Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis

183 Pages·2017·3.99 MB·English

by  Giuseppe Civitarese

Sublime Subjects
Sublime Subjectsexplores two fundamental questions: what is the start of humanity?
When and how does a newborn child become a subject? These are relevant to
psychoanalysis not only theoretically, but also in clinical practice, where the issue at
stake is how to help the analysand’s mind to grow or, better, to increase the ability
to give a meaning to experience.
Giuseppe Civitarese here argues that the psychoanalytic theory of sublimation and
the aesthetic theory of the sublime are theories of subjectivation that can illuminate
each other and give us a better understanding of the birth of the psyche. The aesthetic
experience in art and in psychoanalytic practice are concerned with the social
constitution of the individual, understood at its pre-reflective, non-verbal or inter-
corporeal level. It is at this level that, thanks to the encounter with a receptive other,
the turbulences of sensations and proto-emotions become soothing rhythms, proto-
ideas or sensible ideas at first and, once words are added, concepts.
In Bionian terms, the at-one-mentbetween mother and baby is a form of primordial
abstractionand occurs first in the dimension of the purely sensory and indistinct, and
then in the affective space, which nonetheless is always a symbolic space if we take
account that sociality is provided for the couple-system by the mother. It is exactly
the intersubjective process of elevating towards conceptual thinking, but without ever
detaching oneself from the thinking deposited in the body as procedural knowledge,
that justifies the definition adopted here of human beings as Sublime Subjects.
This book explores these topics not only through the lens of the concept of
sublimation or the theory of the sublime, but also through those of masochism, hypo -
chondria, truth and two readings of classical Freudian papers such as the clinical case
of Dora and ‘Formulations on the two principles of mental functioning’. Sublime
Subjects will appeal to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well
as literature and philosophy scholars.
Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD, is a training and supervising analyst of the Italian
Psychoanalytic Society (SPI). Previous work includes, The Intimate Room: Theory
and Technique of the Analytic Field,The Violence of Emotions: Bion and post-Bionian
Psychoanalysis, Truth and the Unconscious in Psychoanalysisand, as editor, Bion and
Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Reading ‘A Memoir of the Future’.
The New Library of Psychoanalysis
‘Beyond the Couch’ Series
General Editor: Alessandra Lemma
The New Library of Psychoanalysiswas launched in 1987 in association with the
Institute of Psychoanalysis,London.Itaims to promote a widespread appreciation
of psychoanalysis by supporting interdisciplinary dialogues with those working
in the social sciences, the arts, medicine, psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy
and with the general book reading public.
The Beyond the Couch part of the series creates a forum dedicated to dem-
onstrating this wider application of psychoanalytic ideas. These books, written
primarily by psychoanalysts, specifically address the important contribution of
psychoanalysis to contemporary intellectual, social and scientific debate.
Current members of the Advisory Board include Giovanna Di Ceglie, Liz
Allison, Anne Patterson, Josh Cohen and Daniel Pick.
For a full list of all the titles in the New Library of Psychoanalysis main series
and also the New Library of Psychoanalysis teaching series, please visit the
Routledge website.
TITLES IN THE ‘BEYOND THE COUCH’ SERIES:
Under the Skin: A Psychoanalytic Study of Body Modification Alessandra Lemma
Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Edited by Sally Weintrobe
Research on the Couch: Single Case Studies, Subjectivity, and Psychoanalytic
Knowledge R.D. Hinshelwood
Psychoanalysis in the Technoculture Era Edited by Alessandra Lemma and Luigi
Caparrotta
Moving Images: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Film Andrea Sabbadini
Reflections on the Aesthetic Experience: Psychoanalysis and the Uncanny
Gregorio Kohon
Psychoanalysis in the Age of Totalitarianism Edited by Matt ffytche and Daniel Pick
Sublime Subjects: Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Civitarese
Sublime Subjects
Aesthetic Experience
and Intersubjectivity
in Psychoanalysis
Giuseppe Civitarese
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Giuseppe Civitarese
The right of Giuseppe Civitarese 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 utilised 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.
Translated into English by Adam Elgar
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For my Father

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Bion and the sublime: the origins of an aesthetic paradigm 7
2 On sublimation 31
3 Masochism and its rhythm 53
4 Whirlpools, rhythms, ideas: aesthetic experience and
intersubjective constitution of the individual 77
5 Hypochondria and the politics of narcissism 83
6 Dora: the postscripts 93
7 Where does the reality principle begin? The work of
margins in Freud’s ‘Formulations on the two principles
of mental functioning’ 107
8 Truth as immediacy and unison: a new common ground
in psychoanalysis? Commentary on essays addressing
‘Is truth relevant?’ 121
References 157
Index 167

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the journals and publishers for permission to use the following
papers in this volume:
Chapter 1 first published as ‘Bion and the sublime: The origins of an aesthetic
paradigm’, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 95, 1059–1086, 2014.
Reprinted by permission of the journal and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chapter 2 first published as ‘On sublimation’, International Journal of
Psychoanalysis, 97, 1369–1392, 2016. Reprinted by permission of the journal and
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chapter 3 first published ‘Masochism and its rhythm’, Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association, 64, 885–916, 2016. Reprinted by permission of Sage
Publications Ltd.
Chapter 4 first published in Italian as ‘Vortici, ritmi, idee: Esperienza estetica
e costituzione intersoggettiva dell’individuo’, Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 62, 987–984,
2016. Reprinted and translated by permission of the journal.
Chapter 5 first published as ‘L’ipocondria e le politiche del narcisismo’, in
M Breccia (ed.), Narciso e gli altri, Alpes, Roma, 2014, pp. 73–82. Reprinted by
permission of Alpes Italia SRL.
Chapter 6 first published as ‘I poscritti di Dora’, Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 61,
665–683, 2015. This chapter was translated by Philip Slotkin. Reprinted and
translated by permission of the journal.
Chapter 7 first published as ‘Where does the reality principle begin? The work
of margins in Freud’s Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning,
in L Brown and G Legorreta (eds),Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental
Functioning.IPA, Karnac, London, pp. 107–125, 2016. Reprinted by permission
of Karnac Books, Ltd.
Chapter 8 first published as ‘Truth as immediacy and unison: a new “common
ground” in psychoanalysis? Commentary on essays addressing “Is truth relevant?”’
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 85, 449–501, 2016. Reprinted by permission of
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This chapter was translated by Gina Atkinson.