Living Moments: On the Work of Michael Eigen

Michael Eigen is widely regarded as a significant and increasingly influential figure in contemporary psychoanalysis. His writings represent a singular interpretation of Bion and Winnicott, as well as being characterized by a striking and poetic style. This collection of papers, by contributors in the USA, Israel, Australia and South Africa, reveal how his works yield creative and generative possibilities with profound clinical and cultural implications. Writers include well-known authors such as Mark Epstein, Anthony Molino and Brent Potter.

The papers are divided into three sections: Reflections (psychoanalytic and philosophical concerns, such as Heidegger, the Hindu Goddess Kali, Buddhism, the sense of Time); Refractions (clinical implications, papers on murder and aliveness, the nature of the analytic interaction, addiction and work with the mother-infant relationship), and Responses (personal impacts of his works, as well as poetry and the thoughts of a creative writer on Eigen’s oeuvre). There are also papers on the experience of supervision with Michael Eigen as well as on his weekly seminars on Bion, Winnicott and Lacan, ongoing for more than forty years, in New York. The book is a long-overdue celebration of and homage to a creative and unique figure in contemporary psychoanalysis.

With a Foreword by Dr James Grotstein, and a complete bibliography of Michael Eigen's writings compiled by Loray Daws.