@article{Mearesetal, author = {Meares, Russell and et al.,}, title = {Somatization and Stimulus Entrapment}, series = {The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 36 (2008), pp. 165-180.}, journal = {The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 36 (2008), pp. 165-180.}, language = {en} } @article{Mearesetal, author = {Meares, Russell and et al.,}, title = {Whiteness Uncovered: Commentary on Papers by Melanie Suchet and Gillian Straker}, series = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Vol. 15 (2005), pp. 661-680.}, journal = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues, Vol. 15 (2005), pp. 661-680.}, abstract = {The progress of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy depends on our capacity to study, in a scientific manner, the process of therapy. Since a study of this kind involves charting the waxing and waning of something as elusive as the sense of personal existence, the task has, in the past, been seen as virtually impossible. However, words, or more particularly, the way words are used, manifest such shifting states. Sophisticated linguistic analyses are available, providing the means to conduct these necessary studies. This article suggests that an ongoing sense of personal existence, which William James called >self,< is multilayered, in the manner of the poetic, and that indices of such layering will reflect beneficial change. The description of this zone of experience, which might be called the synchronic, depends on contributions from Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Henri Bergson, and Ferdinand de Saussure. An illustration of the value of a consideration of the minute particulars of the therapeutic conversation is given by means of extracts from therapy sessions seven months apart.}, language = {en} } @misc{Meares, author = {Meares, Russell}, title = {Review Essay: Conflict: See Under Dissociation}, series = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 755-769.}, journal = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 11 (2001), pp. 755-769.}, abstract = {Philip Ringstrom tackles a neglected but important topic - therapeutic improvisation. In my view, this is better termed spontaneity. A central issue is the therapist's freedom of mind, which, in the typical case, is restricted by the transferential - countertransferential field. I argue that the value of spontaneity, on the part of both partners, lies in its contribution to a growing >aliveness< in an individual previously >dead.< In this commentary, three forms of spontaneity are distinguished: The therapist, immersed in the patient's experience, is able to resonate with and amplify a moment of vitality in the patient's expression in pseudospontaneity, the therapist believes he or she is responding spontaneously but is acting under the influence of the transferential - countertranferential field and there is a spontaneity in the therapist's >leap to freedom< from the constriction of this field. In that this expression is genuine, and new to the patient, it may have benefit in the manner of a >corrective emotional experience.< The example of therapeutic spontaneity that is given suggests that, ideally, all therapeutic language is, in a nonsalient way, spontaneous - fresh and unscripted. In this example, the therapist's form of responsiveness leads to the emergence of a larger, reflective form of consciousness in the patient - a state toward which the therapeutic endeavor is directed.}, language = {en} } @article{Meares, author = {Meares, Russell}, title = {On free-floating attention}, series = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 875-891.}, journal = {Psychoanalytic Dialogues Vol. 08 (1998), pp. 875-891.}, abstract = {In this paper, self is conceived as a particular form of mental activity, or process, the dynamic and moving form of which is manifest in the stream of consciousness (James, 1890) and in certain kinds of conversation. A developmental pathway is constructed for self seen in this way. The development schema depends on the postulate of two fundamentally different forms of human language and conversation. One of the conversations, which has a nonlinear form, becomes a linguistic marker of >self.< The emergence of >self< is seen to depend on a form of memory, the autobiographical, which emerges at about four years of age. This memory system also allows the formation of narrative and of the storying that is the basis of culture. Disruptions of self are conceived according to Jacksonian theory and the notion of trauma. They result in forms of consciousness that are underpinned by memory systems, which, relative to the >autobiographical,< are more primitive. The disruptions are manifest in clinical conversations of a less complex, more automatic kind than the narrative of self. They are referred to, in this article, as chronicles and scripts. Successful therapy involves their transformation into a more spontaneous and complex narrative form.}, language = {en} }