Table Of Content

(cid:73)(cid:100)(cid:108)(cid:86)(cid:103)(cid:89) (cid:54)(cid:21)(cid:69)(cid:104)(cid:110)(cid:88)(cid:93)(cid:100)(cid:97)(cid:100)(cid:92)(cid:110)(cid:21)(cid:100)(cid:91) (cid:74)(cid:99)(cid:88)(cid:90)(cid:103)(cid:105)(cid:86)(cid:94)(cid:99)(cid:105)(cid:110) Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series Volume 27 ER4786X.indb 1 10/19/07 6:42:56 AM Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series Vol. 1: Reflections on Self Psychology – Vol. 18: Kohut, Loewald, and the Joseph D. Lichtenberg & Postmoderns: A Comparative Study Samuel Kaplan (eds.) of Self and Relationship – Vol. 2: Psychoanalysis and Infant Research – Judith Guss Teicholz Joseph D. Lichtenberg Vol. 19: A Spirit of Inquiry: Communication Vol. 4: Structures of Subjectivity: in Psychoanalysis – Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Explorations in Psychoanalytic Frank M. Lachmann, & James L. Fosshage Phenomenology – George E. Atwood & Robert D. Stolorow Vol. 20: Craft and Spirit: A Guide to Exploratory Psychotherapies – Vol. 7: The Borderline Patient: Emerging Joseph D. Lichtenberg Concepts in Diagnosis, Psychodynamics, and Treatment, Vol. 2 – James S. Grotstein, Vol. 21: Attachment and Sexuality – Marion F. Solomon, & Joan A. Lang (eds.) Diana Diamond, Sidney J. Blatt, & Vol. 8: Psychoanalytic Treatment: Joseph D. Lichtenberg An Intersubjective Approach – Vol. 22: Psychotherapy and Medication: Robert D. Stolorow, Bernard Brandchaft, & George E. Atwood The Challenge of Integration – Fredric N. Busch & Larry S. Sandberg Vol. 9: Female Homosexuality: Choice Without Volition – Elaine V. Siegel Vol. 23: Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Vol. 10: Psychoanalysis and Motivation – Philosophical Reflections – Joseph D. Lichtenberg Robert D. Stolorow Vol. 11: Cancer Stories: Creativity and Self- Repair – Esther Dreifuss Kattan Vol. 24: Jealousy and Envy: New Views about Two Powerful Feelings – Vol. 12: Contexts of Being: Léon Wurmser & Heidrun Jarass The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life – Vol. 25: Sensuality and Sexuality Across the Robert D. Stolorow & George E. Atwood Divide of Shame – Vol. 13: Self and Motivational Systems: Joseph D. Lichtenberg Toward a Theory of Psychoanalytic Vol. 26: Living Systems, Evolving Technique – Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Frank M. Lachmann, Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: & James L. Fosshage A Collection of Papers from the Life Work of Louis Sander – Vol. 14: Affects as Process: An Inquiry into Louis Sander the Centrality of Affect in Psychological Life – Joseph M. Jones Vol. 27: Toward a Psychology of Vol. 15: Understanding Therapeutic Action: Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychodynamic Concepts of Cure – Psychoanalysis – Lawrence E. Lifson (ed.) Doris Brothers Vol. 16: The Clinical Exchange: Techniques Vol. 28: Transforming Narcissism: Derived from Self and Motivational Systems Reflections on Empathy, Humor, and – Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Expectations – Frank Lachmann Frank M. Lachmann, & James L. Fosshage Vol. 29: Mentalization: Theoretical Vol. 17: Working Intersubjectively: Contextualism in Psychoanalytic Practice – Considerations, Research Findings, and Donna M. Orange, Clinical Implications – George E. Atwood, & Robert D. Stolorow Fredric N. Busch (ed.) ER4786X.indb 2 10/19/07 6:42:56 AM (cid:73)(cid:100)(cid:108)(cid:86)(cid:103)(cid:89) (cid:54)(cid:21)(cid:69)(cid:104)(cid:110)(cid:88)(cid:93)(cid:100)(cid:97)(cid:100)(cid:92)(cid:110)(cid:21)(cid:100)(cid:91) (cid:74)(cid:99)(cid:88)(cid:90)(cid:103)(cid:105)(cid:86)(cid:94)(cid:99)(cid:105)(cid:110) (cid:73)(cid:71)(cid:54)(cid:74)(cid:66)(cid:54)(cid:34)(cid:56)(cid:58)(cid:67)(cid:73)(cid:58)(cid:71)(cid:58)(cid:57) (cid:3)(cid:69)(cid:72)(cid:78)(cid:56)(cid:61)(cid:68)(cid:54)(cid:67)(cid:54)(cid:65)(cid:78)(cid:72)(cid:62)(cid:72) (cid:57)(cid:100)(cid:103)(cid:94)(cid:104)(cid:21)(cid:55)(cid:103)(cid:100)(cid:105)(cid:93)(cid:90)(cid:103)(cid:104) ER4786X.indb 3 10/19/07 6:42:56 AM Excerpts from “Refugee Blues,” copyright 1940 and renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden, from Collected Poems by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. Faith Healer reproduced by permission of The Agency (London) Ltd. © Brian Friel 1980. First published by Faber and Faber Ltd. in 1980. All rights reserved and enquiries to The Agency (London) Ltd. 24 Pottery Lane, London W11 4LZ fax: 020 7727 9037 “Connoisseur of Chaos,” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens, copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens and renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. The Analytic Press The Analytic Press Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group 270 Madison Avenue 27 Church Road New York, NY 10016 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA © 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Printed in the United States of America on acid‑free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number‑13: 978‑0‑88163‑478‑5 (Softcover) 978‑0‑88163‑477‑8 (Hardcover) Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, trans‑ mitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission 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. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Brothers, Doris. Toward a psychology of uncertainty : trauma‑centered psychoanalysis / Doris Brothers. p. cm. ‑‑ (Psychoanalytic inquiry book series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978‑0‑88163‑478‑5 (alk. paper) 1. Uncertainty. 2. Psychic trauma‑‑Case studies. 3. Psychoanalysis. I. Title. BF463.U5B76 2008 150.19’5‑‑dc22 2007029734 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and The Analytic Press Web site at http://www.analyticpress.com ER4786X.indb 4 10/19/07 6:42:56 AM To Jack ER4786X.indb 5 10/19/07 6:42:57 AM ER4786X.indb 6 10/19/07 6:42:57 AM CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 The Laboratory and the Labyrinth: An Introduction 1 2 Making the Unbearable Bearable: Regulation, Expectation, and the Experience of Existential Uncertainty 19 3 Trauma as Exile: Terror, Shame, and the Destruction of Certainty 43 4 Sanctuary on the Ledge: Trauma-Centered Treatment 61 5 Muting the Sirens of Certainty: Beyond Dichotomous Gender and the Oedipus Complex 85 6 To Die With Our Dead: Ghosts, Ghouls, and the Denial of Life 107 7 Faith, False Gods, and the Surrender of Certitude 143 8 In the Ashes of Burnout: Lost (and Found) Faith 177 Epilogue: Rewinding the Thread 197 Bibliography 199 Index 217 ER4786X.indb 7 10/19/07 6:42:57 AM ER4786X.indb 8 10/19/07 6:42:57 AM PREFACE “Ink-a-bink-a-bottle-of-ink …” A little girl, seated at her grandmother’s dining room table, taps her finger in rhythm with her chant on each of a carefully arranged assortment of candies. Only one can be her dessert. Which will it be? “… the-cork-falls-out-and-you- STINK.” Instantly, she realizes that her finger has landed on the wrong candy. She begins her chant again. Finally, after several tries, she feels confident that fate and her desire are aligned. As she pops the candy into her mouth, her eyes close in blissful satisfaction. Watching nearby, her grandmother is transported back many years. In her mind’s eye, she sees another little girl who is sitting, not at a table, but at her school desk. The child is staring at a lined sheet of yellow paper, unable to decide if the letters she has just written on it spell a word correctly. Her hand is trembling. If she is wrong, the world will end. Her parents had assured her that she had no need to worry about the spelling test. “Just try your best and it will be fine,” they had said. But she knew they were lying. If she tried her best and still failed to spell even one of the words perfectly, they would never smile again. The schoolgirl would have been stunned to learn that as a grown-up, she would willingly put many words on paper. But she is only just beginning to believe that, no matter how flawed it is, her writing will not destroy the world. In many ways this book begins where my last book, Falling Back- wards, leaves off. Trust, after all, the subject of that book, is necessary only because we inhabit a world in which nothing, least of all the endur- ance of selfhood, is certain. It is not so much the fact that we cannot be certain of our psychological survival that interests me in this one, but the myriad ways in which this fact is experienced. I intend Chapter 1 as an overall introduction. I attempt to show that a psychology of uncertainty is an inevitable accompaniment to the relational revolution in psychoanalysis, and I explore some of its implications and ramifications. I pay special attention to the problem of ER4786X.indb 9 10/19/07 6:42:57 AM