A dialogue with Avner Bergstein

In this talk, Avner Bergstein will reflect on our attempt to approach the unknowable, ultimate reality of the psychoanalytic experience, and the unrepressed unconscious. Leaning on Bion’s clinical writings, he would like to explore the clinical implications of the notion of psychoanalytic intuition as a primary tool in this endeavour, drawing on both Freud’s conception of ‘attention’ and Bion’s emphasis on the power of observation.

Intuition is often described as an unmediated knowing or understanding of truth, not supported by any information derived from a familiar sensual source. It is thus often seen as close to mystical revelation. Bergstein suggests that it is through close observation, very often to one’s own emotional experience, that minute transformations in the patient’s apparently perseverative material can be glimpsed at, allowing the analyst to approach an ineffable psychic truth.

An essential element of psychoanalytic training and psychoanalytic supervision is thus to facilitate the analyst’s sharpening of their capacity for attention and observation.