Ever since Freud's day the field of Psychonalysis has remained in a state of disarray through a
central lack of any agreed scientific grounding for the famed Talking
Cure Despite this late
in 1989 I decided to embark on analytical encounters with some of my emotionally
disturbed patients in the hope that some sort of therapeutic benefit would emerge
from some such encounter. The majority of these patients had already traversed
conventional psychiatric channels meeting drugs ECT bouts of Group Therapy and individual Counselling along the way, but all had remained
permanently locked in a state of emotional misery
Not having had any formal training in this technique I came to these
encounters empty handed and unencumbered by any theoretical baggage. From day
one just as Jacques Lacan had
advised I decided to focus in on the spoken
word as my prime object
of study However
it did not take long before I was negotiating the terrors and wonders of the transferential
neurosis that often erupts spontaneously within any analytical encounter. Whenever
this intrusion occurred I studiously ignored it and persisted doggedly in my pursuit
of the unspoken word. Eventually I hit upon a set of two questions capable of
producing sixteen individual responses. To my astonishment I found that all sixteen existed both within and without the analytical encounter. I decided then to do
a formal head count within my own practice. Over the next nine months or so I
asked every patient, who happened through my door, the said two questions. I stopped
at a total of 888 patients being totally enthralled by the sheer elegance of the
figures 444 females and 444 males. When processed through a Chi
Square table I found
that the scatter of responses was so highly statistically significant that chance
alone could not possibly explain them. I knew then that I
had discovered something of fundamental significance
I theorised then that this newfound sixteen-fold typology of Speaking Subjects logically converts to a matching sixteen-fold topography of an individual Speaking Mind; the implication being that each Newborn given the correct Infantile circumstances has the built-in capacity to adopt any one of these individual modes With this thought in mind I persisted further in my analytical encounters and eventually worked out how each of these sixteen modes relates to one another and how each relates specifically to a particular body of speech symptomatic of an underlying unique way of life
Lately I have been able to use this new found knowledge in my negotiation of the analytical encounter to effect an understanding and initiate a termination of the misery of most of my patients within a maximum of four clinical encounters
Thus having gained entry into this sixteen-fold (m)Universe entirely on your behalf, I am now in a position to invite you in. A piece of advice though - before you enter. You will find that the terms (m)Other and (f)Other are both central to an understanding of this Universe. I have found that they are best read as symbolic variables - encrusted variables - capable of acting as temporary place holders for any locally available significant Other as is well illustrated by the individual case studies lovingly placed at the heart of this text
You must realise however that once you have made your way into this (m)Universe your own individual way out remains your own personal affair
Here's talking to you and the sense to come.