ABSTRACT

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.

part Section I|68 pages

Marion Blackett Milner life and legacy

chapter |2 pages

Introduction to Section 1

Marion Blackett Milner—her life and legacy

chapter Chapter 1|2 pages

‘Joy to be hidden’

Thoughts from a biographer

chapter Chapter 2|7 pages

Some essential concepts of Marion Blackett Milner

Framing, Concentration, Absentmindedness, Rêverie

chapter Chapter 3|5 pages

‘The Pliable Medium’

chapter Chapter 5|2 pages

The Use Creativity Can Make of Pain

chapter Chapter 7|17 pages

“What a lovely woman”

My youthful encounters with Marion Milner (1985–1998)

chapter Chapter 8|5 pages

Interview with Marion Milner (1990)

chapter Chapter 9|5 pages

“Tea” with Marion Milner (1996) 1

chapter Chapter 10|8 pages

My friend, Marion Milner

part Section II|42 pages

Clinical applications

chapter |1 pages

Introduction to Section II

Clinical applications: Marion Milner in the psychoanalytic consulting room

chapter Chapter 12|5 pages

‘My Analyst Marion Milner’

chapter |2 pages

Preface to Chapters 13 and 14

Marion behind the couch

chapter Chapter 15|3 pages

Marion Milner

Thinking together… (on her supervision with Milner 1977–1978)

chapter Chapter 17|11 pages

‘Holding and Visceral Attention’

Bodily concentration of an analyst under COVID-19 lockdown 1

part Section III|70 pages

Milner

chapter |2 pages

Introduction to Section III

Milner: art and creativity

chapter Chapter 18|5 pages

‘Milner and the origins of creativity’

From symbolism to symbol formation and illusion

chapter Chapter 19|5 pages

‘The Chosen Medium’

Milner's art

chapter Chapter 22|7 pages

“Jugs, Mugs, and Goblets”

Comments on Marion Milner's artistic insights

chapter Chapter 23|8 pages

Scrappy observations

chapter Chapter 24|11 pages

‘A Deeper-rooted Kind of Knowing’ 1

chapter Chapter 26|12 pages

‘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’

part Section IV|50 pages

Milner's books and other endeavours

chapter |2 pages

Introduction to Section IV

Marion Milner's books and other endeavours

chapter Chapter 27|3 pages

The Human Problem in Schools

A refined application of psychological ideals

chapter Chapter 28|15 pages

Marion Milner

A many-branched psychologist at work: (The Human Problem in Schools)

chapter Chapter 29|10 pages

‘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

chapter Chapter 34|4 pages

“The Play of Opposites” – Milner's last book

Bothered by Alligators

part Section V|26 pages

Recollections and reflections

chapter |1 pages

Introduction to Section V

Reflections and recollections

chapter Chapter 36|2 pages

“Words made flesh…”

On editing Marion Milner

chapter Chapter 37|3 pages

‘The Visitation’

chapter Chapter 38|1 pages

‘Marion on the Swing’

chapter Chapter 39|1 pages

‘Marion on the Drums’

chapter Chapter 40|2 pages

“Marion Milner, Shakespeare and fashion”

chapter Chapter 41|1 pages

“Getting to know Marion Milner”

An unexpected gift from the late Andreas Giannakoulas

chapter |6 pages

Epilogue

Marion Milner: ‘A mind becoming more aware of itself’