Forging an Analytic Identity Through Clinical Writing

Abstract

In this article, I consider the manner in which the created object reveals the creator through consideration of the theoretical contributions of Winnicott and Bucci followed by the creative contributions of the painter Cézanne and the poet/psychoanalyst Akhtar. This leads to Bernstein's format for clinical writing, which I consider a creative process with an important self-analytic function.

Notes

¹Loewald (1980) has used the metaphor of art to describe the psychoanalytic situation. Referring to the analytic situation Loewald said, “Patient and analyst … become artist and medium for each other. For the analyst as artist his medium is the patient; … for the patient as artist the analyst becomes his medium, … as living human media they have their own creative capabilities, so that they are both creators themselves” (p. 75).

²I would like to acknowledge my colleagues with whom I have taught the writing program in Boston and who have been instrumental in the development of the course and my ideas about teaching of writing. Stephen Bernstein, MD, originated the course and has been my mentor in this program. Ellen Blumenthal, MD, and Peggy Warren, MD, have taught the course with me for many years and helped shape my ideas about writing.