In The Evocative Object World Christopher Bollas builds on Freud's
account of dream formation, combining it with perceptive clinical,
theoretical and cultural insights to show how the psychoanalytical
method can provide a rich understanding of what has traditionally been
regarded as 'the outside world'.
Moving from the fundamentals of the free associative technique, through
an examination of how architecture and the built environment interact
with individual and societal dream life, Bollas extends the work of
psychoanalysis beyond relations with literature and culture to the
actual objects which surround us.
As with the evocative external structures of our environment, Bollas
describes how the family, with its inherited genetic structures,
likewise constitutes a pre-existent unconscious formation into which we
are placed, and demonstrates that there is more to this multifaceted
unit than the traditional psychoanalytical notion of the Oedipal
triangle.
In the process, Bollas also provides a fascinating and comprehensive
review of how his own theories have evolved over the past three decades:
a period during which, in his view, Western society has increasingly
neglected - or even become actively hostile towards - unconscious life.
Throughout this engaging and accessible text, Bollas rejects the
simplistic notion that mental life is unconsciously determined. Instead
he provides a compelling study of how unconscious life is shaped by a
diverse array of both internal and external factors, and how the work of
the Freudian pair provides the best means to gain insight into our
dreams, our surroundings, our families - and our mental life as a whole.
