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‘Exploring psychoanalytic concepts through culture, the arts, and contemporary life: Learning from observation and experience’ is a welcome and thought-provoking addition to the ‘Tavistock Clinic Series’ from Routledge. This new title explores the contribution of psychoanalytically informed observation and theoretical concepts towards an appreciation of the arts and contemporary culture.
The papers included in this book are drawn from the long-standing Psychoanalytic Studies Master’s degree course at the Tavistock Clinic (M16), and reflect the diversity of its students and their wide range of interests. I found it refreshing to read papers that are not primarily concerned with clinical work, but which use psychoanalytic theory as an avenue towards deepening our understanding of the human condition, how we make sense of the world, and how this emerges through our relationships and in our creative engagement with one another. Several of the contributors examine what it means to participate in the arts – the creative, nuanced relationship between the artist, their work and the audience and how this is experienced. The papers also consider how insights from psychoanalytic theory and observation might enhance or create awareness of new vertices (Bion, 1970) for thinking and writing about creative work and its emotional impact.
The book is divided into four sections that reflect different strands of the course: learning through infant observation; poetry; literature and the performing arts; and contemporary life. Each of these sections is prefaced with a description of the seminars by one of the tutors, who also introduce the seminars and summarise the themes of the papers.
The papers from the infant observation seminars offer novel insights into the observer role. For example, Jenny Abbott, a former documentary film-maker, considers the difference between the psychoanalytic observational stance and her TV work – stepping back from actively editing and creating a narrative t