is on the edi-
torial board of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy and has
served as guest editor of special journal editions on countertranference,
organizational dynamics, and other subjects.
Schermer is a frequent presenter at professional conferences and
clinical and training facilities worldwide. In 2006, he gave the 30th
Annual S. H. Foulkes Lecture on “Spirituality and Group Analysis”
for the Group Analytic Society, London. In 2002, he was co-recipient of
the Alonso Award for scholarship in the field of dynamic group psy-
chotherapy awarded by the Group Psychotherapy Foundation of the
American Group Psychotherapy Association.
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