The Ice Is Melting

ABSTRACT

In The Ice is Melting, Leigh Lyndon, Psy.D., uses three personal vignettes to illustrate various uses of an object, the process of internalizing an other, and how addiction can be used to circumvent the need for an other. Using auto theoretical prose poetry to pull the reader into her experiences, she allows the reader, thusly, to encounter - rather than be told – her ideas about the ways in which bodies are inscribed not only by our earliest relationships but by the social as well. She describes in detail several ways that she attempted to manage her anxiety about having to be in these different relationships (to self, to the other, to culture). By using auto-theory, Lyndon is implicitly asking the reader to attend to their own sources of understanding and is troubling our ideas of what it is “to know.”

This article refers to:

Still Life

The Ice is Melting … in a Drink, Best Served with Ma (間):What Happens When Autotheorist and Reader Meet in the Evocative Space

A Case of You: Leigh Lyndon’s “The Ice Is Melting”

Autotheory, Critical and Clinical

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Patient anonymization statement

Potentially personally identifying information presented in this article that relates directly or indirectly to an individual, or individuals, has been changed to disguise and safeguard the confidentiality, privacy and data protection rights of those concerned, in accordance with the journal’s anonymization policy.

Notes

¹ “Ladies” figure skating did not become “Women’s” figure skating until 2022.

² A clean turn means that the skater shifts her edge at precisely the same time that she shifts her direction; this leaves a trace that has an open space at the top of the turn. If there is even a slight discrepancy between this timing, the top of the turn is closed and the edge on the way in or out of the turn is doubled.

³ A clean jump means that the skater rotated precisely the right number of times before landing. A clean landing is smooth and leaves a single trace as the skater comes out of the jump.

⁴ When I competed as a Senior Lady, I was required to perform triple jumps. Now the young women competing are expected to land triples in combination with other triples and must also have triple axels (3.5 rotations) and at least one quad in their repertoire.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leigh Garrett Lyndon

Leigh Lyndon, Psy.D., is a psychoanalyst who maintains a private practice in Oakland. She has taught and supervised at Access Institute, CPMC, and TPI. She also co-facilitates a case conference for Peer Counselors at RAMS as part of her ongoing work with the Community Psychoanalytic Track at PINC. Leigh is a graduate of PINC. In an earlier chapter of her life, she was a choreographer and performing artist in New York City.