Why are psychoanalysts fascinated with literature and other arts? And why do so many novels, plays, films, and television series feature therapy sessions? Transferences investigates the interdisciplinary attraction between psychoanalysis and the arts by exploring the therapeutic relationship as a recurring figure in psychoanalytic discourse, literature, theater, and television. In addition to close readings of psychoanalytic and critical texts, the book presents a new approach to examining psychoanalytic themes and formal devices in texts like Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint , J. M. Coetzee's Life & Times of Michael K, Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace , Peter Shaffer's Equus , and the HBO series In Treatment.
Transferences argues that psychoanalysts as well as writers and other artists are fascinated by the therapeutic relationship because it provides a unique site to negotiate the narrative and artistic underpinnings of psychoanalysis and reflect and reinvent the aesthetic and poetic potentiality of art.
Author(s): Maren Scheurer
Series: Psychoanalytic Horizons
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 336
City: London
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Introduction
Chapter 1: Psychoanalysis and the Arts
Practical poetry
The art of the therapeutic relationship
The therapeutic relationship in the arts
Art and (psycho)analysis
Chapter 2: The Therapeutic Relationship
Introduction: Lessons from Dora
The setting
Virtuality: Transference as weapon and as instrument
Neutrality: Transference and the analytic stance
Mastery: Countertransference as interference and as instrument
Elasticity: Countertransference and the analytic stance
The relational matrix
The analytic third
The bi-personal field
Conclusion
Part 2: Discourses in Dialogue: The Aesthetics and Poetics of Therapeutic Relationships
Chapter 3: The Art of the Therapeutic Relationship: Psychoanalytic Aesthetics
Introduction: Psychoanalysis as aesthetic experience
Transference texts
Characters
The psychoanalytic space-time continuum
Constructions
Poetry
Theater
Storytelling
Dialogue
Analysis
Seriality
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Art as (Therapeutic) Relationship: Relational Models of Creativity, Reading, and Interpretation
Introduction: Art as relational experience?
Creative neurotics and analytic artists
Creation as relational act
Relationships in reading
The mechanics and metaphors of literary transference
The analyst/critic and the text/patient
Suspicious interpretation and psychoanalytic dialogue
Fabula sana and anti-narrative
The therapeutic promise of art
The transmedial analogy
Conclusion
Part 3: Reading Relationships: Therapy in Literature, Theater, and Television
Chapter 5: “I’m Telling Everything”: Psychoanalytic Gameplay in Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint
Introduction: Playing with therapy
Power games: Alexander Portnoy and Dr. Otto Spielvogel
The fundamental rules of the game: Portnoy’s psychoanalytic aesthetics
Role-play in Spielvogel’s Chair: Analysis as creative process
Conclusion
Chapter 6: “A Gap, a Hole, a Darkness”: Epistemic Desire in J. M. Coetzee’s Life & Times of Michael K
Introduction: Therapeutic epistemology
Imprisonment: Michael K and Medical Officer
Gaps in experience: The diary as apostrophe and reverie
Author, physician, conquistador: K’s escape from the story
Conclusion
Chapter 7: “To Keep the Sultan Amused”: Scheherazadian Narration in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace
Introduction: Puzzle pieces
Folie à deux: Grace Marks and Dr. Simon Jordan
Alias Scheherazade: Multiple perspective disorder and stitching serial evasion
Storytelling à deux: Split authorship and entangled readers
Conclusion
Chapter 8: “Act It Out, If You Like”: Anti- and Stage-Psychiatry in Peter Shaffer’s Equus
Introduction: Anti-psychiatry
Matters of faith: Alan Strang and Dr. Martin Dysart
Dysart’s therapeutic stage: Acting out in epic therapy
Dysart’s artistic doubts: Spectatorship as supervision and interpretive side effects
Conclusion
Chapter 9: “Locked in a Room, Listening”: Talk-Show Therapy and Co-Construction in In Treatment
Introduction: Talk-show therapy
Supervision: Dr. Paul Weston, Dr. Gina Toll, and Dr. Adele Brouse
Television treatment: Serial settings and talking heads
Co-treatment: Analysis as co-production
Conclusion
Part 4: Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Works Cited
Therapy in Literature and Theater
Index
