Truth is. Truth is also impossible to bear. In order to bear it, we resort to representation: illusion, imagination, and symbolic representation that makes truth uniquely personal to each of us. That is not to say Truth is only subjective, constructed for the use of the individual. Truth also exists outside of us. Bion calls Truth ‘O’.
Lies, on the other hand, require a person to manufacture them (Bion, 1970). There are lies of omission and lies of commission. Both create a delusion of certainty and an assertion of truth that confuse others and pervert object relations. Both rely on material facts used in a twisting of emotional truth. Lies, both conscious and unconscious, damage and distort object relations, while protecting the liar from unbearable Truth.
Meltzer (1998) says there are three kinds of lies: emotional experiences not changed into thoughts; thoughts degraded by the apparatus for growth of thought working in reverse; and by an internal negative apparatus that turns experiences into lies that can be “used for constructing a world of unreality, the delusional system, and hallucinosis.”
This presentation and discussion will explore Bion and Meltzer’s search for truth and their recognition of the defensive function of lies. Participants are encouraged to bring clinical examples.
Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to differentiate Truth (absolute reality) from Psychic Truth (personal emotional reality).
2. Participants will be able to define lies in a psychoanalytic context.
3. Participants will be able to differentiate between emotional experiences that promote relationship and those that pervert it.
4. Participants will be able to link lies to the fear of absolute reality and the threat of catastrophic change.
About the Presenter: Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD, FIPA is an IPA certified training and supervising psychoanalyst and a licensed child psychologist. She is a full faculty member and former president of Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, and a full faculty member of Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and of COR Northwest Family Development Center. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters and of two books: Trauma & Primitive Mental States, An Object Relations Perspective and Bion and Primitive Mental States. She practices in Seattle, Washington, USA.
The following papers will be made available to all participants who register for this event:
Bion, W.R. (1970). “Lies and the Thinker” in Attention and Interpretation, Jason Aronson. pp. 97-105.
Meltzer, D. (1981). “The Kleinian Expansion of Freud’s Metapsychology.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 62: 177-185.
