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In this paper 1 , written in draft form in 1991 and now posthumously published, the late Louis Zinkin 2 presents a constructivist view of the self. He considers some of the paradoxes in Jungian definitions of the self and compares these to Winnicott's ‘forbidden question’ regarding the transitional object: ‘Did you find it or did you make it?’. He argues that, for the purposes of a coherent scientific theory, these apparent paradoxes need to be formulated in an internally consistent way. Bemused by the many contradictions in Jung's thinking, he proposes making a fresh start by thinking in terms of people in social interaction with each other rather than as solitary subjects, as Jung did. This leads him to the view that the self comes into existence through continuing interaction with other people. Drawing on the work of Harré and Vygotsky, he suggests that the public self is prior to the private self and that one becomes real through recognition by other people in and through language and culture. The paper was discussed at a meeting held at the Society of Analytical Psychology in November 1991 and an edited version of the taped discussion follows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at some of the processes that are at work in finding oneself in analysis. It explores Jung's unique contribution to our thinking about the self and its dynamic of individuation. The author attempts to show how the Self, in its quest for consciousness, requires the surrendering of ego inflation—the narcissistic delusion that the ego is the self. A case is made for seeing analysis as an individuation process which offers the opportunity for experiences of a more authentic sense of oneself. Jung stated that individuation requires the ego to enter into service of the Self. For this to happen, the author argues that both patient and analyst must be prepared to make sacrifices and take risks. Using clinical examples, he illustrates that, although purposive, the Self can be experienced as violent and destructive if the ego is unable to facilitate its expression. This may result in an individuation crisis for both analyst and patient. The paper demonstrates how impasse in analysis can evoke the transcendent function, which also requires sacrifices to be made and risks to be taken for analysis to proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part 1 of this paper the authors summarize those key concepts in Jungian analytic theory which differentiate it from a psychoanalytic approach. To illustrate these perspectives and their application in clinical work, a patient is introduced. The authors elaborate on a particular dream with the proposition that it holds within it both an image of the internal world of the patient's personal psyche and something which might be viewed as archetypal and emerging from the collective unconscious. Part 2 focuses on more recent developments in Jungian analytic thinking. Michael Fordham's important work in extending Jungian theory into an understanding of infant development is summarized and illustrated by a clinical example. This is followed by a brief summary of how contemporary debate within the Jungian analytic community has been much affected by recent developments in areas outside the analytic discourse which have offered both a challenge to and an affirmation of certain Jungian concepts. Examples given are from emergence theory and neuroscience. The Jungian interest in such phenomena stems from a view of the human psyche as rooted in a wider world of matter, culture, history and an unconscious that is not only personal but also collective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights some key features of a Jungian approach to transference and countertransference and suggests that a Jungian model has crucial aspects in common with contemporary views in attachment theory on the nature of the analytic relationship. The analytic relationship is examined in terms of the fundamental processes of psychic development described in attachment theory and affective neuroscience, namely affect regulation and development of reflective function and of self-agency. The relative value of three analytic techniques, those of interpretation, new relational experience and regression, are discussed in relation to these processes. I suggest that each of the traditional psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic models concentrates on differing aspects of these psychic processes and analytic techniques. I construct a grid to illustrate this and to demonstrate how attachment theory and developmental neuroscience offer a theoretical basis on which we can develop an integrated model of the nature of the analytic relationship and tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what implications Bion's famous anecdote about ‘some patients getting better and others going on to become psycho-analysts’ might have in clinical practice. It explores key stages in the post-qualification analyses of three practitioners whose training analyses had left them qualified but restless and dissatisfied with their ongoing work. It suggests that a significant common factor in these unsatisfactory outcomes was the weakness of these analysands' egos, understood as their inability to enjoy coniunctios, and their profound fear of accessing the source of the problem. This had led to an unwitting investment in spurious super-ego driven alternatives such as professional qualification rather than face the initially bleak realization (of ‘nameless dread’) that could initiate analysis and individuation. Because of the containment and reward implicit in the training environment it is argued that training analysts—despite their experience and expertise—remain vulnerable to being recruited into an ameliorative fantasy that blocks the transference and inhibits development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jungians who are trained in the so-called 'Developmental School' straddle the two worlds of psychoanalysis and classical Jungian thinking. This is not always an easy position in which to be, but if the tensions can be held it is potentially a rich and creative way of working. In this paper I attempt to explore this position using the poem, 'To Paint the Portrait of a Bird' by Jacques Prévert as a metaphor for the analytic endeavour. From this perspective I hope to illustrate the importance of being able on the one hand to hold and maintain a clear frame for the careful and detailed exploration of the transference within which the more malign aspects of the psyche might be expressed, and, on the other, to allow the alchemical process of mutual transformation that lies outside the conscious understanding of the analytic couple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]