ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis has primarily explored somatic experience in relation to love and intimacy. It focuses on the body in relation to work. It begins with an exploration of Bion's idea of a relationship between protomentality and group disease. It goes on to consider what can be conceived of as his ecological methodology, which enables movement between different "fields of study". Freud's genius was to perceive the mind's function of managing the quantum of internal and external psycho-physical excitations and to elaborate them through the work of dreams and self expression. Torres' research tests the hypotheses that in each disease group, there is a protomental link to a group dynamic that will suppress painful emotion. Psychotherapists in private practice work in considerable isolation, left alone to resolve issues of reputation, professional identity, personal and professional development, and emotional support. Formal and informal mentoring which is available through vital, though often unacknowledged resources is too frequently disregarded as a resource within analytic institutes.
