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- Title
כלכלה שלייתית: מחשבות על התנועה בין חיבור לנפרדות ועל ההתקיימות הפרדוקסלית שלהם'
- Authors
אהרוני, חגית
- Abstract
The present paper presents some thoughts about the movement between linkage and separateness along the body/psyche axis, on the one hand, and the interpersonal axis, on the other hand. My basic assumption here is that this is in fact the movement of life; an incessant vibration and oscillation, compared to which every petrification, halt, stagnation, or collapse is pathological. This movement generates infinite states of being, all of which are characterized by varying, often paradoxical shades of linkage and separateness. I propose the term placental economy to represent both the primal intrauterine state as well as its expressions after biological and psychological birth. This economy is characterized by a paradoxical form of linkage/separateness that is defined by a combined, indivisible element between the two that is at the same timedifferent and differentiated. The uterine state is one of containment and holding, in which there is complete dependence of the one upon the other, coalescing in an indivisible core. At the same time, the placental state is not one of absolute merger, does not threaten to devour the various elements, and preserves their separate existence. The placenta, which has its own mode of existence, may even serve as a proto-representation of what the mind will eventually conceive of as a ‛third,' already at this primal, uterine phase. The placental link, then, is always one of linkage/separateness – never one or the other alone – and is not static. It features movement, oscillation, and development. Placental economy would be the most primitive protomental impression, preceding birth, mouth-nipple relations, and the autistic-contiguous position. Since we know that bodily impressions comprise the fundamental infrastructure of mental developmental, placental economy may be the most primitive (or, earliest) of these impressions. As I see things, placental economy terminates with what Freud famously termed the caesura of birth, when the placenta ends its biological role. The caesura of birth is a dramatic separation that utterly and permanently unravels that bodily part which is common, integrated, and indivisible, but leads the way to new conceptualization of contact, linkage, and attachment, and at the same time preserves a sense of continuity as traces of the uterine state are registered in the budding mind. The placental economy and the caesura are therefore complementary and opposing experiences – the former is a linkage with a partition, and the latter is a rift with a link (a kind of Yin-Yang relationship). Both of these experiences are essential for the creation and existence of life and are imprinted in the body/psyche from the beginning to the end. Several additional theoretical concepts are examined in light of this proposal, with the aid of clinical material from an analysis in the shadow of death in which experiences of linkage/separateness, body/psyche, and life/death were experienced in an especially intense way.
- Publication
Ma'arag: Israeli Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2010, Vol 1, p39
- ISSN
2413-290X
- Publication type
Article