Table Of Content“To live or to exist in less than aliveness or deadness. Such is the profound
question at the heart of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and treatment
and this expertly curated volume brings together the leading writers on the
vitalizing possibilities that inhere in contemporary psychoanalytic theory
and practice. We encounter patients dominated by states of non-aliveness,
absence, dysregulation, trauma and neglect; and clinicians who utilize elem-
ents of their own presence, reverie, countertransference and sheer courage to
facilitate, kindle and ignite life, libido and vitality. Reading this book is an
exercise in parallel process: each unique chapter will itself inspire, enliven and
vitalize the reader; and will help all clinicians as we struggle with our most
difficult and challenging patients.”
—Robert Grossmark, Ph.D., teaches and supervises at NYU
Postdoctoral Program, The National Institute for the
Psychotherapies, The Eastern Group
Psychotherapy Society
“Since the Winnicottian and Bionian ontological revolution in psycho-
analysis, analysts have been more focused on helping our patients ‘to be’
than ‘to know.’ As Winnicott outlined what allows a person to develop a
capacity to be, we began to understand more about ways that we are also
not allowed to be. A focus on deficits in symbolization, parental absence and
deadness have now led to an increasing interest in experiences and metaphors
of vitalization. This volume is a gift in helping us to understand how pro-
foundly stark life can ‘be’ without a sense of aliveness. A talented collection
of analysts from the Independent, Kleinian, and Relational traditions con-
tribute to our understanding of this crucial concept in contemporary psycho-
analytic theory. These essays probe intersubjective processes of how vitalizing
processes emerge, are enacted, and integrated. There is also a keen interest in
the kind of object the analyst is becoming in the analytic process, one who
can find new parts of the patient’s inner life and play. Schwartz Cooney and
Sopher’s volume embodies how analytic concepts such as deadness continue
to evolve as key analytic writers bring to the matter their own struggles with
finding vitality inside their patients and aliveness within the analytic process.”
—Steven Cooper, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston
Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Associate Professor of
Psychology at Harvard Medical School and Chief Editor
Emeritus at Psychoanalytic Dialogues
“This is a rich and absorbing book, full of original descriptions of the void
and its place in psychopathology. There seem to be myriad ways of arriving
at empty states, but even more interestingly, a variety of routes out of them.
The clinical accounts are very moving, and read like chapters out of a terrific
novel: there is endless patience, endurance, stamina, terrible boredom, sus-
pense and real excitement for patients and analysts alike. Read and enjoy.”
—Anne Alvarez, Ph.D., M.A.C.P, Consultant Child and
Adolescent Psychotherapist and teacher and retired
Co-Convener of the Autism Service, Child and
Family Dep’t. Tavistock Clinic, London
“This important volume highlights some of the most essential aspects of
human existence: enlivenment, desire, generativity and hope. In highly cre-
ative and sophisticated ways, it brings to life critical ideas on therapeutic
action, transformation, the capacity for a full existence and the role of psy-
choanalysis in reviving vitalization.”
—Dr. Galit Atlas, faculty member in the postdoctoral program in
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis at New York University and
author of The Enigma of Desire
Vitalization in Psychoanalysis
In Vitalization in Psychoanalysis, Schwartz Cooney and Sopher develop and
explore the concept of vitalization, generating new ways of approaching and
conceptualizing the psychoanalytic project.
Vitalization refers to the process between two people that ignites new
experiences and brings withdrawn aspects of the self to life. This book focuses
on how psychoanalysis can be a uniquely creative encounter that can aid this
enlivening internal process, offering a vibrant new take on the psychothera-
peutic project. There is a long tradition in psychoanalysis that addresses the
ways that the unique subjectivities of each member of the therapeutic dyad
contribute to the repetition of entrenched patterns of relating, and how the
processing of enactments can be reparative. But this overlap in subjectivities
can also bring to life undeveloped experiences. This focus on generativity
and progressive action represents a significant, cutting- edge turn in psycho-
analysis. Vitalization in Psychoanalysis represents a deep meditation on this
transformational moment in the history of psychoanalytic thought.
Pulling together work from major writers on vitalization from all the main
psychoanalytic schools of thought, and covering development, theory and
clinical practice, this book will be an invaluable guide for clinicians of all
backgrounds, as well as students of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
Amy Schwartz Cooney, Ph.D., is on faculty at the New York University (NYU)
Post-Doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She is on the
Board of Directors and is faculty/supervisor at the National Institute for the
Psychotherapies (NIP) and at the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational
Studies. She is Joint Editor in Chief of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and is in
private practice in New York City.
Rachel Sopher is Board Director, Faculty and Supervisor, National Institute
for the Psychotherapies (NIP) Training Institute; Faculty and Supervisor,
National Training Program for NIP; and Faculty, Stephen Mitchell Center
for Relational Studies. She is Editor-i n- Chief of Psychoanalytic Perspectives
and maintains a private practice in New York City.
RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVES BOOK SERIES
ADRIENNE HARRIS,
STEVEN KUCHUCK & EYAL ROZMARIN
Series Editors
STEPHEN MITCHELL
Founding Editor
LEWIS ARON
Editor Emeritus
The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow
out of or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psycho-
analysis. The term relational psychoanalysis was first used by Greenberg and
Mitchell1 to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed
within interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within
contemporary British theory. But, under the seminal work of the late Stephen
A. Mitchell, the term relational psychoanalysis grew and began to accrue
to itself many other influences and developments. Various tributaries—
interpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology,
empirical infancy research, feminism, queer theory, sociocultural studies
and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought— flow into
this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and
others, both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic
investigation.
We refer to the relational tradition, rather than to a relational school, to
highlight that we are identifying a trend, a tendency within contemporary
psychoanalysis, not a more formally organized or coherent school or system
of beliefs. Our use of the term relational signifies a dimension of theory and
practice that has become salient across the wide spectrum of contemporary
psychoanalysis. Now under the editorial supervision of Adrienne Harris,
Steven Kuchuck and Eyal Rozmarin, the Relational Perspectives Book Series
originated in 1990 under the editorial eye of the late Stephen A. Mitchell.
Mitchell was the most prolific and influential of the originators of the rela-
tional tradition. Committed to dialogue among psychoanalysts, he abhorred
the authoritarianism that dictated adherence to a rigid set of beliefs or tech-
nical restrictions. He championed open discussion, comparative and integra-
tive approaches, and promoted new voices across the generations. Mitchell was
later joined by the late Lewis Aron, also a visionary and influential writer,
teacher and leading thinker in relational psychoanalysis.
Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors and works
that come from within the relational tradition, those that extend and develop
that tradition, and works that critique relational approaches or compare and
contrast them with alternative points of view. The series includes our most
distinguished senior psychoanalysts, along with younger contributors who
bring fresh vision. Our aim is to enable a deepening of relational thinking
while reaching across disciplinary and social boundaries in order to foster an
inclusive and international literature.
A full list of titles in this series is available at
www.routledge.com/Relational-Perspectives-Book-Series/book-series/LEARPBS.
Note
1 Greenberg, J. & Mitchell, S. (1983). Object relations in psychoanalytic theory.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vitalization in Psychoanalysis
Perspectives on Being and Becoming
Edited by Amy Schwartz Cooney
and Rachel Sopher
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Amy Schwartz Cooney and Rachel Sopher;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Amy Schwartz Cooney and Rachel Sopher to be identified as the
authors 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 utilized
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: Schwartz Cooney, Amy, 1961– editor. | Sopher, Rachel, 1974– editor.
Title: Vitalization in psychoanalysis: perspectives on being and becoming /
edited by Amy Schwartz Cooney and Rachel Sopher.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020044235 (print) | LCCN 2020044236 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367687892 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367687885 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003139065 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Self psychology. | Psychoanalysis.
Classification: LCC BF175.5.S44 V58 2021 (print) |
LCC BF175.5.S44 (ebook) | DDC 150.19/5–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044235
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044236
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 68788- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 68789- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 13906- 5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
PART I
Vitalization as unconscious action: enactment,
dreaming and emergence 11
1 Vitalizing enactment: a relational exploration 13
AMY SCHWARTZ COONEY
2 An allegiance to absence: fidelity to the internal void 36
RACHEL SOPHER
3 Activating lifeness in the analytic encounter: the ground
of being in psychoanalysis 58
RACHAEL PELTZ
4 The generative unconscious and the capacity to be
fully alive 82
JOSEPH NEWIRTH
5 Between Mythos and Logos: surrender, vitalization and
transformation 101
BOAZ SHALGI
