A Framework for the Imaginary is an extraordinary depiction of one analyst's efforts to receive and respond to the vivid impressions of her patients' raw and sometimes even "unmentalized" experiences as they are highlighted in the transference-countertransference connection. Dr. Mitrani attempts to feel, suffer, mentally transform, and, finally, verbally construct - for and with the patient - possible meanings for those immediate versions of life's earliest experiences as they are reenacted in the therapeutic relationship. She uses insights from this therapeutic work to contribute to the metapsychology of British and American object relations as well as to the psychoanalytic theory of technique. In these eleven essays, four of which are printed here for the first time, Dr. Mitrani masterfully integrates the work of Klein, Winnicott, Bion, and Tustin as she leads us on an expedition through primitive emotional territories. She clears the way toward detecting and understanding the survival function of certain pathological maneuvers deployed by patients when confronted by unthinkable anxieties. In her vivid accounts of numerous clinical cases, she provides and demonstrates the tools needed to effect a transformation of unmentalized experiences within the context of the therapeutic relationship. Throughout her writings, she warns of some of the pitfalls we may encounter along the way.

Frances Tustin Today explores some of the ways and means by which Tustin's work has enabled psychoanalytic clinicians to enter into the elemental domain of sensation: what Bion called the 'proto-mental' area of the psyche-soma. Through detailed clinical contributions of several of her exponents worldwide, this book demonstrates how her ideas -- rooted in decades of work with children on the autistic spectrum -- have influenced and are being expanded, extended and applied to the treatment of ordinary patients from early childhood through adulthood. The contributors to this volume represent a selection of the contemporary thinking that organically grew out of Tustin's discoveries, and show that Tustin's model has added new dimensions to the fields of infant observation, family therapy and neuro-psychology. Each chapter is augmented by demonstrable clinical experience. Frances Tustin Today is a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, educators and parents who are interested in learning more about this uniquely independent clinical observer's findings and their impact upon the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents and adults by contemporary workers in the field of mental health. Judith L. Mitrani, and Theodore Mitrani, are Fellows of The International Psycho-Analytical Association, Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts at The Psychoanalytic Center of California in Los Angeles. They are founding members of the Board of Trustees of The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust, and authors, editors, translators and teachers in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy with Adults and Children in Los Angeles, California.

This volume consists of a series of essays inspired by Freud's paper on Jensen's novel Gradiva - "she who steps along." In the story a young archaeologist, Norbert Hanold, suffers from delusions but is able to unravel the mysteries of his emotional life and mind with the aid of a woman who does not challenge these delusions, but rather "steps along" with Hanold, gradually helping him to disentangle truth from fantasy, through what Freud called "cure by love". Gradiva, originally felt to be the source of Hanold's malady, eventually becomes the agent of its resolution and of his return to health. This extraordinary tale formed the basis for the author's concept of "taking the transference". Through clinical vignettes, various aspects of psychoanalytic technique - useful from the first encounter between patient and analyst and throughout the process of the development of mind to termination - are illustrated in detail.

An extraordinary depiction of one analyst's efforts to receive and respond to the vivid impressions of her patients raw and sometimes even unmentalized experiences as they are highlighted in the transference-countertransference connection. Mitrani attempts to feel, suffer, mentally transform, and, finally, verbally construct for and with the patient possible meanings for those immediate versions of lifes earliest experiences as they are re-enacted in the therapeutic relationship. She uses insights from this therapeutic work to contribute to the metapsychology of British and American object relations as well as to the psychoanalytic theory of technique. In these eleven essays, Dr Mitrani masterfully integrates the work of Klein, Winnicott, Bion and Tustin as she leads us on an expedition through primitive emotional territories. She clears the way toward detecting and understanding the survival function of certain pathological manoeuvres deployed by patients when confronted by unthinkable anxieties. In her vivid accounts of numerous clinical cases, she provides and demonstrates the tools needed to effect a transformation of unmentalized experiences within the context of the therapeutic relationship.

'Judith Mitrani's latest work beautifully illuminates some incompletely explored areas of psychoanalytic thinking... Throughout this work we become impressed with the presence of a versatile and innovative observer, thinker, clinician, and integrator with an unusual range of knowledge. Dr Mitrani's is a new, valuable, and most welcome voice in psychoanalysis.' - James S. Grotstein, North American Vice President, International Psychoanalytical Association

This volume consists of a series of essays, initially inspired over thirty years ago by Freud's paper on Gradiva - she who steps along. The bas relief on the cover of this book hangs in my consulting room today, as it had in Freud's own, perhaps as a reminder of what we do. In Jensen's story of Gradiva, a young archaeologist, Norbert Hanold, suffers from delusions and is able to unravel the mysteries of his emotional life and mind with the aid of a woman who does not challenge these delusions, but rather 'steps along' with Hanold, gradually helping him to disentangle truth from fantasy through what Freud called cure by love. Gradiva, originally felt to be the source of Hanold's malady, eventually becomes the agent of its resolution and of his return to health. What I made of this extraordinary tale formed the basis for my concept of 'taking the transference.' Through clinical vignettes, various aspects of psychoanalytic technique -- useful from the first encounter between patient and analyst and throughout the process of the development of mind to termination -- are illustrated in detail.These chapters are rooted in, explicate and expand upon the theoretical tenants of Freud, Klein, Bion and Tustin and focus on the act of observing and 'taking the transference', particularly at the infantile level. Salient topics include the importance of listening in the beginning of analysis with those who know little about analysis as well as with those who know all about it; technical implications derived from works by Klein, Bion and Tustin; analytic encounters with adults and adolescents, a psychoanalytic take on a contemporary film, and some ways in which psychoanalysis may lend further meaning to neuro-scientific studies on autism.

Frances Tustin Today explores some of the ways and means by which Tustin's work has enabled psychoanalytic clinicians to enter into the elemental domain of sensation: what Bion called the 'proto-mental' area of the psyche-soma. Through detailed clinical contributions of several of her exponents worldwide, this book demonstrates how her ideas -- rooted in decades of work with children on the autistic spectrum -- have influenced and are being expanded, extended and applied to the treatment of ordinary patients from early childhood through adulthood. The contributors to this volume represent a selection of the contemporary thinking that organically grew out of Tustin's discoveries, and show that Tustin's model has added new dimensions to the fields of infant observation, family therapy and neuro-psychology. Each chapter is augmented by demonstrable clinical experience. Frances Tustin Today is a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, educators and parents who are interested in learning more about this uniquely independent clinical observer's findings and their impact upon the treatment of autistic states in children, adolescents and adults by contemporary workers in the field of mental health. Judith L. Mitrani, and Theodore Mitrani, are Fellows of The International Psycho-Analytical Association, Training and Supervising Psychoanalysts at The Psychoanalytic Center of California in Los Angeles. They are founding members of the Board of Trustees of The Frances Tustin Memorial Trust, and authors, editors, translators and teachers in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy with Adults and Children in Los Angeles, California.