Table Of Content’
THE ANALYST S REVERIES
Whiletheuseoftheanalyst’sownreveriesinworkwithpatientshasincreasedinrecent
times,therehasbeenlittlecriticalinquiryintoitsvalue,andthe problemsitmaylead
to. The Analyst’s Reveries finds increasing veneration for the analyst’s use of their rev-
eries, while revealing important differences amongst post-Bionians in how reverie is
definedandusedclinically.FredBuschpondersifithasbeenfullyrecognizedthatsome
post-Bionianssuggestanew,radicalparadigmforwhatiscurativeinpsychoanalysis.
After searching for the roots of the analyst’s use of reverie in Bion’s work and
questioningwhetherinthisregardBionwasaBionian,Buschcarefullyexaminesthe
workofsomepost-Bioniansandfindsbothconvincingwaystothinkabouttheuse-
fulnessandlimitationsoftheanalyst’suseofreverie.Heexploresquestionsincluding:
(cid:1) From what part of the mind does a reverie emerge?
(cid:1) How does its provenance inform its transformative possibilities?
(cid:1) Do we over-generalize in conceptualizing what is unrepresented, with the
corresponding problem of false positives?
(cid:1) Do dreams equal understanding and what about the generalizability of the co-
created reverie?
Busch concludes that it is primarily through the analyst’s own associations that
thereverie’spotentialisrevealed,whichfurtherhelpstheanalystdistinguishitfrom
many other possibilities, including the analyst’s countertransference. He believes in
the importance of converting reveries into verbal interpretations, a controversial
point amongst post-Bionians. Busch ends with the difficult task of classifying the
analyst’s reveries based on their degree of representation.
The Analyst’s Reverieswill beofgreat interest to psychoanalystsand psychoanalytic
psychotherapists.
Fred Busch is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic
Society and Institute, USA. He is the author of Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind
(Routledge, 2013).
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’
THE ANALYST S
REVERIES
’
Explorations in Bion s Enigmatic
Concept
Fred Busch
Firstpublished2019
byRoutledge
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©2019FredBusch
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knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany
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For my first reader and editor, always—CSH
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CONTENTS
1 The beginning 1
2 Three definitions 7
3 Bion’s definition of reverie: A brief review 9
4 Was Bion a Bionian? 13
5 Three post-Bionians 29
6 Further conceptual problems in the use of reverie 64
7 Questions about reverie as co-constructed 80
8 Conceptualizing an enigma 90
References 96
Index 102
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1
THE BEGINNING
In everything I’ve written to this point, I was pursuing an idea. This book is the
result of an idea pursuing me. Let me explain.
Itallbegan withaclinical puzzle,leading toathree-year immersion inthework
of Bion and the post-Bionions1 on the analyst’s reveries, while also examining my
analytic practice to see how and if reveries emerged. The serendipitous event that
started this journey occurred in the form of a discussion by Cláudio Eizirik of my
keynote paper (Busch, 2015) at the meetings of the International Psychoanalytic
Association. His discussion, which centered on a reverie he shared with his patient,
at first baffled and then intrigued me. My first inclination was to dismiss its
importance, but I found myself coming back to it again and again, leading me to
re-thinkmyinitialreaction.2However,myfascinationwithhowananalystuseshis
reveries continued long after the meetings, and this book is the result.
Here is Eizrik’s example of how he used an unbidden reverie, the patient’s
response to it, followed by the train of thoughts I had about it at the time.
It was a Monday session. The patient begins to tell me the weekend events, in
which he had a quarrel with his parents, and felt distant from his wife and
children.Heproceedstoadetaileddescriptionofeachevent,andwhileIlistened,
in fact nothing came to my mindbut boredom, and the feeling thatonce again
the week was beginning with the monotony and the obsessive defenses that are
oneofhisusualretreats.Ihavenothingtosay,nothingtoask,nothing.
Then an image comes to my mind, and I am looking at it, and finding it
amusing, apparently forgetting the patient who goes on in his discourse. I
imagine two kids in a bathtub, both of them full of soap, in such a way that it
isimpossibleforeachofthemtograbtheother,orholdanarmortheheadof
the other, in short, there is an absolute impossibility of getting in touch. It
seems to me that this describes what is going on in the session. And so, I ask
Description:While the use of the analyst's own reveries in work with patients has increased in recent times, there has been little critical inquiry into its value, and the problems it may lead to.The Analyst's Reveriesfinds increasing veneration for the analyst's use of their reveries, while revealing important
