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In Dianne Elise's recently published book, Creativity and the Erotic Dimensions of the Analytic Field, we have an opportunity to immerse ourselves in an author's oeuvre — in this case, a longitudinal exploration and elaboration of Elise's theoretical evolution, a culmination of over three decades of writing and even more of clinical practice. Each chapter in her book reflects her current theoretical thinking that psychoanalysis is an erotic project.
Over time, Elise's contributions to the psychoanalytic literature have involved gender development, gender repertoire, bisexuality, desire and inhibition, betrayal, sexual shame, and Winnicottian field theory. Currently, informing both theory and technique, Elise's focus is on describing the erotics of the pre-oedipal mother-infant dyad, updating psychic bisexuality, re-writing the girl's oedipal myth, elaborating embodied psychic life, as well as developing further the concept of Winnicottian field theory (Elise, 2018).
Elise's use of the concept of the erotic is broad and encompassing, with a fundamental link between vitality and creativity, which she describes as “embodied affective energies initially derived from the sexual impulse that include libidinal vitality, tempestuous passions, unruly urges, vigor, ardor and a stimulating vibrant frame of mind” (p. 1). Bringing this concept into the analytic field, she further states, “Eroticism within the analytic field pertains to how the profession as a whole holds, or does not hold, the erotic” (p. 1).
So, what does that mean? Beginning with the emphasis on the presence of mother's libidinal energy, as it exists between mother and infant, originally conceptualized by Kristeva (2014) as “maternal eroticism,” Elise brings the mother's sexuality back from exile in psychoanalytic Siberia. She posits that development of the infant's libidinal self is stimulated in an