“ Once we put things together and express them to somebody, something happens. We become more alive – because we are expressing what we are expressing in terms of what is real and what is real is not static. What is real is continuously moving and what is real is the experience of everything moving and everything changing from minute to minute. ”
Melvin Bornstein, MD
Birmingham, Michigan
Episode Description:
Dr. Harvey Schwartz welcomes Dr. Melvin Bornstein, who is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. He is also the editor of the journal Psychoanalytic Inquiry. Dr. Bornstein is one of the elders in psychoanalysis. In today´s episode, he describes with passionate detail his experiences over the past many decades of practice. He also shares with us what this current period of uncertainty is like for him and he expresses the leitmotif of his work and his life in what he calls the “love of life”.
Key Takeaways:
[5:10] What this period of life has been like for Dr. Bornstein?
[8:27] Dr. Bornstein discuses Albert Camus’ The Plague.
[10:41] The power of talking to one another and sharing each one’s suffering, pain, and fear.
[12:53] The psychoanalytic process allows us to do something about what is happening that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
[14:01] Dr. Bornstein shares his experience free-associating every morning while exercising on his stationary bike.
[17:00] Dr. Bornstein talks about his path and where he comes from.
[18:56] What is real is not static, is continuously moving.
[20:33] Dr. Bornstein describes the most difficult experience from his childhood.
[22:58] Dr. Bornstein shares an early clinical situation.
[29:32] The immersion of Dr. Bornstein in the psychoanalytic work.
[31:52] The driving element is the love of life.
[35:33] The difficulty of some patients in owning their love.
Mentioned in This Episode
IPA Off the Couch – www.ipaoffthecouch.org
2023 and we’re still in the plandemic (plague) via Covid-19. Replete with “vaccines” and “booster shots” for such “vaccines”; people get sick not only with Covid-19; but, various other maladies that baffle medical professionals and render them contagious.
Mental Healthcare is on the verge of being phased out as more insurance companies discriminate supporting a non-profit-type of babysitting service that offers word searches, coloring books and unstructured psychiatric med dispensaries – which daze and confuse people out of the therapeutic conversation. Diagnostic criterion for psychiatric medication here in Michigan (USA) is a smiley-pie chart with a 1-10 rank variation that is plotted by word-of-mouth, only. Each number of smiley-face has a category of medication to fill up on and from. Very easy to take advantage of somebody doped up and unable to participate in conversation… if that person is even able to make it to a session. Thank goodness for telehealth; though, because we can be even more distant to a detriment in the comfort of inability.
This plague has people in positions of leadership and influence unaware of how easy it is to hate and how the love of life can make them do things counter-productive to their living as well as others’. Psychoanalysis is supposed to notice this more consistently and with more clarity than any other approach to living. It was the only thing that kept me in the field of psychology as an undergrad.
Now, as I browse this website full of would-be analysts that proclaim an interest in people, I cannot help but notice the plague boosters in favor of profits at the expense of providing quality mental health care. It’s unsettling to partake in a community that has been cognitively modified out of its own craft and unable to not only be aware of it; but, rally together to do something about it!
But then what does life look like when more and more people become aware of what’s going on…
I struggle with this and am frozen until I have a better understanding on how to improve. Actually improve. Quality at the expense of quantity is rather stringent. Does such an application result in fewer profits, a slower economy and even more suffering? Psychoanalysis is a process complicated by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy when in conjunction for medical billing. What happens when meaningful conversations bring up political purposes that not only cause mental illness; but, favor it as an economy then incentivize it from being dealt with?
I really enjoyed this great interview.
Dr. Melvin Bornstein is very inspiring!.
Thank you so much…
Thank you for this beautiful podcast. I agree with Dr. Bornstein that the love of life is what drives people. As I witness my father at 94 years of age garden, take care of the birds and plant flowers and make his own breakfast each morning for his wife of 67 years, he reminds me of the beauty that life offers. Relationships support the beauty of life. I loved my analyst but I found that life is bigger than just my analyst. Jesus says ” I have come to give you life, life to the fullest” Listen to any war veteran and when asked why they fought a common response if “for the love of my country” For the love of, what a driving force. fill in the blank. The analysis may uncover this dynamic but the spirit of life has it’s own mystery.
Caroline,
Thank you for your kind words.
I’m so pleased that you find the podcasts worthwhile.
Most episodes beyone #40 are devoted to understanding our experience with the virus.
All back episodes are available both on this website and through the usual podcast platforms, ie iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher etc under the title ‘Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch’
Best wishes,
Harvey
Thanks to Melvin Bornstein, thanks to you Harvey for this so interesting podcast: the professional experience is also an important testimony of life and creativity.
My best regards, and I must also thank you for the podcast série that you bring to us from the beginning of Covid times.
Is there any possibility to listen to those I missed?
My best regards