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“Where the three roads join…”:Exploring the tri-angularity of

human experience

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Oedipus in three’s 3 visits to the oracle

Sphinx’s riddle: 3 ages of man

3 exiles of Oedipus

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Bollas: “On the oedipal structure of a psychoanalysis”

1. The dream = the infant

2. Free association = sponsored by mother

3. Interpretation = provided by father

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Collecting 3’s Dimensions of space and time Developments (beginning / middle /

end) Rankings (gold / silver / bronze) Completeness (Father / Son / Holy

Ghost) Other examples?

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Psychoanalytic Examples Anal / Oral / Genital Id / Ego / Superego Unconscious / Preconscious /

Conscious Neurotic / Borderline / Psychotic

and… Foundation / Formation / Supervision

(CTP)

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Ogden’s The Primitive Edge of Experience

1. Klein’s Depressive position

2. Paranoid – Schizoid Mode

3. Autistic – Contiguous Mode

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Depressive Mode Symbol re-presents the symbolized Capacity for ambivalence Historicity is created Guilt Others are experienced as subjects BUT– can slip into certainty, closure,

arrogance, and deadness

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Paranoid-Schizoid Brittleness of object relating Re-writing of history (revisionism) Reversals: good becomes bad becomes

good Evacuation of pain Projective identification Omnipotent thinking Splitting Persecutory anxiety Symbolic equation

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Symbolic Equation

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Autistic-Contiguous Pre-symbolic, sensory-dominated mode Surface contiguity: e.g. “molded” skin surfaces;

harmonic sounds; rhythmic rocking; symmetrical shapes Danger of coming apart Need for holding (together) “The sensory experience is the infant in this mode, and

the abrupt disruption of shape, symmetry, rhythm, skin moldedness, and so on, marks the end of the infant.”

The patient unconsciously managed to create a sensory base for himself “…by focusing intently on a rectangular shape that he discerned in the pattern of the lines and texture on the ceiling above the couch.”

“unremitting eye contact that begins in the waiting room and is only painfully terminated by the closing of the consulting room door at the end of the hour…”

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Balint’s The Basic Fault 1. Oedipal level or area

2. Area of the Basic Fault

3. Area of Creation

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Balint: The three areas of the mind

1. Oedipal level or area Verbal Conflict 3-person

2. Area of the Basic Fault Words have no conventional meaning Not about conflict--fault 2-person

3. Area of Creation Unworded No external object present 1-person

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The Unbearable Lightness of Three-ing

The Three-ness of three

The Two-ness of three

The One-ness of three

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Three Motifs

Three-ness: Persecutor / Rescuer / Victim

Two-ness: Paper / Rock / Scissors

One-ness: Impossible (Penrose) Triangle

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Motifs Abbreviated PRV = Persecutor / Rescuer / Victim PRS = Paper / Rock / Scissors

PRT = Penrose Triangle

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PRV: Persecutor / Rescuer / Victim

P

R V

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PRS: Paper / Rock / Scissors

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PRT: Penrose Triangle

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PRV: “I am Oedipus…You can trust me. I am ready to help.”

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PRS: Oedipus to Tiresias: “Now I see it all. You helped hatch the

plot…”

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PRT: “I’m at the edge of hearing horrors”

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Oedipus Wrecked: “Oh the agony! I am agony…”

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Healing Properties of the Motifs

PRV PRS PRTJustice Judgement AestheticsEmpathy Play FocusRespect Risk-taking CreationSocialization Surprise MeditationRelating Decisiveness Religion

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“Where the three roads join…” the dialectical interplay of

three PRV depressive / oedipal area / Father

PRS Paranoid-Schizoid / Basic Fault / Mother

PRT autistic-contiguous /Area of creation /Child

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“…violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting

…crashes down the abyss—sheer doom!

But the healthy strife that makes the city strong—

I pray that god will never end that wrestling…”

(l 964 ff)

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Leowald’s “Atonement”“The self, in its autonomy, is an atonement

structure, a structure of reconciliation, and as such a supreme achievement.”

Self-responsibility is both a crime and restitution for the crime

“…the oedipal objectum is consubstantial with the pre-oedipal identificatum…”