Discussion of Rundel “Fire of Eros” Paper

Abstract

Reviewing Rundel’s spectrum model of differentiation–dedifferentiation and its role in sexuality and oceanic experiences, Vaughan discusses another way of conceptualizing Rundel’s clinical material in terms that do not involve a binary with poles. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s work on the body in the mind and on metaphor as arising from properties of the physical and bodily world. In addition, Vaughan notes, the friction produced by the literal and figurative rubbing up against bodies and boundaries in sexuality is partly responsible for the Fire of Eros. In transcendent experiences of sexuality we are at once both most fully ourselves and most interdigitated with and connected to others.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan C. Vaughan

Susan C. Vaughan, M.D., is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and on the Faculty, Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York, NY.