Psykoanalysens stora tänkare – Wilfred Bion

Fulvio Mazzacane, coming out of Pavia in Italy, is an M.D., Psychoanalyst and Scientific Secretary of the Pavia Psychoanalytic Centre. Together with his colleagues in Pavia he has been part of intense and impressive elaborations on the Bionian perspective on psychoanalytic practice – for example co-authoring the recent book Contemporary Bionian Theory and Technique in Psychoanalysis.

Maria Yassa is a licensed clinical Psychologist, licensed Psychotherapist and Psychoanalyst with a practice in Stockholm. She is also active as a teacher at the Swedish Psychoanalytic Association and has published several papers on Bion and other topics.

The day will consist in three lectures mixed with time for questions and discussions.

Tickets can be purchased either for the full day (12.30-21.00) or only for the evening lecture 19.00-21.00>>

Tickets for the full day: https://www.kulturcentralen.nu/…/psykoanalysens-stora…

Tickets for the evening lecture: https://www.kulturcentralen.nu/…/psykoanalysens-stora…

The lecture will begin with a description of the different approaches to the phenomena of reverie, from Bion’s conceptualization to the developments of its use in the clinical situation, thanks to the work of other analysts (Ferro, Ogden). It will go on to consider the contribution of non- psychoanalyst Authors, to order to place the discussion of reverie within context of the efforts made in various areas to unite aspects related to intuition and imagination with those related to the attempt to represent them verbally. Reverie will be understood as a bridge between intuition, the attempt to grasp the O of the session, and the narrative function, intended as the analysand’s and the analyst’s capacity to weave stories out of the various characters appearing in the session, their developments, plots and narrative levels. The lecture will conclude with the presentation of parts of two sessions showing the development of a reverie from the initial intuition to a shared narrative.

– Between the Knowable and the Unknowable –

Within the theoretical framework of the late Bion and using the concept of the Act of Faith as its point of departure, the lecture presents a close reading of Marilynne Robinson’s novel “Lila” (2014). The Act of Faith is the epistemological tool that opens the way for O, the unknown and infinite. The lecture shows how Robinson’s novel depicts the interface between the knowable and the unknowable, within and between the novel’s protagonists Lila and John Ames, and how this interface is negotiated and bridged through the respective Acts of Faith of Lila and Ames. In many readings of late Bion, the Act of Faith is described as a passive and fairly conflict-free attitude of waiting – the lecture uses Robinson’s novel to illustrate its dynamic, painful and conflictual aspects.

– Echoes of Narcissus –

Starting from the myth of Narcissus and Echo (I will refer to the one present in Ovid’s Metamorphoses), I will try to develop some themes that, in the psychoanalytic reflection on narcissism have been less treated: the role of Echo (never mentioned in Freud’s index), the birth of Narcissus from a violence, the impact of prophecies and curses, the despair of Narcissus, the transformation into a flower. The term narcissism has been adopted, in various cultural contexts, with a derogatory semantic halo. Lasch (1979) speaks of the Culture of Narcissism, characterized by the lack of prohibitions, by the search for an eternal present that leads to limiting perspective and objectives. The narcissist seems to have no limits to his desires but remains in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction and restlessness since beautiful things fail to leave a stable imprint on him.
The heaviness of moral judgment also seems to characterize some psychoanalytic reflections, as well as a tendency to the dichotomous perspective: narcissism/anaclitic love, destructive/libidinal narcissism, narcissism/socialism. Narcissistic one appears to be a choice, not the consequence of the lack of a function that allows us to live without anguish the vicissitudes of relationality.
I will deepen some of the themes of the myth through some moments of Rita’s analysis.

Schedule for the day:
12.30-12.45 Introduction
12.45-13.20 Mazzacane on Reverie (see above)
13.20-13.30 Break
13.30-14.30 Mazzacane on Reverie
14.30-14.45 Break
14.45-16.00 Yassa on bein between the Knowable and Unkowable (see above)
16.00-17.00 Discussion
17.00-19.00 Break
19.00-21.00 Mazzacane – Echoes of Narcissus