Aniara, mimicry and aspect-seeing

Abstract

The Swedish Nobel prize winner Harry Martinsson is introduced in this paper, and his epic science fiction poem Aniara is presented. Mima, a miraculous accessor and transmitter of information from all over the universe, is juxtaposed to Sandor Ferenczi's concept of mimicry and Wittgenstein's views on aspect-seeing. It is proposed that the Mima can be seen as a metaphor for the infant mind, having creative mimetic faculties. The single most important realm of mimicry and auto-plastic adaptation is basic trust and empathy. Mimicry is thus suggested to be our deepest and most extensive way of knowing the other as well as ourself, although without cognitive structure. It is basic to Wittgenstein's ‘aspect-seeing’, that is immediately seeing another person's behaviour as expressive of a human mind.

Keywords:

• Mima
• trauma
• autoplastic
• adaptation
• mimetic period
• basic trust
• aspect blind

Paper presented at the International Meeting “Globalization, Alienation and Character,” organized by the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (IMPAC) Mexico city, June 8–10, 2005.

Paper presented at the International Meeting “Globalization, Alienation and Character,” organized by the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (IMPAC) Mexico city, June 8–10, 2005.

Notes

Paper presented at the International Meeting “Globalization, Alienation and Character,” organized by the Mexican Institute of Psychoanalysis (IMPAC) Mexico city, June 8–10, 2005.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan Stensson

Stensson Jan, Ph.D. Honorary Member of Istituto de Psiciterapia Analitica di Firenze. Founding Editor of International Forum of Psychoanalysis