Blog Discussion: Enactments and Related Phenomena, Concepts of Judith Chused
The purpose of this blog is to encourage participation in discussion of concepts and clinical procedures that will be presented by Judy Chused, M.D. during her visit to Cleveland on April 5-6. “Talking” about some of her ideas ahead of time can prepare us for more useful discussion of her presented paper on Friday and of her several papers on enactment and related phenomena that will be the background of discussion during the 10:15 to 12:15 discussion on Saturday morning.Her Friday evening paper is titled “The Analyst as a Transference Object, New Object, Real Object,” a title which will resonate for child analysts who have struggled for years with the triple task of recognizing that they are invariably a transference object (from primary objects of the past), new object (a fantasy laden person of the present) and a real object as well to their child patients. I don’t know the content of the paper but expect that her case example, a child, will serve to help us better understand the place of these three levels of “object” that we have in the life of our child patients and, more often than we appreciate, in the lives of our adult patients as well.But the emphasis I hope to bring to this blog concerns the Saturday discussion from 10:15 to 12:15. I have promised Dr. Chused that we will not coerce her into another clinical presentation but will enter, with her, into a discussion of some important and complex subjects related to enactment. She has recommended three papers for this discussion:Chused, J.F. (1991). The Evocative Power of Enactments. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 39:615-639.Chused, J.F. (2003). The Role of Enactments. Psychoanal. Dial., 13:677-687.Chused, J.F. (1996). The Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalysis: Abstinence and Informative Experiences. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 44:1047-1071.The first two, from 1991, which brought the whole subject of enactment into the mainstream of psychoanalytic thinking, and from 2003, which reviews the place of enactment in contemporary psychoanalysis, are bursting with ideas which were controversial when first stated and still are often misunderstood.The third paper, from 1996, introduces a startling idea, “Informative Experiences” and a new take on a very old idea, Abstinence. The paper cannot easily be summarized, suffice it to say for the moment that it is VERY thought provoking.I’m going to stop at this point for the time being. Before closing, should any of you not have PEP and therefore are unable to download the three papers listed above, let me know at asdowling@gmail.com and I’ll email you a reformatted version of each of them.Please join with me in “talking about” these papers. I’ll try to get something up on the blog each day. But what we really want is your ideas, your thoughts, your reactions. SCOTT DOWLING
