Editorial

One of the main threads of this edition is art in relation to analysis, and we open with Stefan Wolf’s exploration of the analytic process, which he discusses in relation to Alberto Giacometti’s artistic process. Wolf suggests that, as for Giacometti, the analyst moves through and between three different self-states: one where the analyst is in a state of clarity and confidence and the process proceeds in a directed way; another where the clarity of vision is lost and there is uncertainty, yet the process continues to unfold (from the unconscious); and yet another where there is a loss of orientation and a perplexity about what is occurring, ‘disaster has struck’, as he puts it. He describes the benefits of each of these positions and the pitfalls of remaining exclusively or overlong in any one. By linking these states to Giacometti’s work, Wolf lends a richness and complexity to these descriptions in a way that opens up the analytic space and the analytic process and helps us think about, allow and value a broader range of experience.

In the second paper, Francesco Bisagni explores the conflict between the development of the persona and the process of individuation through some striking clinical material with a nine-year-old boy from the ‘Millennial’ generation. Bisagni contrasts the different modes of relating and expectations of Millennial, ‘Z’ and Alpha generations and underlines, importantly, how the development of the persona is a necessary achievement. He helps us acclimatise to the different characteristics of each generation and argues that the problems associated with each are due to quantitative rather than qualitative factors.

Robert Tyminski offers us the first of two papers on consulting to an organisation working with refugees in Germany. He gives us vivid insight into the experience of the refugees, the workers in the Centre, and his own countertransference responses as he helps the workers explore the refugees’ situation and experience of trauma, as w