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Drawing on notions of primal scene and Bion’s theorizing of groups, this essay looks at the elements in institutional groups where transgressions and corruption may appear and develop and examines the difficulties group members have in working through the violations and potential disruptions to the institution’s functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay develops several perspectives on Bion’s concept of primal scene and introduces a series of sex papers on aspects of the primal scene: its developmental implications, implications for thinking, a way of examining the forces of silence and transgression in psychoanalytic institutions, the mythic dimensions of the primal scene and its lens into considerations of race and racism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This introduction outlines a paper by Rina Lazar and discussions by Anthony Bass, Sam Gerson, and Stephen Seligman. The target paper, an extensive clinical case, is described: a case where regression, countertransference dilemmas and opportunities, and intergenerational trauma are all in play. I consider the contribution of the discussants: their unique interpretations of relational work, the distinct focus on intersubjectivity, shifting self states (Bass), intergenerational trauma (Gerson), and regression and the role and status of development (Seligman). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this discussion I consider several influences on the contemporary project of deconstructing racism and the concept of racialized subjectivity. This discussion applauds the turn in Suchet's work toward self-examination in a consideration of the experience of race and racism. Suchet's work moves the debates about racialized subjectivities into a deeper and more complex understanding of all the ways in which identifications and attachments cross race and class lines for many individuals. This discussion focuses on Suchet's treatment of the power of hybridic and biracial identifications, beginning with autobiographical material from Suchet's own childhood in South Africa. In this discussion of "Unraveling Whiteness" I integrate psychoanalytic concepts of enigmatic signification (the work of Laplanche) into a discussion of early attachment, and relational configurations with children and nonparental caretakers. The question of trauma or potential transformation in interracial experience is discussed, and some distinctions between American and South African experience are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces two papers and a discussion focusing on the theoretical innovation in working on a new organization of body-mind and surface-depth. Papers by Roth and Freedgood are discussed and linked to feminist work on the body and on domestic work in gardening and décor, and in relation to emblematic adornments to the body. Connections are made to feminist psychoanalysis. Elise's discussion and its developmental implications are also discussed. It is suggested that this set of papers addresses new clinical and theoretical ideas in female subjectivity, psychoanalytic studies of the body and materiality, as well as relationships among women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]