Psychoanalysis, Intersubjective Writing, and a Postmaterialist Model of Mind : I Woke Up Dead

In this in-depth and unique collaboration between a patient and his psychoanalyst, Psychoanalysis, Intersubjective Writing, and a Postmaterialist Model of Mind: I Woke Up Dead examines the unconscious mind by analysing the patient’s novel written during his treatment as the focus. Using the patient’s creative writing and their intersubjective relationship as evidence, Dan Gilhooley and Frank Toich show how psychoanalysis fits within a postmaterialist model of mind.

In this ground-breaking exploration, Gilhooley and Toich together demonstrate how a nonlocal unconscious can reshape the psychoanalytic conception of the mind. Split into four parts, Intersubjective, Quantum, History and Collaboration, Dan introduces three themes in the first: recovery from death, the intersubjective nature of therapeutic work and the role of creative imagination, combining these themes with analysis of Frank’s work and short, related stories from his own life. Part II, Quantum, introduces the concept of nonlocality to describe the mind and draws on the appearance of quantum physics in Frank’s science fiction, before moving onto Part III, History, which examines the emergence of psychoanalysis out of animal magnetism, looking at rapport, telepathy and love in psychotherapy. Finally, Collaboration discusses their ongoing psychotherapeutic experiment, the role of imagination, dissociation and the cosmic mind in psychological growth. Interweaving creative writing, psychoanalytic theory and real-life stories, the book re-contextualizes the history and future of psychoanalysis.

Due to its multidisciplinary nature, this book will appeal to psychotherapists and psychologists in practice and in training. It would also be a vital resource for academics and students of counseling, consciousness studies, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychology.

Dan Gilhooley is a psychoanalyst, artist and teacher. He has published papers on therapeutic process, dreams and creativity, and is a practicing visual artist. He is a training analyst, supervisor and teacher at the New York Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies, with a private practice in Manhattan and Bellport, New York.

Frank Toich is a writer living in Woodstock, New York. He is the author of The Journey West and is currently working on a second novel entitled The Way of Change. He is also a composer of transcendental and house music which he’s recorded with the musical group, Shining Path.