The self invented personality? Reflections on authenticity and writing analytic papers

Bibliographic Data

ID8984656
AuthorsJames Astor (Society of Analytical Psychology, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume50
Issue4
Pages415-430
Publication date2005-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Analytical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8774 • E-ISSN: 1465-5922
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.0021-8774.2005.00546.x
PMID16138833
OpenAlexW1835801412
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited3

One of the great themes of American literature is the self-invented personality, whether it is Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby or one of Philip Roth's alter egos, such as Nathaniel Zuckerman. This is just one of several approaches which novelists employ. They take a problem from life, perhaps their own, and then embark on solving the problem of the book-which is how to write about this. Sometimes, as in Tobias Wolff's novel Old School, the personality of the narrator is woven into an exploration of the creative process itself. Wolff's novel concerns itself not just with writing but with how to become a writer. I explore how this process is similar to both writing about analysis and becoming an analyst. In doing this I discuss issues of authenticity, fiction, art, the effects of identification, the power of the super-ego, supervision and learning, integrity of life and work, envy and the xenocidal impulse, the regulation of our profession and the loss of trust, and in so doing join in discussion with Plaut, Wharton, Tuckett and others about professional communications, the internal world and the mysteriousness of our relation to our internal objects

Id, ego and super-ego · Identification (biology · Personality · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Relation (database · Computer Science · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research · Psychology · Social Psychology

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