On excess, trauma and helplessness

Repetitions and transformations

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8971440
AutoresR J Perelberg (0000-0003-1441-491X, Bedford College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen96
Número6
Páginas1453-1476
Fecha de publicación2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1745-8315.12438
PMID26663026
OpenAlexW2195102217
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas24

Freud's work establishes a link between an excessive amount of excitation, the infant's experience of helplessness, and trauma. The idea of excess emphasises a quantitative element, not reducible to the field of representation. In this paper I explore the notions of excess and closure in relation to two clinical examples. A patient who lived through experiences of excess and flooding is contrasted with another patient whose experience of excess is expressed through withdrawal. The complex process of elaboration and working through in their analyses takes place by bringing together affect, representation, sensorial and somatic experiences, dreams, associations and enactments as they are gathered and given meaning après coup through analytic work. Two concepts were central to the understanding of what took place in the analyses: excorporation and figurability. The paper emphasizes the place of temporality in creating a triadic space in an analysis as it relates the here and now with the there and then in the work of après-coup. The paper also traces the roots of this modern approach that relates the analyst's work of regression, time, and the creation of a triadic space to Freud's metapsychology

Closure (psychology · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Learned helplessness · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Metapsychology · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychotherapist · Relation (database · Representation (politics · Space (punctuation) · Temporality · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychology · Psychology and Mental Health · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology