Cezanne and the Post-Bionian Field

Rezensionen / Stimmen

In Cezanne and the post-Bionian field: an exploration and a meditation, the author succeeds in conveying the idea of a living, "multiversal" field by bringing together elements pertinent to the field concept in painting, philosophy and literature, and by providing them with a space where they can breathe together. The fascination of the book lies in the way it constructs novel pathways and tools for exploring a temporal space in perpetual expansion. The structure of the field can be expressed in different languages, each bound by its own stockade that someone, like our author, has dared to break down, resulting not in chaos but in the suggestion of new concepts. Whilst reading Robert Snell's work, I was struck over and over again by his extraordinary capacity to juxtapose Cezanne's visual concepts with Bion's oneiric models and field theory. I cannot overstate the value of this extraordinarily fecund meeting between art and psychoanalysis.

- Antonino Ferro, President of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, training and supervising analyst in the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the International Psychoanalytical Association

The reading of this book absorbed me. I really admired Robert Snell's writing style and the skill of the composition - the transitions from one perspective to the other, so as to always keep the reader's attention. The book shows a deep understanding of the Italian theory of the analytical field, and creates a perfect interplay of reflections and resonances between this theory, Cezanne and Merleau-Ponty. All three come out of it enriched, because each one is reflected in the other two (not to mention Bergson, Ogden and many others). It is a beautiful book.

- Giuseppe Civitarese, Psychiatrist and training and supervising analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI), member of the of the American Psychoanalytic Association, editor of the Rivista di Psicoanalis and author of Sublime Subjects, Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis, Routledge, 2017 'In Cezanne and the Post-Bionian field: An Exploration and a Meditation, the author succeeds in conveying the idea of a living, "multiversal" field by bringing together elements pertinent to the field concept in painting, philosophy and literature, and by providing them with a space where they can breathe together. The fascination of the book lies in the way it constructs novel pathways and tools for exploring a temporal space in perpetual expansion. The structure of the field can be expressed in different languages, each bound by its own stockade that someone, like our author, has dared to break down, resulting not in chaos but in the suggestion of new concepts. Whilst reading Robert Snell's work, I was struck over and over again by his extraordinary capacity to juxtapose Cezanne's visual concepts with Bion's oneiric models and field theory. I cannot overstate the value of this extraordinarily fecund meeting between art and psychoanalysis.'

- Antonino Ferro, President of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, training and supervising analyst in the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the International Psychoanalytical Association

'The reading of this book absorbed me. I really admired Robert Snell's writing style and the skill of the composition -the transitions from one perspective to the other, so as to always keep the reader's attention. The book shows a deep understanding of the Italian theory of the analytical field, and creates a perfect interplay of reflections and resonances between this theory, Cezanne and Merleau-Ponty. All three come out of it enriched, because each one is reflected in the other two (not to mention Bergson, Ogden and many others). It is a beautiful book.'

- Giuseppe Civitarese, Psychiatrist and training and supervising analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, member of the of the American Psychoanalytic Association, editor of the Rivista di Psicoanalis and author of Sublime Subjects, Aesthetic Experience and Intersubjectivity in Psychoanalysis (2017)