British Object Relations

Fourth Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2022-23, 1st Trimester — Fridays, 3:30-5:00pm
Stan Case, LICSW PhD
Judy K. Eekhoff, PhD

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November 11, 2022 — Levels of Listening

[25 pages]

Alvarez describes analytic listening from three main vertices: motivation or the “why” something is done, description or the “how” something is done, and the most controversial method when working with extremely traumatized patients who are operating with deficits in development as the “wake-up” call or vitalizing. We might name this name this, as does H. Levine, as the “hey you”. Such vitalizing interventions do what the mother does with an infant, that is – the calling of the other into existence. The listening stance of the analyst determines what the analytic dyad pays attention to. This itself is a powerful intervention, enabling each member of the dyad to attend to and become conscious of unconscious processes and beliefs.

Britton differentiates psychic levels of the both the mind and the body and the impossibility of knowing the internal world. He says, “Belief gives the force of reality to that which is psychic, just as perception does to that which is physical. Like perception, belief is an active process and like perception it is influenced by desire, fear, and expectation; and just as perceptions can be denied, so beliefs can be disavowed.” (p. 19) His assertion is that analytic listening to the precursors of action—in this instance, to the beliefs underlying evaluation of reality enables the analyst to be present to unconscious motivations and defenses against change.

Britton, R. (1995). “Psychic Reality and Unconscious Belief.” IJP 76:19-23

Alvarez, A. (2010). “Levels of Analytic Work and Levels of Pathology: the Work of Calibration.” IJP 91:859-878