Analyzing Towards the Future - Fred Busch

There is an unfolding of concepts and theoretical models in dialogue with clinical practice that has made psychoanalysis a discipline almost unique in its kind. Around its center of gravity, established by the method (free association and evenly suspended attention), different theoretical models have developed, sometimes through continuity, other times through opposition. And yet, read closely, many of our writings reveal common elements that stand at the crossroads of every theoretical model, and every reflection on the theory of technique. One such point of convergence is what Wilfred Bion called "negative capability" drawing on an expression by John Keats used to describe the condition underlying poetic activity: the capacity to remain in uncertainties, without rushing to answer the question. In this original article, presented on the Talks On Psychoanalysis podcast, Fred Busch shows how negative capability is a condition that belongs not only to the Bionian model and its post-Bionian developments, but also one that has stood from the very beginning at the heart of the Freudian method of free association. Over more than fifty years, Busch has developed and cultivated a distinctive focus on the creation of a “psychoanalytic mind", title of one of his books (Routledge, 2014), which has become the signature of his work. It is thanks to this condition that a shift develops in the patient's relationship to his own mind. This concerns, too, what happens within an analytic session, where analyst and patient are engaged in trying to widen that area of the "penumbra of the patient's preconscious associations." Fred Busch, Ph.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, where he has taught for many years, alongside numerous invitations to teach at institutes across the United States and abroad. Over the course of his career, he has published nine books, along with more than one hundred articles on psychoanalytic technique, book chapters, and reviews. His work has been translated into numerous languages, and he has presented over two hundred papers and clinical workshops both nationally and internationally. Among his six authored books are Creating a Psychoanalytic Mind (2014), The Analyst's Reveries: Explorations in Bion's Enigmatic Concept (2019), A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Technique (2021), and, most recently, How Does Analysis Cure? (2024), all published by Routledge, following two earlier works published by Jason Aronson, Inc.: The Ego at the Center of Clinical Technique (1995) and Rethinking Clinical Technique (1999). He has also conceived and edited three further volumes, all with Routledge: Dear Candidate: Analysts From Around the World Offer Personal Reflections on Psychoanalytic Training, Education, and the Profession (2020), Psychoanalysis at the Crossroads: An International Perspective (2023), and, together with Natacha Delgado, The Ego and the Id: 100 Years Later (2023). You can download a copy of the paper here This podcast series is produced by the International Psychoanalytical Association as part of the activities of the IPA Outreach Subcommittee. Chair: Gaetano Pellegrini Podcast Coordinator: Florencia Biotti This episode produced by: Gaetano Pellegrini Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri Cover Image: Portrait of an Unknown Man (traditionally identified as John Keats) by Thomas Phillips (1770–1845), oil on canvas. Collection of Nottingham City Museums & Galleries / Art UK.