Category: Psychotherapy

GENERATION GAP: Ageism or Darwinian Adaptation?

Recently, in the ongoing supervision group that I have belonged to for almost 20 years, there ensued a discussion about working with younger patients, and whether we were speaking a different language. My colleagues and I all felt a generational gap, and wondered together whether we had finally taken up the language that our parents […]

THE MAKING OF IDENTITY – on fingerprints, bruises and scars.

In my work as a psychoanalyst, I often think that none of us can avoid the fingerprints of our early history, the particulars of who our parent(s) and/or caretakers were and how their distinct elements shaped us, the specific interactions that molded our relational self. We cannot avoid it, nor would we want to. Our […]

ON TALKING –IN AND OUT OF CONTEXT.

Ever have the experience of hearing something you said but in a different context? Listening to your words yet feeling like something is not quite right? It may be that the actual words are not quite the same, or that they are said in a different tone of voice or affectation, or tweaked so that […]

ON SEISMIC ACTIVITY – And the Disruption of the Self.

In my work as a psychoanalyst I spend much of my time in areas of experience that tend to be de-stabilizing to our sense of personal integrity and unity. I am speaking here of those times when emotion overwhelms us, disrupting our sense of being oneself and ushering in feeling states that cause a disturbance […]

ON FACTS, TRUTH AND WHAT IS REAL.

Recently I was interviewed regarding the aftermath of trauma and its impact. I was asked about memory and whether people’s recollection of traumatic events is accurate and factual. This got me thinking about facts and reality, are they the same? Does a fact constitute reality? The word fact comes from the Latin factum originally meant […]

PSYCHIC SURVIVAL – And The Packaging of the Self.

We are, all of us, finely tuned complex beings. Every day in my clinical practice I am reminded of this fact. Individuals and their lives, and life solutions are never simple. Instead, each person carries within them a dense cast of internal characters and experiences which lend their voices and truths to lived experience, often […]

OUR USE OF OBJECTS – And Their Importance In Our Lives.

Several weeks ago I wrote a post on our internal world and how it is populated (https://www.drceccoli.com/2012/08/our-internal-world-and-how-it-is-populated/). I was drawing attention to the powerhouse that runs our life. In that post I focused on the significant players in our lives and our relationships to them. Today, I would like to speak about the rest of […]

WAIT WAIT DON’T TELL ME – On NOT Helping and the dance of mutuality.

It may seem curious for a psychoanalyst to write a post about not helping but that is exactly what I am going to do here. Three weeks ago I wrote about how difficult it is to sit and wait from the patients’ point of view (click here to read: https://www.drceccoli.com/2012/09/what-do-i-do-action-thought-and-change/).This week I turn to the […]

WHAT DO I DO? Action, thought and change.

Over many years of listening and working with patients, I have come to differentiate various degrees of thoughtfulness which, when considered and allowed to steep, move people toward action and change. In treatment, there are those moments when something clicks for the patient, when some piece of behavior sincs with history or memory or something […]

REWEAVING HISTORY: The Aftermath of Trauma.

A couple of nights ago I looked outside my window and saw a single tower of white light rising among the Manhattan skyscrapers, reaching towards the night sky. I look for it every September. Often it comes early. That tower of light is actually made up of two beams that, in the distance, merge into […]