Becoming Alive draws on the Winnicottian idea of transitional objects, and puts forward the argument that human beings relate to and use objects in order to generate experiences of 'being alive'.
"Becoming Alive" draws on the Winnicottian idea of transitional objects, and puts forward the argument that human beings relate to and use objects in order to generate experiences of 'being alive'.
Enlivened by case vignettes and examples drawn from wider culture, this book explores the idea that vitality has been picked up rather late in psychoanalysis, and stresses how becoming alive affects our intersubjective relationships as well as our relationship to objects.
This is an intriguing book articulating a developmental psychoanalytic account of the experience of 'being alive'. It shows the value of a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives held together in tension and emphasises the working-out of theoretical concepts that can express the experience of being alive, a process that involves reconsidering a wide range of psychoanalytic ideas.
'Lamothe's work represents a unique and masterful orchestration of different strands of current psychoanalytic theory and developmental theory as portrayed from the vertex (as Bion would say) of being alive. The author's theory of trauma in the last chapter was exceedingly interesting and unique. Trauma is not the only challenge to aliveness. Agency is another. This is a rewarding work for analysts, therapists, and the lay public.' - James S. Grotstein M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, USA
"This book is an exciting, enlivening and thought-provoking journey through the excellent and thoughtful eyes of LaMothe, a man of obvious integrity and intelligence. The many pages of references provided at the end of the book attribute to LaMothe's scholarship and curiosity in writing this treatise. Becoming Alive celebrates the experience of being alive and questions the entire practice of diagnosing mental illness as a convenient illusion. This book should be of interest to psychoanalysts, to all clinicians interested in theory, and to all teachers, philosophers, scholars, and people in related disciplines who are interested in pondering the question of why we are here and what difference it should make." - Marilyn Newman Metzl, PhD is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Kansas City and is a faculty and supervisor with the Kansas City Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysts
