Premium
Finding M ilner? The Biographical Search
Author(s) -
Letley Emma
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12095
Subject(s) - unconscious mind , biography , subject (documents) , reading (process) , psychoanalysis , psychology , confidentiality , wish , literature , library science , art , philosophy , linguistics , law , computer science , political science
The essay starts from M ilner's wish to be intensely private, ‘illegible’, and poses the question as to how such a subject may be ‘found’ by a biographer, considering aspects of the search for M ilner such as parallel process in the work; ethical dilemmas of confidentiality in writing about a psychoanalyst and the effects on the transference for patients reading about their analyst. Finding M ilner involved not only the usual biographic tools (interviews with colleagues and descendants, attention to her books, her habits with documents and texts, her images and objects) but also a kind of unconscious knowing of which certain aspects are discussed. The process also had certain effects on the author's clinical practice. As biographic companion M ilner brings with her the ‘riches of world culture’. The author suggests that there is further fruitful work to be undertaken on the subject of biography and psychoanalysis.