Publisher Description

The Marion Milner Tradition provides a comprehensive overview of Milner's eight-volume oeuvre for the first time, and celebrates her pioneering achievements both in psychoanalytic world and in creative and scientific disciplines such as clinical and organisational psychology, philosophy, mindfulness and spirituality, management theory, art therapy, as well as art appreciation/criticism.This volume considers Marion Blackett Milner through the prism of her innovative engagement with people, art, and human experience, as well as her extraordinary contribution as an original thinker and researcher within the Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytical Society. The co-editors' exploratory approach to her legacy is as open as the spirit of Milnerean 'discovery research' in defining its distinctive features. An assembly of fifty contributors were invited to interrogate the evolution of what is becoming known as the Milner Tradition, demarcating her influence on theory and clinical practice over the many decades of her life and since her death. They draw upon their professional interviews or friendship with Marion Blackett Milner, or intimate experience of her as an analyst, supervisor, or relative. Similarly, participants in global reading groups in Australia, England, Greece, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and South Africa recount personal responses to their own exercise in action research. The plethora of riches in this book will be of interest to both new and veteran readers of Milner's opus, as well as students and practitioners from a variety of therapeutic and other disciplines.

Author Biography

Margaret Boyle Spelman, PhD, is a chartered clinical and counselling psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and organisational psychologist who has been working for more than four decades with the Irish Health Service Executive and in private practice. She is (ex officio) member of The Psychological Society of Ireland, The Irish Council of Psychotherapy, and member of the European Association for Psychotherapy. Margaret has two monographs on the subject of DW Winnicott and co-edited the Winnicott volume in this series. Joan Raphael-Leff, PhD, is a psychoanalyst (Fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society and longstanding Member of the Group of Independent Psychoanalysts). Previously, she was Professor of Psychoanalysis at UCL and the University of Essex. In 1998, she founded and served as the first International Chair of COWAP, IPA's Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis. She is the author and editor of fourteen books and 150 single author publications. Now, in her retirement, she heads the UCL/Anna Freud Centre Academic Faculty for Psychoanalytic Research.

Table of Contents

Section I: Marion Blackett Milner life and legacy INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I: 1. 'Joy to be hidden': thoughts from a biographer 2. Some essential concepts of Marion Blackett Milner: Framing, Concentration, Absentmindedness, Rêverie 3. 'The Pliable Medium' 4. Winnicott and Milner - recognising the legacy of collegial love 5. The Use Creativity Can Make of Pain 6. Talking with Marion Milner about Donald W. Winnicott and about herself (1981) 7. 'What a lovely woman: my youthful encounters with Marion Milner (1985-1998) 8. Interview with Marion Milner (1990) 9. 'Tea' with Marion Milner (1996) 10. My friend, Marion Milner Section II: Clinical applications: Milner in the psychoanalytic consulting room INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II 11. 'Access to darkly hidden powers'—the context to Marion Milner's psychoanalytic training and clinical work 12. 'My Analyst Marion Milner' Preface to Chapters 13 and 14: Marion Milner behind the couch 13. 'I was her last Training Case' - analysis with Marion Milner and supervision with Winnicott 14. 'Marion was uniquely placed to understand'... (analyses with Marion Milner and with Donald Winnicott) 15. Marion Milner: thinking together... (on her supervision with Milner 1977-1978) 16. 'A meaningful encounter' - my supervision with Marion Milner (1990-1993) 17. 'Holding and Visceral Attention': bodily concentration of an analyst under COVID-19 lockdown Section III: Milner: art and creativity INTRODUCTION TO SECTION III 18. 'Milner and the origins of creativity': from symbolism to symbol formation and illusion 19. 'The Chosen Medium': Milner's art 20. Introduction to Marion Milner's work on creativity and art 21. Remembering Marion Milner (from 1981 to 1998) 22. 'Jugs, Mugs, and Goblets': Comments on Marion Milner's artistic insights 23. 'Scrappy observations' 24. 'A Deeper-rooted Kind of Knowing' 25. 'What sort of Mrs Milner is she?' Thinking the experience mostly in words 26. 'A Womb of One's Own': holding hands, mutual muddlement, and the so-slow finding of feet in Marion Milner's creative clinical cradling of 'Susan' Section IV: Milner's books and other endeavours INTRODUCTION TO SECTION IV 27. The Human Problem in Schools: A refined application of psychological ideals 28. Marion Milner: a many-branched psychologist at work: (The human problem in schools) 29. 'Diaries over a lifetime': the diary-work of Marion Milner: A Life of One's Own; Experiment in Leisure; Eternity's Sunrise; Bothered by Alligators 30. 'What Sort of Therapist Are You?' Reflections on The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men 31. 'Letting oneself be breathed'—On Not Being Able to Paint 32. 'The insides of solid things' - On Not Being Able to Paint 33. Q&A with Marion Milner on The Hands of the Living God 34. 'The Play of Opposites' - Milner's last book: Bothered by Alligators Section V: About Marion: Recollections and reflections INTRODUCTION TO SECTION V 35. 'Granny Plasticine' - my grandmother Marion Blackett Milner 36. 'Words made flesh...' On editing Marion Milner 37. 'The Visitation' 38. 'Marion on the Swing' 39. 'Marion on the Drums' 40. 'Marion Milner, Shakespeare and fashion' 41. 'Getting to know Marion Milner': An unexpected gift from the late Andreas Giannakoulas 42. 'It Thought Me' - on interviewing Marion Milner Epilogue: Marion Milner: 'A mind becoming more aware of itself'

Review

"Marion Milner and her work have been written about previously in a piecemeal sort of way. Here she is presented in her totality. Accounts of her clinical and theoretical ideas highlight their originality and continuing importance for psychoanalysis. Her work as an artist is also considered in its own right. Descriptions of the impact of Milner's writings on those who have studied them give clues to what readers of this book may find there for themselves. Besides all this, personal reminiscences of Milner bring her vividly and delightfully to life. We must be grateful to Margaret Boyle Spelman and Joan Raphael-Leff for a book that is both informative and inspiring." - Michael Parsons, Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and member of the French Psychoanalytic Association
"Marion Milner and her work have been written about previously in a piecemeal sort of way. Here she is presented in her totality. Accounts of her clinical and theoretical ideas highlight their originality and continuing importance for psychoanalysis. Her work as an artist is also considered in its own right. Descriptions of the impact of Milner's writings on those who have studied them give clues to what readers of this book may find there for themselves. Besides all this, personal reminiscences of Milner bring her vividly and delightfully to life. We must be grateful to Margaret Boyle Spelman and Joan Raphael-Leff for a book that is both informative and inspiring." - Michael Parsons, Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and member of the French Psychoanalytic Association

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