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Psychic Deadness
Many people seek help because they feel dragged down by a sense of inner deadness that persists in an otherwise full and meaningful life. These individuals who seem filled with emotions somehow remain untouched by even their own inner experiences. This is a deadness that persists in the midst of plenty, a deadness that can cripple their entire life or part of it.
This book portrays attempts to fathom psychic deadness, but more important, it shows what is involved in enduring and working with deadness on a day-to-day, session-by-session basis. Often, the therapy relationship becomes a laboratory in which varying states of deadness-aliveness can be tied to what is going on between patient and therapist, as well as in the patient's life. In many cases, according to Eigen, the emotional tone of the therapy can be the most important element. Patient and therapist work to discover what the patient is looking for, that is, the precise combination of psychic nutrients, responses, attitudes, and tones required for a given individual, or even a given moment, so that a person can begin to open, and the deadness can lift.
This book portrays attempts to fathom psychic deadness, but more important, it shows what is involved in enduring and working with deadness on a day-to-day, session-by-session basis. Often, the therapy relationship becomes a laboratory in which varying states of deadness-aliveness can be tied to what is going on between patient and therapist, as well as in the patient's life. In many cases, according to Eigen, the emotional tone of the therapy can be the most important element. Patient and therapist work to discover what the patient is looking for, that is, the precise combination of psychic nutrients, responses, attitudes, and tones required for a given individual, or even a given moment, so that a person can begin to open, and the deadness can lift.
233 pages, Hardcover
First published May 28, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 7, 2013
This books reminds me why I love psychoanalysis. Because only a psychoanalyst could say to an obese woman (as Eigen does) 'You are starving', and have the audacity to imagine this might do her some good.
Not all analysts are like Eigen, unfortunately. He's as much at home with the theory as he is using his 'psychoanalytic imagination' to unlock the frozen psyches of his patients. The first part of the book is a tour through the writings of Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Bion on the topic of 'deadness'. I found the chapter on Bion the most dazzling. Especially the material on how 'nothing', for Bion, was a notion essential for psychical fexibility and enlivenment -- contrary to how it might appear. Indeed, it is often resistance to or denial of nothing that leads to psychic deadness. Embracing nothingness is probably a sign of mental health.
It soon becomes apparent that psychic deadness can take a huge variety of forms, from an inability almost to function, to wild over-achievement that is nevertheless haunted by a sense of failing to connect with life. The second part of the book is devoted to case histories that explore a vast array of different symptomatologies and therapeutic gambits. Case histories usually make me groan, but these are pretty succinct and -- in fact -- quite edgy, here and there. Especially the one that Eigen addresses directly at a patient who left him; and another in which he openly mentions his sexual attraction to a patient who stayed. Eigen cuts a figure so bold and dashing, he's not even scared to mention the word 'God' on the odd occasion, and to use it as if it meant something.
My initial criticism was that the case histories seemed a total bag of allsorts, and didn't bear much relation to the theoretical offerings of the first part. But on reflection, I think that's not correct. Psychical deadness has infinite hiding-places. If a patient cannot find a solution to their own deadness, sometimes the therapist has to be alive for them, to show the patient how to grow back into life. It's the antidotes to deadness as much as deadness itself that are being explored in the second part of this dense, invigorating and stimulating book. I enjoyed it, and am left wondering if all Eigen's previous works can be as good as this.
Not all analysts are like Eigen, unfortunately. He's as much at home with the theory as he is using his 'psychoanalytic imagination' to unlock the frozen psyches of his patients. The first part of the book is a tour through the writings of Freud, Klein, Winnicott and Bion on the topic of 'deadness'. I found the chapter on Bion the most dazzling. Especially the material on how 'nothing', for Bion, was a notion essential for psychical fexibility and enlivenment -- contrary to how it might appear. Indeed, it is often resistance to or denial of nothing that leads to psychic deadness. Embracing nothingness is probably a sign of mental health.
It soon becomes apparent that psychic deadness can take a huge variety of forms, from an inability almost to function, to wild over-achievement that is nevertheless haunted by a sense of failing to connect with life. The second part of the book is devoted to case histories that explore a vast array of different symptomatologies and therapeutic gambits. Case histories usually make me groan, but these are pretty succinct and -- in fact -- quite edgy, here and there. Especially the one that Eigen addresses directly at a patient who left him; and another in which he openly mentions his sexual attraction to a patient who stayed. Eigen cuts a figure so bold and dashing, he's not even scared to mention the word 'God' on the odd occasion, and to use it as if it meant something.
My initial criticism was that the case histories seemed a total bag of allsorts, and didn't bear much relation to the theoretical offerings of the first part. But on reflection, I think that's not correct. Psychical deadness has infinite hiding-places. If a patient cannot find a solution to their own deadness, sometimes the therapist has to be alive for them, to show the patient how to grow back into life. It's the antidotes to deadness as much as deadness itself that are being explored in the second part of this dense, invigorating and stimulating book. I enjoyed it, and am left wondering if all Eigen's previous works can be as good as this.
December 13, 2011
Found it had too much focus on psychoanalytic theory
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews