Playing and Vitality in Psychoanalysis

by Giuseppe Civitarese, MD, PhD & Antonino Ferro, MD (Routledge, 2022)

A Book Review and Discussion with

Mark Winborn, PhD

Playing and Vitality:

The Restoration of Subversion?

In Playing and Vitality, Civitarese and Ferro follow the threads of playing and vitality through many corridors of the psychoanalytic experience, linking the broad and flexible world of post-Bionian field theory with the work of Bion, Ogden, Winnicott and others. At one point, psychoanalysis was intended to serve a subversive function for individuals and society, by opening to one’s inner landscape in a way that allowed them to break free from the powerful and inhibiting social conventions of the time. Civitarese and Ferro now have the same aim with this volume, that is, acting subversively on the psychoanalytic conventions of our day, “It is our hope that the practice of psychoanalysis will no longer be…an insidiously moralistic or ideological exercise. Rather, its aim should be to open up and liberate the mind” (p. xiii). 

In our discussion, we’ll review some of the major ideas of Bion and Ogden that the authors reinterpret or recontextualize within field theory, bringing these ideas alive through clinical vignettes. We will also touch on Winnicott’s transformative ideas on play, Ogden’s depiction of “aliveness and deadness” in psychoanalysis, as well as his call to pursue psychoanalysis from an ontological perspective rather than an epistemological perspective, and Daniel Stern’s research on forms of vitality in infants. Time permitting, there will also be some comparison between the agenda that the authors intended for this volume and some of the parallel themes Jung was developing during the time of split from Freud and the psychoanalytic community.

Hopefully, by the end of the evening, we will all be in a subversive mood and more inclined to lean towards playing and vitality during our next forays into the playgrounds we refer to as offices or consulting rooms!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After attending the program in its entirety, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe how to utilize ‘vitality’ as a clinical indicator of emotional resonance in the here-and-now of the clinical encounter.
2. Verbalize an understanding of the concept of ‘narrative container’ as an intersubjective clinical ‘space’ to gather and contain emotions and thoughts previously experienced as uncontainable.

APA Accreditation Statement

Houston Psychoanalytic Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Houston Psychoanalytic Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

HPS, through co-sponsorship with the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, also offers approved CEUs for Texas state-approved social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.