Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on truth, scandal, secrets, and lies

291 Pages·2016·2.29 MB·English

by  Jean Petrucelli

Unknowable, Unspeakable,
and Unsprung
Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung delves into the mysteries of scandalous behavior –
behavior that can seem shocking, unfathomable, or self-destructive – that is outrageous and
offensive on the one hand, yet fascinating and exciting on the other. In the process, this
anthology asks fundamental questions about the self: what the self is allowed to be and do,
what must be disallowed, and what remains unknown.
Clinicians strive to know their patients’ selves, and their own, as fully as possible, while
also facing the inevitable riddles these selves present. Covering topics ranging from trauma,
politics, the analyst’s subjectivity, and eating disorders and the body, to self-revelation,
secrets, evil, and boundary issues, a distinguished group of authors bring the theory, prac-
tice, and application of contemporary psychoanalysis to life. In doing so, they use psycho-
analytic perspectives not only to illuminate struggles that afflict patients seeking treatment,
but to shed light, more broadly, on c ontemporary human dilemmas.
This collection offers not a unified voice, but rather the sound of many, each in its own
way trying to articulate the indescribable, the unwanted, and the off-limits. It is a book that
raises more questions than can be answered, complicates as much as clarifies, and contains
the essential paradox of trying to talk about aspects of clinical and human experience that
can never be fully seen or known. Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung offers invalu-
able reading to interested mental health professionals as well as to anyone intrigued by the
secrets of the self.
Jean Petrucelli is director/co-founder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions
Service, faculty and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute, adjunct
clinical professor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy
and Psychoanalysis and the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, and editor of five
books.
Sarah Schoen is faculty and supervising analyst at the William Alanson White Institute
and the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service, adjunct clinical professor
at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis,
and writes and teaches about contemporary clinical controversies.
PSYCHOANALYSIS IN A NEW KEY BOOK SERIES
DONNEL STERN
Series Editor
When music is played in a new key, the melody does not change, but the notes that make up
the composition do: change in the context of continuity, continuity that perseveres through
change. Psychoanalysis in a New Key publishes books that share the aims psychoana-
lysts have always had, but that approach them differently. The books in the series are not
expected to advance any particular theoretical agenda, although to this date most have been
written by analysts from the Interpersonal and Relational orientations.
The most important contribution of a psychoanalytic book is the communication of
something that nudges the reader’s grasp of clinical theory and practice in an unexpected
direction. Psychoanalysis in a New Key creates a deliberate focus on innovative and unset-
tling clinical thinking. Because that kind of thinking is encouraged by exploration of the
sometimes surprising contributions to psychoanalysis of ideas and findings from other
fields, Psychoanalysis in a New Key particularly encourages interdisciplinary studies.
Books in the series have married psychoanalysis with dissociation, trauma theory, sociol-
ogy, and criminology. The series is open to the consideration of studies examining the
relationship between psychoanalysis and any other field – for instance, biology, literary and
art criticism, philosophy, systems theory, anthropology, and political theory.
But innovation also takes place within the boundaries of psychoanalysis, and Psycho-
analysis in a New Key therefore also presents work that reformulates thought and practice
without leaving the precincts of the field. Books in the series focus, for example, on the
significance of personal values in psychoanalytic practice, on the complex interrelation-
ship between the analyst’s clinical work and personal life, on the consequences for the
clinical situation when patient and analyst are from different cultures, and on the need for
psychoanalysts to accept the degree to which they knowingly satisfy their own wishes dur-
ing treatment hours, often to the patient’s detriment.
For a full list of all the titles in the Psychoanalysis in a New Key series, please visit the
Routledge website.
Recent titles in this series
Vol. 32 The Age of Perversion: Desire and Technology in Psychoanalysis and Culture
Danielle Knafo and Rocco Lo Bosco
Vol. 31 Unknowable, Unspeakable, and Unsprung: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Truth,
Scandal, Secrets, and Lies Edited by Jean Petrucelli and Sarah Schoen
Vol. 30 Trauma and Countertrauma, Resilience and Counterresilience: Insights from
Psychoanalysts and Trauma Experts Edited by Richard B. Gartner
Vol. 29 The Purloined Self: Interpersonal Perspectives in Psychoanalysis Edgar A. Levenson
Unknowable, Unspeakable,
and Unsprung
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Truth,
Scandal, Secrets, and Lies
Edited by Jean Petrucelli
and Sarah Schoen
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 selection and editorial matter, Jean Petrucelli and Sarah
Schoen; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted 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 Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Petrucelli, Jean, editor. | Schoen, Sarah E., editor.
Title: Unknowable, unspeakable and unsprung : psychoanalytic
perspectives on truth, scandal, secrets and lies / edited by Jean
Petrucelli and Sarah Schoen.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Psychoanalysis in a new key ; 31 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016022524| ISBN 9781138689008
(hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138689015 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315537931 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis. | Psychotherapy. | Scandals—
Psychological aspects. | Self-destructive behavior.
Classification: LCC RC506 .U55 2017 | DDC 616.89/17—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022524
ISBN: 978-1-138-68900-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-68901-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-53793-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
For my grandmothers and my mother, Lonnie, who inspired
my love of a good meatball
J.P.
For my mother, Marthe Whitcomb, who experienced more
than her share of the ugly and the sublime
S.S.
For our dear friends, colleagues, and patients
J.P. and S.S.

Contents
About the editors xi
List of contributors xiii
Acknowledgments xx
Introduction xxii
JEAN PETRUCELLI AND SARAH SCHOEN
PART I
Keynote addresses 1
1 The unforbidden 3
ADAM PHILLIPS
2 Far from the tree 22
ANDREW SOLOMON
PART II
The traumatic field: psychoanalytic growth and
the growth of psychoanalysis 31
3 Reflections on the concept of “a traumatic field” 33
PHILIP M. BROMBERG
4 Dissociative enactment and interpellation 42
DONNEL B. STERN
viii Contents
5 The traumatic field: psychoanalysis as trauma translated 50
DON TROISE
6 Trauma and psychoanalysis: hierarchies of suffering 61
JACK DRESCHER
PART III
Utters from the gutters: political loyalties and
the clash of deeply held values in the
consulting room 69
7 Political identity and countertransference 71
STEVEN TUBLIN
8 The persistence of the past: legacies of homophobia
in a gay male therapy dyad 81
STEVEN BOTTICELLI
9 Ruffians, mavericks, bullies, and traders 87
KENNETH EISOLD
10 Feminism in the consulting room 91
MELISSA RITTER
PART IV
Stuck in the middle with you: encounters with
the analyst’s subjectivity 101
11 Commitment fears: why the analyst avoids analysis 103
SARAH SCHOEN
12 A dream as an internal enactment of trauma:
the impact on the analyst’s self 114
SHELDON ITZKOWITZ
13 Subjectivity and analysts’ personal freedom 124
IRWIN HIRSCH
Contents ix
PART V
Body tyranny: hyperawareness and hyperdeadness
with eating-disordered patients 135
14 Fear, shame, courage: body-to-body interactions as
we move towards untapped imperfection 137
JEAN PETRUCELLI
15 What we talk about when we talk about food 147
JUDITH BRISMAN
16 “So must we to others call”: anorexia, dissociation,
and the analyst’s neglect 152
SUSAN SANDS
17 The anguished body 162
SUSIE ORBACH
PART VI
On being naked: self-revelation, secrecy,
and shifting truths 169
18 Dissociation among psychoanalysts about sexual
boundary violations 171
MARK J. BLECHNER
19 Seducing patients into treatment: when the naked
truth feels too revealing 181
SANDRA BUECHLER
20 The “scandalous patient”: disgust, fascination,
and compassion 189
SUE KOLOD
21 The scandal within psychoanalysis itself 199
PAUL LIPPMANN