The Aesthetic Development: The Poetic Spirit of Psychoanalysis Essays on Bion, Meltzer, Keats

Few people would be better qualified than the author to write this innovative and eagerly anticipated post-Kleinian book. Deeply versed in the opus of Bion and Meltzer, the author enhances the concept of ＂catastrophic change＂. The analyst who ＂eschews memory and desire＂ observes the subtle interplay of transference and countertransference (Meltzer’s ＂counter dreaming＂) as it works through aesthetic conflicts. The ensuing reciprocity of the patients and analysts unconscious is revealed as the aesthetical and ethical basis of psychoanalysis. In that sense the psychoanalytical process parallels that of poetic and artistic inspiration. They are all generated by creative internal objects. Harris Williams’ intellectual tour de force demonstrates convincingly the human capacity for symbolic thinking that underlies literary, artistic and psychoanalytic creativity. Her encyclopaedic understanding of literature, art and psychoanalysis contributes to this book’s virtuosity.’- Irene Freeden, Senior Member of the British Association of Psychotherapists