A Mutual Survival of Destructiveness and Its Creative Potential for Agency and Desire

Abstract

In this paper, I explore ways in which a mutual survival of destructiveness became a source of agency, passion, and creative change for both analyst and patient. I describe how my patient, Jack pushed me to the brink, to the edge of my capacity as an analyst, and how each of us needed to free ourselves from old identifications and constraints in order to have the courage to swim together in dangerous, deadly waters. This deep mutual vulnerability helped us envision a sense of psychic future (Cooper, 2010; Loewald, 1960), allowing for catastrophic change (Bion, 1970/1984) and creative transformation.

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Lauren Levine

Lauren Levine, Ph.D., is on the Faculty of the Stephen A. Mitchell Center for Relational Studies and on the Editorial Board of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. She is a Supervisor in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral program at City University of New York and Visiting Faculty at the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society. She has published articles on transformative aspects of the analyst's personal analysis and their resonance in our work with patients, the impact of shame on the creative process, and the ways in which shame, recognition, and creativity are co-constructed in analytic realms, trauma and mutual vulnerability. Dr. Levine is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.