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PSYCHOANALYSIS: AN ART OR A SCIENCE? A REVIEW OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORY OF BION AND MELTZER
Author(s) -
Williams Meg Harris
Publication year - 1999
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/j.1752-0118.1999.tb00503.x
Subject(s) - psychoanalytic theory , psychology , psychoanalysis , relation (database) , cognition , value (mathematics) , epistemology , philosophy , database , neuroscience , machine learning , computer science
This essay considers Bion's and Meltzer's enumeration of both artistic and scientific qualities inherent in psychoanalytic practice in relation to the problem of learning from experience. Their work encourages practitioners to value the liberating potential of psychoanalysis as an art form. This is emphasized through the complex cognitive implications of Bion's‘reverie’ and Meltzer's ‘aesthetic conflict’, suggesting that psychoanalytic advance will consist in the marriage of artistic modes of cognition with a scientific body of knowledge.