Table Of ContentGeneration
Generation is both an introduction to and a comparative study of
contemporary psychoanalytic clinical theory. It provides the reader with a
comprehensive overview of how new ways of thinking about the psycho
analytic process have evolved and are still in development today.
Jean White presents a detailed study of contemporary Independent,
Lacanian and post-Kleinian theory, set within the wider context of the
international expansion of psychoanalysis. Contemporary clinical practice
is discussed in relation to concepts of psychopathology, transference and
countertransference and innovations in technique. Each school’s explicit
and implicit models of psychic growth and their view of the aims of the
psychoanalytic process are explored. Written in clear, accessible language
and interwoven throughout with clinical vignettes, Generation provides an
invaluable initiation into the work of notoriously difficult authors such as
Lacan and Bion.
This stimulating presentation of contemporary psychoanalytic theory will
be of great interest to psychoanalytic psychotherapists, psychodynamic
counsellors and psychoanalysts of all theoretical orientations.
Jean White is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in
London. Since 1986, she has consulted to many public sector organisations
and lectured for a range of psychoanalytic psychotherapy trainings. She is a
member of the Guild of Psychotherapists and the Forum for Independent
Psychotherapists.
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Generation
Preoccupations and Conflicts in
Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Jean White
First published 2006 by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Taylor & Francis Inc
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2006 Jean White
Typeset in Times by Garfield Morgan, Mumbles, Swansea
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall
Cover design by Richard Massing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised 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.
This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict
environmental standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests.
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
White, Jean, 1950-
Generation : preoccupations and conflicts in contemporary psychoanalysis
/ Jean White,
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN13 978-1-58391-961-3 (hbk.)
ISBN10 1-58391-961-9 (hbk.)
ISBN13 978-1-58391-962-0 (pbk.)
ISBN10 1-58391-962-7 (pbk.)
1. Psychoanalysis. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Psychoanalytic Theory-Case Reports. 2. Cross-Cultural
Comparison-Case Reports. 3. Psychoanalytic Therapy-Case Reports.
WM 460 W585g 2006]
RC506.W4744 2006
616.89*17-dc22
2006010018
ISBN13 978-1-58391-961-3 (hbk)
ISBN13 978-1-58391-962-0 (pbk)
ISBN10 1-58391-961-9 (hbk)
ISBN10 1-58391-962-7 (pbk)
This is an extraordinary work. The author and her work evoke the image of
a human global position satellite who (which) surveys the entire landscape,
microscopically and globally, of the Zeitgeist of psychoanalytic theory and
practice. The author has an astonishing in-depth understanding of all the
psychoanalytic schools, their cross-influencing of each other and detailed
discussions of how each school approximates a wide range of
psychopathology and how each deals with therapeutic approaches to
confront them. I cannot think of any major analyst or theory that has been
left out. Moreover, the author, who pleads for analytic pluralism, has
masterfully proved her point. This is an exceptional work that should find
itself in every psychoanalyst’s and psychotherapist’s library.
James S. Grotstein, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry David Geffen School of
Medicine, UCLA, Training and Supervising Analyst Los Angeles Psycho
analytic Society/Institute and The Psychoanalytic Center of California
This is quite simply the most intelligent book on contemporary
psychoanalysis to be found. White’s discussion of the many different
schools of thought is accurate, astute, and above all, fair. Her integration of
clinical material from her own practice to illuminate different theoretical
perspectives is more than helpful—it is the best integration of theory and
practice I have read.
Christopher Bollas
At a time when clinical psychoanalysis is more likely to perish because of
the relentless infighting amongst the members of its numerous factions and
orthodoxies, than owing to the rise of cognitive-behavioural therapy, Jean
White courageously shows how contemporary psychoanalytic practice can
benefit from the concurrent application of insights developed separately
within the Lacanian, the post-Kleinian and the Independent tradition. In a
brilliant exploration of the similarities and differences between these
traditions, White is not concerned with developing an eclectic, unified or
integrated model of psychoanalytic practice, but with arguing in favour of a
less myopic, more diversified and more effective type of clinical work. As
such, this book will not only contribute to theoretical discussions about
divergent techniques, but will effectively constitute a milestone for the
preservation of clinical psychoanalysis as a non-dogmatic, dynamic form of
therapy, whose predicates are perennially open to revision.
Dany Nobus
Brunei University
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight,
and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had wak’d after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open,
and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak’d,
I cried to dream again.
Caliban in The Tempest
(Act III, Scene II)
William Shakespeare
[W]hat is there in the activity that characterises the baby’s aliveness
starts off as a unit or unity . . . [OJne could profitably use the idea of the
fire from the dragon’s mouth. I quote from Pliny who (in paying
tribute to fire) writes, “Who can say whether in essence fire is
constructive or destructive?”
Winnicott 1968 [1989]: 239
C’est quand vous avez trouve le mot qui concentre autour de lui le plus
grand nombre de fils de ce mycelium que vous savez que cest la le centre
de gravite cache du desir dont il sagit.
[It is when you have found the word which condenses around itself the
greatest number of strands of this mycelium that you know that there is
the hidden centre of gravity of the desire it is about.]
Lacan (1967 [2005]: 40)
[RJeality is not something which lends itself to being known. It is
impossible to know reality for the same reason that makes it impossible
to sing potatoes . . . Reality has to be “been”.
Bion (1965 [1984]: 148)
Contents
1 Introduction 1
PART I
Introducing the three paradigms 15
2 Contemporary Independents 17
3 Lacanians 41
4 Post-Kleinians 65
PART II
Contemporary clinical practice 87
5 A modern view of narcissism 89
6 Structures of psychopathology 107
7 Motivational echoes: Transference and countertransference in
contemporary theory 133
8 Surprise, humour and non-interpretation: A new look at
psychoanalytic technique 157
9 The aims of analysis and psychic growth 181
viii Contents
PART III
The future? 201
10 Conclusion 203
Bibliography 209
Index 233
Acknowledgements
A number of colleagues and friends sustained me in this enterprise. I should
especially like to thank Laurence Spurling for bearing the whole book in
mind and Julia Vellacott for her detailed editorial comments. I should also
like to give particular thanks to Nina Farhi, Philip Hill and Dale Mathers
for their critical engagement with the text. Vivien Burgoyne, Berthe Ficarra,
Dany Nobus, Eileen Smith and Meredith Yates also read chapters or parts
of the book and made invaluable comments. I am deeply indebted to all
these people. My mistakes, of course, remain my own. I should also like to
thank Kate Hawes at Routledge for commissioning this book, and Helen
Pritt and Claire Lipscomb for their unfailing courtesy and patience.
My greatest debt is to my patients from whom I have learnt so much over
the last 25 years, and to my students and supervisees for stimulating my
desire to learn.
