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Just over two centuries ago, the English physicist Sir David Brewster patented an invention he called the kaleidoscope, a toy in which coloured pieces of glass reflected repeatedly in three mirrors creating a pattern. In order for this to be symmetrical and for the reflections not to overlap, the mirrors had to be positioned with the edges of the correct triangular prism, forming angles of a certain value.
A century and a half later, on the other side of the Channel, the French analyst Jacques Lacan suggested that normal mental functioning requires a structuring object that binds together the symbolic (language), the imaginary (fantasy) and the real (unsymbolised). Without this defined ‘value’, the Name-of-the-Father, a person is left with a gap which is then filled with psychotic elements such as delusions and hallucinations.
This issue of Clinical Commentaries using these ideas attempts to give a definite shape to the split and projected part of psyche. Its configuration is determined not only by the theoretical refractions of the commentators, but also by their paradigms—the adult, child–parent and couple analytic perspectives. The combination of these different reflections is like the mirrors of a kaleidoscope (Bion's alpha function), allowing the fragmented parts of the psychotic world to be assembled into a more coherent, thinkable picture in the minds of the readers and perhaps similar patients.
I would like to thank the three commentators who generously shared their insights, and the colleague who kindly provided the clinical material.
Konstantin Nemirovskiy
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