Education & Events

Intersubjective Intuition: At-one-ment and Analytic Process with Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA

This event has passed.

To learn about upcoming events, visit the Events page or the calendar.

Intersubjective Intuition: At-one-ment and Analytic Process with Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA

Wednesday, May 19, 2021 7:30pm to 9:00pm
via Zoom
Sponsored by: 
NPSI

Intuition or the ability to understand something without need of conscious reasoning is an accepted, yet elusive, analytic tool. Bion attempted to describe the process of intuitive understanding through his concept of at-one-ment or becoming O of the session. At-one-ment or moments of complete unity with the analysand’s psychic reality is an extremely complex concept to define much less to operationalize in analytic practice. Nevertheless, Bion came to believe late in his career that the analyst’s at-one-ment with the analysand’s psychic reality is of utmost importance to the psychoanalytic endeavor.

In this scientific meeting, Caron Harrang reviews and facilitates a discussion of Henry Markman's (2017) paper, "Presence, Mourning, and Beauty: Elements of Analytic Process" focused on the internal work of the analyst necessary for accessing at-one-ment in the clinical situation. For Markman, this involves mourning the desire to have a particular impact on the analysand, which is always uncomfortable for the analyst. Although counterintuitive, this approach enhances the analyst’s presence or ability to be open to what is unfolding in the analytic field. Whereas Bion’s theorizing emphasizes the non-sensuous aspects of at-one-ment, Markman holds a different view. His clinical vignettes illustrate how at-one-ment may at times involve heightened sensory experience. Markman’s point of view links to Civitarese’s (2019) notion that an analysand’s experience at the most fundamental level is only meaningful as it is received and processed through the analyst’s somatic reverie. Thus, intuition although extending into the realm of infinite unknowable reality is simultaneously grounded in bodily experience.

Discussion will focus on the practical application of intuition through the process of at-one-ment in the clinical situation.

Upon registration, an email confirmation will  be sent to the email address used to register for the event.

The link to Markman’s paper is located at the bottom of the confirmation email underneath the title "Additional Information".

About the Presenter

Caron Harrang, LICSW, FIPA, is a board-certified training and supervising psychoanalyst and current President of the Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI). She lives and maintains a private practice working with mothers and infants, adolescents, and adults in Seattle, WA (USA). She is former Managing Editor of the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS) News Brief and of the NPSI newsletter, Selected Facts. Recent publications include 'Psychic skin and narcissistic rage: Reflections on Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In', IJP, Vol. 93, No. 5, and 'Painting Poppies: On the relationship between concrete and metaphorical thinking', in Absolute Truths and Unbearable Psychic Pain. She also co-chaired the organizing committee for the 2014 International Evolving British Object Relations Conference on From Reverie to Interpretation: Transforming Thought into the Action of Psychoanalysis.

CEs: 
1.50
Contact Person: 
Tese Mason
Email: 
admin@npsi.us.com
Browse our list of classes and find one that best fits your needs
Ongoing development of a new generation of clinicians
Specifically designed for students and those in their first decade of practice
Aids to help you with your classes