Hedgehogs at the Gate

Abstract

Metaphor and Fields, edited by S. Montana Katz, provides a rich and rewarding range of perspectives on the centrality of metaphor and its place in what has come to be known as the analytic field. The engaging and productive difference of these perspectives is compromised by an attempt to develop the intersection of metaphor and field theory as a common ground for psychoanalysis as a whole. The author reviews key themes of the book situated in a view of contemporary psychoanalytic epistemology characterized as an intertextual process where a profound respect for the context of our conceptual tools is joined with a willingness to explore the fertile use of ideas and practices across different thought traditions.

Notes

¹ Modell's notion of local theory strikes a chord with Sandler's (1983) earlier distinction between public and private theories.

² See Stern (2013b) and the accompanying discussions for an example of the complexities of a comparative discourse.

³ See Foehl (2013) and Civitarese (2014, 2016) for an elaboration of Merleau-Ponty and the field. In the volume under review, note Civitarese and Ferro's footnote drawing a connection between Merleau-Ponty and Klein, pp. 140–141.

⁴ Civitarese and Ferro note, in a footnote (p. 141), a single reference to a field concept in Bion's letter to Rickman in 1943: “The more I look at it the more it seems to me that some very serious work needs to be done along analytical and field theory lines to elucidate. … ” There is a little known lineage between the gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin and Bion. Lewin, in a small but providential encounter, went to England before immigrating to America and worked with a young psychologist Eric Trist (Trist followed Lewin to briefly study with him at Cornell), who brought Lewin's work to his position at the Tavistock Clinic. In collaboration with Rickman and Bion, Trist helped found the Tavistock Institute (Harrison, 2000). Their war efforts in England included the “Northfield Experiments,” developing a therapeutic community for traumatized veterans returning from World War II that focused on basic assumptions in group process develop by Bion (1961). Lewin's early collaboration was crucial to the direction of the Tavistock's group field research (Neumann, 2005).

⁵ Stern (2013a) offers a comparison and contrast between Sullivan and the Barangers, suggesting that the differences in their approach provide the foundations for the contrasting approaches found in Bionian field theorists and interpersonal/relational thinkers, a topic explored in a companion article (Stern, 2013b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John C. Foehl

John C. Foehl, Ph.D., is a training and supervising analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; a supervisor and faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis and at Harvard Medical School. He is an adjunct clinical associate professor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program; assistant editor for Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Jack works in private practice in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. 33 Hancock Avenue Newton Centre, MA 02459 [email protected]