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Body as psychoanalytic object: Clinical applications from Winnicott to Bion and beyond explores the role of the body in analysis from an object relations perspective. Despite the aim of integrating disparate realms of experience, psychoanalysis seems to struggle with its own mind-body problem. Following Freud’s emphasis on the body’s foundational role in psychic life, the field has largely retreated into the mind and away from the body, referring to Tsolas and Anzieu-Premmeurer’s 2018 book, A psychoanalytic exploration of the body in today’s world (p. 6). States of mind are valorized, whereas the body is relegated to the unspoken, the private.
The book’s editors hope to mend the mind-body split by uniting two of the field’s dominant orientations, object relations and drive theory. Searching for shared ground between the two, the editors look to Winnicott and Bion’s often downplayed interest in the body, such as with Winnicott’s going-on-being (grounded in bodily sensations) and Bion’s beta elements (raw, sensory experiences). Drawing from various object relations theorists, the edited volume argues collectively for inclusion of the body as a source of consideration and communication in contemporary analysis.
Most of the twelve chapters are authored by West Coast psychoanalysts, as the book is the outgrowth of a conference held there, with the addition of two by European psychoanalysts. By introducing each of the book’s six Parts, the editors supply the reader with a returning, cohering set of voices throughout the collection. Each author’s contribution to the aim of mind-body unification in psychoanalysis is clearly explained.
In Part I, Mind-body relations in Winnicott, Bion, and beyond, Leslie Caldwell’s chapter “Being after Winnicott: minding the body, embodying the mind” (pp. 16-31), highlights Winnicott’s many and Bion’s occasional references to the body. Winnicott wrote about physical ailments, motor activity, nakedness, skin, and breath, all as they relate to th