Trauma and representation.

This paper explores the impact of trauma on the capacity for representation. Profound trauma hobble the mind's ability to represent (give meaning to) emotional experience, which results in a diminished capacity for thinking, the breakdown of symbol formation and the emergence of concrete modes of cognition. The author begins with Freud's (1920) views on the nature of trauma, in particular his notion of a protective shield (Reizschutz) that envelops the psyche, and moves on to current theories that address the object relational aspects of this 'shield,' with a specific focus on the importance of an internal parental couple (Brown, 2011; Herzog, 2005) as a vital component of that protective shield. In addition, a theory of trauma from a Bionian perspective is offered that builds on two previous papers of the author (Brown, 2005, 2006) which are augmented by contributions from the French Psychosomatic School. Lastly, an extensive clinical vignette from the analysis of an adolescent male is offered to illustrate the near total collapse of his psychic functioning and a compensatory regression to a psychosomatic world.

The capacity to tell a joke: Reflections from work with Asperger children.

The capacity to tell a joke is a highly complex interpersonal event that depends upon the maturation of certain developmental achievements which are absent or stunted in children with Asperger's Syndrome. These include the ability to know another's mind, a sense of interpersonal timing and, most notably, a capacity for abstract thinking. The author discusses Freud's () notion of joke-work, which is akin to dream-work, both of which are pathways to forming mental representations. Freud considered joke-work as a mental activity that operated on the verbal level and the author examines the preverbal dimensions that are rooted in the earliest mother/infant interactions. An extended case discussion of the psychoanalytic treatment of an Asperger boy is offered to illustrate these points and to demonstrate the activity of joke-work as a means of building mental representations.

RUPTURES IN THE ANALYTIC SETTING AND DISTURBANCES IN THE TRANSFORMATIONAL FIELD OF DREAMS.

This paper explores some implications of Bleger's (1967, 2013) concept of the analytic situation, which he views as comprising the analytic setting and the analytic process. The author discusses Bleger's idea of the analytic setting as the depositary for projected painful aspects in either the analyst or patient or both-affects that are then rendered as nonprocess. In contrast, the contents of the analytic process are subject to an incessant process of transformation (Green 2005). The author goes on to enumerate various components of the analytic setting: the nonhuman, object relational, and the analyst's "person" (including mental functioning). An extended clinical vignette is offered as an illustration.

Bion's discovery of alpha function: thinking under fire on the battlefield and in the consulting room.

This paper has traced Bion's discovery of alpha function and its subsequent elaboration. His traumatic experiences as a young tank commander in World War I (overlaid on, and intertwined with, childhood conflicts) gave him firsthand exposure to very painful emotions that tested his capacity to manage. Later, in the 1950s, after his analysis with Melanie Klein and marriage to Francesca Bion, he undertook the analysis of psychotic patients and learned how they disassembled their ability to know reality as a defense against unbearable emotional truths in their lives. This led Bion to identify an aspect of dreaming that was necessary in order for reality experience to be given personal meaning so that one may learn from experience. Simultaneous with working out this new theory of dreaming, Bion also revisited his World War I experiences that had remained undigested and all these elements coalesced into a selected fact - his discovery of alpha function. In subsequent writings, Bion explored the constituent factors of alpha function, including the container/contained relationship, the PS↔D balance, reverie, tolerated doubt and other factors which I have termed the 'Constellation for Thinking'.

Bion's ego psychology: implications for an intersubjective view of psychic structure.

Of all Freud's writings, Bion was most deeply influenced by "Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning" (1911), and the author asserts that much of Bion's major theoretical thinking may be seen as an elaboration of this paper. Bion's introduction of the concept of alpha function, which "may be regarded as a structure" (Bion 1962, p. 26), constitutes what the author calls "Bion's ego psychology". A clinical implication of Bion's ego psychology is a focus upon the unconscious interaction between the analyst's and the patient's communicating alpha functions. Clinical material from the analysis of an adolescent is offered to illustrate the author's points.

On dreaming one's patient: reflections on an aspect of countertransference dreams.

This paper explores the phenomenon of the countertransference dream. Until very recently, such dreams have tended to be seen as reflecting either unanalyzed difficulties in the analyst or unexamined conflicts in the analytic relationship. While the analyst's dream of his/her patient may represent such problems, the author argues that such dreams may also indicate the ways in which the analyst comes to know the patient on a deep, unconscious level by processing the patient's communicative projective identifications. Two extended clinical examples of the author's countertransference dreams are offered. The author also discusses the use of countertransference dreams in psychoanalytic supervision.

Julie's museum: the evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients.

The author contends that, following Freud, trauma may be viewed as a disruption of the ego's 'protective shield' and that a central factor of this shield is an internalized relationship to a thinking-containing mother. Severe trauma destroy this inner connection, resulting in the reversal of a-function and the establishment of a rigid traumatic organization (ss-screen) that brings coherence to the shattered psyche. However, this is an 'organized chaos' in which concrete forms of thinking predominate. The patient's ability to think, dream and imagine is significantly curtailed and she is consequently locked in a traumatic world from which she is unable to evolve. He offers a detailed case history to illustrate these points and the vital role the analyst's imaginative capacities play in the analysis of such individuals. Finally, he addresses the development of the capacity to represent the trauma, starting with primitive, often somatically encoded experiences, and evolving toward the capacity for historicization.

The cognitive effects of trauma: reversal of alpha function and the formation of a beta screen.

Following a brief review of Freud's writings on trauma, the author discusses relevant theories of Bion, and in particular the concepts of the alpha function and the beta screen. A clinical example is presented in which the patient's relatively recent trauma in adulthood had become fused with prior related experiences, leading to a propensity for repeated enactments in analysis and a failure to learn from experience. Drawing on the analyst's alpha function, the patient was gradually able to use mentalization to transform her rigidly structured traumatic organization. The author highlights the roles of dreams/dream associations and of screen memories in the patient's analysis.

The triadic intersubjective matrix in supervision: the use of disclosure to work through painful affects.

The use of the psychoanalyst's subjective reactions as a tool to better understand his/her patient has been a central feature of clinical thinking in recent decades. While there has been much discussion and debate about the analyst's use of countertransference in individual psychoanalysis, including possible disclosure of his/her feelings to the patient, the literature on supervision has been slower to consider such matters. The attention to parallel processes in supervision has been helpful in appreciating the impact of affects arising in either the analyst/patient or the supervisor/analyst dyads upon the analytic treatment and its supervision. This contribution addresses the ways in which overlapping aspects of the personalities of the supervisor, analyst and patient may intersect and create resistances in the treatment. That three-way intersection, described here as the triadic intersubjective matrix, is considered inevitable in all supervised treatments. A clinical example from the termination phase of a supervised analysis of an adolescent is offered to illustrate these points. Finally, the question of self-disclosure as an aspect of the supervisory alliance is also discussed.

The early oedipal situation: developmental, theoretical, and clinical implications.

The Oedipus complex is typically thought to begin in the phallic phase, when the child's relationship to the parents as a couple achieves central prominence. In contrast, the author views the appearance of oedipal conflicts in the phallic phase as the end point of a line of development of triangular relatedness that began in infancy. An aspect of the Kleinian view of the oedipal situation--that awareness of the parents as a couple begins in the preoedipal period--deserves serious consideration. A patient is presented for whom the working through of early oedipal issues in the transference-counter-transference permitted recovery from withdrawal into a fantasy world.