Table Of ContentNarrative and Meaning
Narrative and Meaningexamines the role of both in contemporary psycho -
analytic practice, bringing together a distinguished group of con tributors
from across the intersubjective, relational, and interpersonal schools of
psychoanalytic thought.
The contributions propose that narratives or stories in avariety ofnon-
verbal and verbal forms are the foundation of mind, creativity, and the
clinical dialogue. From the beginning of life, human experience gains
expression through the integration of perception, cognition, memory, and
affect into mini or complex narratives. This core proposal is illustrated
in chapters referencing creativity, psychoanalytic process, gesture, and
sensory-motor activity,dreams, music, conflicting narratives in couples,
imaginative stories of adopted children, identity, and individuality.
Including a major revision in theory based upon an expanded definition
of narrative, this book is an essential read for any contemporary psycho-
analyst wishing to use narrative in their practice. Featuring essential theory
and a wealth of practical clinical material, Narrative and Meaning will
appeal greatly to both psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
Joseph D. Lichtenberg, MD, is Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Inquiry;
Director Emeritus of the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and
Psychoanalysis; past President of the International Council for Psycho-
analytic Self Psychology; and a member of the Program Committee of the
American Psychoanalytic Association.
Frank M. Lachmann, PhD, is a Founding Faculty Member of the Institute
for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity; Training and Supervising
Analyst, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health; and Clinical Assistant
Professor at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psycho-
analysis.
James L. Fosshage, PhD, is Founding President, International Association
for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP); Co-Founder, Board
Director and Faculty, National Institute for the Psychotherapies; Founding
Faculty, Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity; Clinical
Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. His website is www.jamesfosshage.net.
PSYCHOANALYTIC INQUIRY BOOK SERIES
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG
Like its counterpart, Psychoanalytic Inquiry: A Topical Journal for Mental
Health Professionals, the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series presents a
diversity of subjects within a diversity of approaches to those subjects. Under
the editorship of Joseph Lichtenberg, in collaboration with Melvin Bornstein
and the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, the volumes in this series
strike a balance between research, theory, and clinical application. We are
honored to have published the works of various innovators in psychoanalysis,
including Frank Lachmann, James Fosshage, Robert Stolorow, Donna Orange,
Louis Sander, Léon Wurmser, James Grotstein, Joseph Jones, Doris Brothers,
Fredric Busch, and Joseph Lichtenberg, among others.
The series includes books and monographs on mainline psychoanalytic
topics, such as sexuality, narcissism, trauma, homosexuality, jealousy, envy,
andvaried aspects of analytic process and technique. In our efforts to broaden
the field of analytic interest, the series has incorporated and embraced
innovative discoveries in infant research, self psychology, intersubjectivity,
motivational systems, affects as process, responses to cancer, borderline states,
contextualism, postmodernism, attachment research and theory, medication,
and mentalization. As further investiga-tions in psychoanalysis come to
fruition, we seek to present them in readable, easily comprehensible writing.
After more than 25 years, the core vision of this series remains the investi -
gation, analysis and discussion of developments on the cutting edge of the
psychoanalytic field, inspired by a boundless spirit of inquiry. For a full list
of all the titles available in the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series, please
visit the Routledge website.
Vol. 54 Vol. 53
Narrative and Meaning: Attachment Across Clinical and Cultural
The Foundation of Mind, Creativity, Perspectives: A Relational Psychoanalytic
and the Psychoanalytic Dialogue Approach
Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Frank M. Sonia Gojman-de-Millan, Christian
Lachmann, and James L. Fosshage Herreman & L. Alan Sroufe (eds.)
Narrative and Meaning
The Foundation of Mind,
Creativity, and the
Psychoanalytic Dialogue
Edited by
Joseph D. Lichtenberg,
Frank M. Lachmann,
and James L. Fosshage
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Frank M.
Lachmann and James L. Fosshage; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or
in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lichtenberg, Joseph D., editor. | Lachmann, Frank M., editor. |
Fosshage, James L., editor.
Title: Narrative and meaning : the foundation of mind, creativity, and the psychoanalytic
dialogue / edited by Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Frank M. Lachmann
and James L. Fosshage.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. |
Series: Psychoanalytic inquiry book series ; 54 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016057466 (print) | LCCN 2017014345 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315205212 (Master) | ISBN 9781351793353 (Web PDF) |
ISBN 9781351793346 ( ePub) | ISBN 9781351793339 (Mobipocket/Kindle) |
ISBN 9781138638006 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138638037 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis. | Discourse analysis, Narrative—Psychological aspects. |
Psychotherapist and patient.
Classification: LCC RC506 (ebook) | LCC RC506 .N353 2017 (print) |
DDC 616.89/17—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016057466
ISBN: 978-1-138-63800-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-63803-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20521-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Contents
1 Narrative and meaning 1
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, MD
2 The dialogic nature of narrative in creativity and
the clinical exchange 51
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, MD
3 Resilience, seeking, and narratives about the self 72
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, MD
4 Music as narrative 89
FRANK M. LACHMANN, PHD
5 The dream narrative 116
JAMES L. FOSSHAGE, PHD
6 Narrative tradition: placing the clinical narrative
within a broader narrative tradition 137
DANIEL GOLDIN, PSY.D.
7 Storying suffering of every conceivable sort 165
RICHARD TUCH AND J. MARK THOMPSON
8 The Ghost Kingdom: the secret narrative of the
adoptee’s birth and origins 190
LINDA GUNSBERG, PHD
viii Contents
9 At the edge of the knowable: personal reflections on
how far narrative takes us 215
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, MD
10 Narrative contributions to the core sense of self, identity,
and individuality 229
JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, MD
Index 241
Chapter 1
Narrative and meaning
Our story begins
Joseph D. Lichtenberg, MD
Our book is a narrative about narratives and the profound meaning stories
provide for human life. Our chapters tell stories about narratives that give
expression to all our meaningful lived experiences. Some narratives are
science stories. They begin with a hypothesis, provide research evidence,
and draw conclusions—that is meanings. Some narratives are mini-plots
of neonates and infants—non-verbal imagistic portrayals of immediate
experience. Some narratives are body motor activities—or songs—or math
formulations. Some narratives portray sessions of analyst and analysand
working together—stories in words, feelings, fantasies, reveries, gestures,
facial expressions, body movements, and body sensations. Some narratives
of the analyst are theory based. Some narratives of analyst and analysand
are based on simple and complex inferences.
The opening chapter uses a series of different stories to establish our
main assertion—narratives are the building blocks of the development of
the human psyche. This is not an entirely new conception. What is more
radical is our proposal that through narrative lived experience is organized
more holistically, more integrated than conventionally portrayed. And
still more of a surprising story—neonates and infants form mini-stories of
their micro-experiences. Stated differently, forming a narrative depicting
lived experience in infancy begins as no more an intention than breathing,
seeing, or hearing; it is an inherent emergent product of human evolution.
So in the opening chapter we will identify a series of mini-stories that we
hope build to a broad conclusion—the significance of narrative in early
life. We will describe what we mean by meaning and compare the tradi-
tional concept of representation with what we mean by narrative. We will
demonstrate how our proposals apply to a clinical session. In subsequent
chapters, the examples of narrative usage will be more focused.
