The Psychodynamic Poets

A Manifesto in the Form of a Reverie

Wild thinkers and unmuzzled beings, the psychodynamic poets have traveled to foreign lands with a wandering mind and reliable shoes.

They have turned around to meet their own shadows, and they laid down to explore unknown territories from a different perspective.

To their detriment, they have perceived the limits of their own thinking, the anguish of their finitude, the fact that they are neither the center of the world nor even the center of themselves.

Daring to step aside traditional science for a while — similar to some artists and quantum physicists, they have embraced themselves as subjects of experience.

On the way home, they have left aside the common struggle with smart objectives and the obsession with control and certainty, which strangles collective imagination and creativity, to allow the appearance of unknown facts and their subsequent verbal formulation.

What counts is the movement of thought which is aroused, even required, in a quest for meaning.

They are clumsy, a condition that favors loopholes and the opening, to be traversed by the wind. That’s how freedom gets in. Even if it means losing their balance for a while.

The psychodynamic poets don’t intend to speak truths, they don’t deliver a message.

They seek to unveil the real.

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The psychodynamic poets are usually encountered around midlife, between doors, in the corridors, on the margin of the circle, between individual and collective fantasies and realities, emotions and structures, when the quest for significance gradually replaces the quest for success, as you enter a new phase of your own journey.

They embody that other that welcomes you in a place where you can shed your encumbrances, stop imitating yourself, confront alibis and reconnect with life.

Valuing uniqueness against a shiny façade, recognizing the beauty in imperfection, and welcoming the cracks and scratches that are part of each one’s story, the psychodynamic poets open a space where aspiration has the potential to blossom and flourish again.

Where your words can resonate.

Where you can develop alternative habits of conversation.

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Breathing into words, the psychodynamic poets embrace the complexity of language to expand its potentials as a vehicle for exploring the unknown.

A relationship between life and language is engaged, life that transforms language and language that transforms life, and it becomes possible to say what would not have been dared to be formulated before.

Breaking free from the stereotypes of conventional language, an access to the imagination is offered, an opening to new perceptions and countless perspectives.

The psychodynamic poets reanimate the capacity to metaphorize reality by producing fresh mental images.

Symbols emerge, bringing an aesthetic satisfaction that soothes the soul.

It is now not unrealistic that the soul begins to aspire to reveal itself where it was no longer seen.

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To clear a meaningful path through chaos, to regain some sense of direction, and not to get lost in the journey, the psychodynamic poets rely on a composite map elaborated by long-distance explorers.

At night, while dreaming, the psychodynamic poets occasionally meet with some of them, there are Sigmund, Melanie, Donald, Wilfred, and Jean-Bertrand. Often there is also someone new at the table, and they have tea together.

As Carl Gustav used to say, the ability for external objectivity is measured by the ability for internal dialogue.

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The psychodynamic poets are not entirely of this world but they are in this world, and from time to time, between two appraisal seasons, they are invited into organizations for a chat and a cup of coffee.

Black coffee, no sugar, and they engage in what, on the surface, may look like an informal conversation.

Bringing along the past and the future, the psychodynamic poets walk with you into the heart of the organization, to observe it unfolding in action.

In the headquarters that you shape and that shape you, you open some improbable doors, and narratives about who you think you are, here and now, are explored.

You increase the complexity of what you perceive and how you relate to the world.

The psychodynamic poets accompany you as far as they are able to.

You develop new insights, new knowledge, new ways of doing things.

Some vital potentiality is freed.

You sense more clearly the way one thinks, feels, and acts while working together.

It’s tangible.

Sometimes.

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At the crossroads of the unicity of the poetic form and its understanding, a significant balance is sought together.

Here on this thin line / it is possibly a safe place / to avoid being swallowed up by the power of the imagination stemming from the unconscious valleys.

No guarantee.

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Combining and bridging different perspectives within themselves, the psychodynamic poets are by nature cohesive agents who connect, bind, inspire and drive intersubjective collaboration and transformation.

The psychodynamic poets are present and caring as you approach the unknown.

And, as it is easier to enter the darkness of the forest in company, it is ok to hold hands at times.

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The psychodynamic poets are with you when you re-establish an inner dialogue with the luminous and the dark actors of your inner theater, while you lead various of your characters into the spotlight, and reconnect with yourself.

You become more whole.

Oh!

A change has occurred in your state of mind, in feelings and emotions, a new coherence is crystallizing.

You recognize the traces left by the activity of your own thoughts, and abstaining from a determined self-knowledge, you put in movement what seems to be defined.

You slowly reincarnate your own experience.

And surprisingly for you, you find yourself also able to better interact with others through their differences.

You now bring to the surface how you relate to your environment, and you participate in the creation of a shared reality with others.

Meaningful and purposeful actions are beginning to unfold.

It is a body sensation.

Transformation is happening.