Motive for Metaphor

Henry M. Seiden, PhD, ABPP, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst who lives and practices in Forest Hills, New York. He has published poetry in a number of journals including 'Poetry, Literal Latte, Passager, Midstream' and the 'Journal of the American Medical Association'. He has also published a chapbook called 'Tinnitus'. His published professional papers include articles on Wallace Stevens, Ernest Hemingway, the longing for home, the use of metaphor in psychotherapy, on using poetry in psychotherapy with children, and on mindfulness, among other subjects.He is co-author (with Christopher Lukas) of 'Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide' (Jessica Kingsley, 2007), which was originally published by Scribners and is now in its fourth printing. It has been translated into Chinese, Portuguese and Russian and has been in English as well as American editions.Seiden is a member the Board of Editors of 'Psychoanalytic Psychology'. He has been a member at large of the Board of Directors of Division 39, the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association, and is currently its Publications Chair.

• Foreword , Introduction , Jokes, fathers, grief, and angels: a poem by Sherman Alexie , Speaking of pain: Yehuda Amichai , A sad story, briefly told: a poem by Simon Armitage , “Finding in the sound a thought”: Matthew Arnold’s “Dover beach” , Auden’s “Lullaby” and Winnnicott’s “Hate …” , An awakening: a poem by Elizabeth Bishop , On the pleasure in play: the poetry of Billy Collins , Tyger time: e. e. cummings on conscientious objection , On idea and image and “the space between”: a poem by Albert Goldbarth , “When your heart cries out, being carried off …”: a poem by Eamon Grennan , “Old pond, frog jump in …” the genius of haiku , Postmodern metaphor: a poem by Robert Hass , The air of another time and place: a poem by Seamus Heaney , Poetry as argument: a poem by Tony Hoagland , Marie Howe on “What the living do” , Kenneth Koch on psychoanalysis in the “glory days” , An old man’s love song: a poem by Stanley Kunitz , “They fuck you up …” Philip Larkin’s “This be the verse” , The art of the ordinary: Philip Levine on “What work is” , How otherness dissolves: a poem by Thomas Lux , Mysterious tears: a poem by Rose McLarney , A meditation without punctuation by W. S. Merwin , Narrative as metaphor: Sharon Olds , “The meaning of simplicity”: a poem by Yannis Ritsos , Saying a lot with a little: the poetry of Kay Ryan , On the love of beauty—and a poem by Charles Simic , When the narrative changes: a poem by A. E. Stallings , Metaphors for mind: the poet Gerald Stern , Negative capability and Wallace Stevens’s “The emperor of ice-cream” , Tracks in the snow: a poem of the Sung dynasty , On style: Tennyson and Cavafy, and intersubjective engagement , Empathic music: a poem of William Carlos Williams , The pathetic fallacy: William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson , W. B. Yeats on “Where love has pitched his mansion …”*

'Henry M. Seiden's The Motive for Metaphor exemplifies Freud's admonition that the best way to deepen our appreciation of psychoanalytic process is through intense study of the arts, in this case, poetry. Both poets and psychotherapists will find sustenance in these essays. Seiden brings a deep respect for both the poetic and psychoanalytic process allowing each perspective to refract and illuminate the other.'- William A. MacGillivray, PhD, ABPP, Past President, Division of Psychoanalysis, American Psychological Association'Like Walt Whitman, Henry M. Seiden is "large and contains multitudes" - taking on poets of various times and places, finding unexpected and delightful links to psychoanalysis, and sharing honest and personal reflections of his responses as a reader and fellow poet. All of the pieces in this volume are short and succinct; they invite rereading, and are well worth savouring. Indeed, I read many of the pieces in this book when they were originally published, and it was a pleasure to find that I appreciated them even more the second time around. Anyone who is interested in the intersection of the humanities and psychoanalysis will learn a great deal from reading Seiden's work.'- Elliot Jurist, PhD, The City College of New York and Graduate Center of the City University of New York'Psychoanalysis and poetics have been joined since Freud noted Schiller's letter to a young poet to illustrate the state of mind conducive to psychoanalytic reflection. Psychoanalysts like Sharpe, Lacan, Bion, and Winnicott have reflected on this link and indeed have built their theories of the clinical process on it. Henry M. Seiden's lively and evocative essays, collected in this volume, stand firmly in this great tradition, and contribute new perspectives to it. He generally approaches the link from the side of poetry and then examines the interplay with the psychoanalytic process. The results frequently shed new light on both psychoanalysis and poetry and the cumulative effect is to enliven our appreciation of their common roots.'- David Lichtenstein, PhD, co-founder, faculty, and supervisor at the Apres-Coup Psychoanalytic Association; editor, DIVISION/Review: A Quarterly Psychoanalytic Forum