23.3.21 Framing and creative illusion
Mary Douglas quotes British psychoanalyst, Marion Milner, who says: ' The frame marks off a different kind of reality that is within it and that which is without it; it also marks a special kind of reality in a psychoanalytical situation and in psychoanalysis it is the existence of this frame which makes possible the full development of that kind of creative illusion we call the transference. It is by means of this illusion that a better kind of adaptation to the world ultimately develops.' (in Pines, 1981). Douglas likens it to a child's toy cupboard in psychoanalysis which is always there but closed and left behind between sessions.
I am very interested in what Milner says about the 'creative illusion' that she calls transference... and that she attributes to it 'a better kind of adaptation to the world.' I need to find out more about this....
'There are many elements of the analytic frame. It is a room — a physical setting. It is a set of conventions about how one behaves. It is a state of mind — a mental space. It is all of these at once and something more, something ineffable. It has been described as a facilitating environment and as a container. It needs to be a safe enough place for psychotherapeutic work to occur, a place where the patient can allow herself or himself to speak about things which are too painful or taboo or embarrassing to speak about elsewhere. The essence of the safety of the space is that the patient can project things into the therapist which are contained by the therapist, detoxified and given back in due course in a form which can be used as food for thought. If I listed all the factors making up the analytic frame, I would still miss out some things and not capture its essence.' (Young, no date)
Douglas goes on to say that ritual is 'creative at the level of performance.... an external symbol can mysteriously help the coordination of brain and body.' (Douglas, 1966, p 78) Thinking about my performances as scene setting or frames (frame of a photograph, frame of a video) is helpful to me. That Douglas also describes ritual as performance is interesting too. She also describes how, for an actor, an appropriate prop or object can become a symbol and 'with this symbol suddenly knowledge and intention are realised.' (ibid, p79) Obviously this could also be true of the part my sculptures play in my performances.
Douglas, M (1966) Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Pines, M., (1981) The Frame of Reference of Group Psychotherapy, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 31:3, 275-285, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.1981.11491707
Young, R. (no date) The analytic frame, abstinence and acting out Available at: http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_nature/papers/pap110h.html (Accessed: 23 March 2021)
I am very interested in what Milner says about the 'creative illusion' that she calls transference... and that she attributes to it 'a better kind of adaptation to the world.' I need to find out more about this....
'There are many elements of the analytic frame. It is a room — a physical setting. It is a set of conventions about how one behaves. It is a state of mind — a mental space. It is all of these at once and something more, something ineffable. It has been described as a facilitating environment and as a container. It needs to be a safe enough place for psychotherapeutic work to occur, a place where the patient can allow herself or himself to speak about things which are too painful or taboo or embarrassing to speak about elsewhere. The essence of the safety of the space is that the patient can project things into the therapist which are contained by the therapist, detoxified and given back in due course in a form which can be used as food for thought. If I listed all the factors making up the analytic frame, I would still miss out some things and not capture its essence.' (Young, no date)
Douglas goes on to say that ritual is 'creative at the level of performance.... an external symbol can mysteriously help the coordination of brain and body.' (Douglas, 1966, p 78) Thinking about my performances as scene setting or frames (frame of a photograph, frame of a video) is helpful to me. That Douglas also describes ritual as performance is interesting too. She also describes how, for an actor, an appropriate prop or object can become a symbol and 'with this symbol suddenly knowledge and intention are realised.' (ibid, p79) Obviously this could also be true of the part my sculptures play in my performances.
Douglas, M (1966) Purity and Danger. An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Pines, M., (1981) The Frame of Reference of Group Psychotherapy, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 31:3, 275-285, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.1981.11491707
Young, R. (no date) The analytic frame, abstinence and acting out Available at: http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com/human_nature/papers/pap110h.html (Accessed: 23 March 2021)