Unrepresented States and the Construction of Meaning

'This collection of essays brings together a group of eminent colleagues, who, in a series of original, rigorously argued and clinically illustrated articles, each in their own way, unavoidably ends up engaging with important aspects of the work of the late Andre Green. The choice made by the editors of working on unrepresented states and processes of representation strongly resonates with Green's ideas on the 'work of the negative.' As a result, this volume affirms the stakes so deeply explored by Green and illustrates their major practical consequences for the treatment of non-neurotic patients. The reader will find here much food for thought and reflection on the psychoanalytic theory of psychical functioning and its clinical implications.'- Jean Luc Donnet, Full member and Supervising Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP), former director of the Jean Favreau Center for psychoanalytic treatment, author of The Analyzing Situation'These essays convey and explore the spirit of the analyst at work, who, like the artist, must keep alive and assemble fragments of experience in order to create new meaning. Reading this book is therefore an aesthetic experience, one that provides fresh and pleasant impressions that may lead to a new, personal and mind-expanding integration of analytic theory. One comes away with a heightened, more vivid perception of psychoanalysis and its transformative possibilities.'- Antonino Ferro, Training and Supervising Analyst in the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, and author of Avoiding Emotions, Living Emotions and Mind Works: Technique and Creativity in Psychoanalysis'Reading this remarkable collection of thinking by an outstanding group of contributors is like taking part in a master class. The authors address areas for which previous analytic theory has not sufficed, areas that lie beyond the narrowly neurotic even as they are also often present in the underlying character structure of those who are neurotic. How are empty places, absences as well as presences, to be understood within the mind at work? What is the import of such voids, what their origins, and what their effects on the individual and the analyst? What is the place and the impact of the non-thinking part of the mind, and how does it work? How one can grapple with and make sense of what is not represented is the patient's problem in living, the clinician's problem in practice.This compendium has such consistently rare richness of both clinical reports and conceptual depth as to be an important and significant advance in analytic understanding. We are presented the ideas of earlier thinkers and we are presented original extensions of knowledge, moving our understanding of seeming voids, of psychic processes before thinking, to a new level. It casts valuable light on dark places in the mind.'- Warren S. Poland