Abstract
What is the distinction, if any, between who we are as people and what we believe and how we practice as psychoanalysts? For me, art played a vital affirmation that there was a world full of larger ideas and feelings in contrast to the desiccated environment my parents had created. From grade school, through my training as an analyst to the present, art has not only elucidated who I am but expanded my sense of being a creative individual. From the procession of viewing art and engaging with it, to making and acquiring art pieces, the discovery was not only that I owned these pieces but that their impact challenged the ‘who’ I thought I was if I was willing to own up to it. The information that informs our personal beliefs and practice in psychoanalysis comes from such an openness to new experiences from many directions in our daily lives, and challenges who we believe we are. Art adds to analytic knowledge, not by giving us an interpretation for our lives, but by stimulating the genuinely creative process of self-reflection.
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Acknowledgements
My thanks go to Bernard Cooper, George Pigman, Ph.D., and Judith Vida, M.D., in the development of this article.
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1M.D., Psy.D., is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles and a member of the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education. He maintains a private practice in Pasadena, California.
1 Presented at the conference “Art/psychoanalysis; Threat and Relief to the Unrealized Life”, sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Pasadena Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program, April 29, 2006. Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA. Also presented at the conference, “Psychoanalysis: How, When and Why We Learn; What constitutes Psychoanalytic knowledge?,” 17th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference of the International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education, November 3–5, 2006, Pasadena, CA.
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Miller, J. Owning It. Am J Psychoanal 67, 386–396 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ajp.3350041
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ajp.3350041