"Becoming Alive" draws on the Winnicottian idea of transitional objects, and puts forward the argument that human beings relate to and use objects in order to generate experiences of 'being alive'.
Enlivened by case vignettes and examples drawn from wider culture, this book explores the idea that vitality has been picked up rather late in psychoanalysis, and stresses how becoming alive affects our intersubjective relationships as well as our relationship to objects.
This is an intriguing book articulating a developmental psychoanalytic account of the experience of 'being alive'. It shows the value of a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives held together in tension and emphasises the working-out of theoretical concepts that can express the experience of being alive, a process that involves reconsidering a wide range of psychoanalytic ideas.
Autorentext
Ryan Lamothe
Zusammenfassung
What does it mean to be and feel alive and real?How do we become and be alive together?Human beings are uniquely concerned with the question and marvel of what it means to feel alive and real, as well as the lifelong struggle of being alive together. Becoming Alive proffers a psychoanalytic theory of experiences of being alive, acknowledging that analyst and patient, indeed, each of us, are caught up in the larger drama and mystery of being alive. Focusing on the challenge in any psychoanalytic theory to demonstrate the relation between culture, community, and the individual, LaMothe's theory provides a bridge between the three, arguing that organizations of experiences of being alive are inextricably yoked to cultural stories, rituals, and practices. Enlivened by clinical illustrations and examples drawn from wider culture, Becoming Alive brings together psychoanalytic developmental perspectives, infant-parent research, semiotics, and philosophy in providing a comprehensive, lucid, and systematic description of subjective and intersubjective experiences of being alive.
Inhalt
Vitality in Human Life and Psychoanalysis. Body-mind Aliveness in the Social Realm. The Alive Subjective-object. Alive Subjects. Vital Stories. Couch and Culture.