Creativity and the Erotic Dimensions of the Analytic Field

Dr. Elise will present an overview and discussion of her book, Creativity and the Erotic Dimensions of the Analytic Field, where she puts forth the premise that psychoanalysis is an erotic project. She proposes that a creative aesthetic can provide a clinical container for the engagement and exploration of erotic life within the anlytic field of each treatment – linking the erotic dimensions of the psyche with the psychoanalytic process. An atmosphere of libidinal energy is seen as a crucial aspect in enlivening the intersubjective field. When fully articulated as an energy potential in both participants, analytic eroticism can offer libidinal engagement within an ethical frame as a stimulus to emotionally embodied thinking – linking – that can lead to transformation in many dimensions including the erotic. Maternal eroticism, as a libidinal vitality and investment that a mother brings to her fully embodied engagement with her child, is developed as a metaphor for clinical process: The analyst holds, contains, and stimulates; each of these capacities is mobilized in the service of the patient’s growth. An intertwining of the erotic and the creative in the embodied, affective interaction of the analytic dyad allows for deepening contact with an authentic sense of being. A Winnicottian field theory is conceptualized.