At-one-ment, intuition and 'suchness'

Int J Psychoanal. 2004 Oct;85(Pt 5):1137-55. doi: 10.1516/0020757042259502.

Abstract

Many senses exist for perceiving sensory experience; there are in turn others which make it possible to perceive emotional experience: intuition is one of these. The author, using W. R. Bion's work, studies intuition psychoanalytically, considering it to be a powerful 'sense' in clinical work. He describes the metapsychology of intuition, and proposes models that make it possible to think--from different perspectives--about how to make use of it in an analysis. To this end, he examines a series of useful processes and concepts: growth, tolerance, 'suchness', suffering and courage. The author defi nes the intuitive mechanism as a derivation of the renunciation of memory, desire and understanding; such a renunciation, learning from the experience of suffering the pain of facing the Truth in at-one-ment, makes it possible to tolerate the frustrations associated with observing the analysand 'such-as-he-is'. Finally, once immersed in the intelligence of intuition, the author considers ways in which intuition might be linked with concepts, with a view to interpreting the facts that must be transformed in the analysis.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Intuition*
  • Pain / psychology
  • Psychoanalytic Theory*
  • Psychoanalytic Therapy / methods*
  • Transference, Psychology