Mirroring and Attunement offers a new approach to psychoanalysis,
artistic creation and religion. Viewing these activities from a broadly
relational perspective, Wright proposes that each provides a medium for
creative dialogue: the artist discovers himself within his self-created
forms, the religious person through an internal dialogue with 'God', and
the analysand through the inter-subjective medium of the analysis.
Building on the work of Winnicott, Stern and Langer, the author argues
that each activity is rooted in the infant's preverbal relationship with
the mother who 'holds' the emerging self in an ambience of mirroring
forms, thereby providing a 'place' for the self to 'be'. He suggests
that the need for subjective reflection persists throughout the life
cycle and that psychoanalysis, artistic creation and religion can be
seen as cultural attempts to provide the self with resonant containment.
They thus provide renewed opportunities for holding and emotional
growth.
Mirroring and Attunement will provide essential reading for
psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and art therapists and be of interest
to anyone working at the interface between psychoanalysis, art and
religion.