Routledge The Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis (Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series)

The Emergence of Analytic Oneness is a profound and penetrating exploration of a fundamental dimension of analytic presence and patient–analyst interconnectedness that offers new possibilities for extending the reach of psychoanalytic treatment and working with some of the most difficult treatment situations. Eshel listens with a 'hearing heart' and gives herself over to being within the patient’s experiential world and the grip of the unfolding analytic process. She has gone with her patients into black holes, dissociation, deadness, sleepiness, petrifaction, silence, longings, the depths of perversion, and the enigmas of telepathic dreams, while experiencing the emergence of patient–analyst two-in-oneness, with its challenges and mysteries. Drawing on Winnicott’s posthumous writings and Bion’s late work and going beyond recent analytic notions of intersubjectivity and witnessing to interconnectedness and 'withnessing,' Eshel offers her own understanding of at-one-ment or "being-in-oneness" with the patient’s emotional reality as the only state of analytic being that can meet and transform core unthinkable breakdown and mental catastrophe. The critical question here is to what extent the analyst is willing and able to open the boundaries of his or her psyche to the patient, especially in difficult, unbearable and devastated-devastating states. Eshel’s clinical narratives are detailed, intense, theoretically grounded, and very moving. The Emergence of Analytic Oneness will be an invaluable guide for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and students in these fields who want to extend their reach into deeper levels of disturbance in the difficult clinical work they do. Review 'In her beautifully written book, The Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis, Ofra Eshel offers a radical change in the way we conceive of the analytic endeavor, a change that opens new possibilities for everyone engaged in the life-long process of becoming a psychotherapist. She discusses and clinically illustrates what it is to be there with the patient so thoroughly that a new subjective entity and depth of experiencing emerges, an experiential process she calls "withnessing." The book is a tour de force of cutting-edge psychoanalytic theory and practice, which is particularly valuable in work with severely disturbed patients.'-Thomas Ogden, author of Reclaiming Unlived Life and Creative Readings: Essays on Seminal Analytic Works 'This is a very special book you will not want to miss. If you ever wanted to learn more about psychoanalysis and psychotherapy or experience fuller appreciation of how they work, this book serves as a fusion of Virgil and Beatrice as guides. Just as you think you can't go any further, more opens, wave after wave of psychic vision and reality. Depth psychology transforms as you read and your sense of being shifts with it. Psychoanalysis enters a new age, a further age. Whatever your viewpoint or practice, you will appreciate many new beginnings as windows of experience appear out of nowhere and beg you to open them.'-Michael Eigen, Ph.D., author of The Challenge of Being Human and Contact with the Depths 'This comprehensive work reflects Dr. Ofra Eshel’s many years of clinical focus on the need for a deep sense of oneness with the patient, which she feels is a paradigm shift in psychoanalysis brought about by Winnicott’s work and the late work of Bion. The book includes powerful clinical descriptions of psychoanalytic work with severe early loss and trauma, breakdowns of the emerging self, and "Black Holes" in the interpersonal psychic space. The Emergence of Analytic Oneness: Into the Heart of Psychoanalysis, stands out in its clear description of Bion’s idea of at-one-ment with the patient, and the necessity of accompanying the patient into these painful depths. This scholarly book will speak to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists interested in learning about the early front