Élever le bricolage à la dignité du savoir-y-faire avec le symptôme

Aims

This article proposes to question the dimension of “inventive craftwork” in clinical practice, and to open up the field of its complexity, by taking as a basis the singular elaborative work of several young people participating in workshops within a mental healthcare institution. If today the notions of the unconscious, subjectivity, the patients’ word, desire, enjoyment, and lust are reduced to the bare minimum, and if the neuroscientific approach might ultimately ignore the field of the unconscious as some debates suggest, we will expose other horizons : that of the value of the word, that of the “clinical at the bedside,” that of the function of the symptom, and that of inventive “craftwork” as a singular creation. We will insist on the following postulate : rather than considering a subject as deficient, we will, instead, consider them as a subject attempting to deal with their anxiety. Beyond the question of understanding, we will strive not to back down in the face of psychosis, thus following the recommendations of previous psychiatrists.

Method

First, we will move away from a deficitary approach, as it is commonly understood today, in order to restore to their rightful places the function of the symptom and the welcoming of a singular subjective “oddness.” We will rely on the words of the teenagers who participated in and with whom we worked in the offered creative workshops. This description will consist in highlighting the singular logic at work in each young person, and how each of them teaches us their own way of dealing with their symptom. We will propose to learn from the singular language of these subjects participating in the workshops to receive the inventive way in which they deal with the suffering they are facing. Then, we will revisit the questions of art, creation, and sublimation in the work of Sigmund Freud. If the inventor of psychoanalysis thinks of creation as illusory, as difficult to understand through analysis, as drawing on the child's play, or even as sublimation, by exploring these patients’ contributions, we will look at the works of several psychoanalysts who succeeded Freud, or who read him from different point of view. Donald Woods Winnicott worked extensively on the dimension of play and creativity in his clinical practice with children. He also looked at what he called the “creative lifestyle.” This author shifts from Freudian sublimation to opening the field of transitionality. In his Seminar on the Ethics of Psychoanalysis Jacques Lacan questioned the sublimation of and the destiny of the trieb by demonstrating how this destiny consists in elevating its primary goal to the rank of a shareable work. This literature review will allow us to question the dimension of creation within clinical practice. With the Freudian model alone not being able to account for the creative impulse, Jacques Lacan also proposed the concept of the sinthome, in the last years of his teaching, and especially between 1975 and 1976. We will therefore consider this concept of the sinthome; and to measure, distinguish, and compare it to what more contemporary authors call “sinthomation” or even “sinthomization.” This choice of perspective aims at setting in motion, demonstrating, and pinpointing what we mean, clinically, by “inventive craftwork.”

Results

In the workshops, we observe how important it is to take seriously the inventive solutions of each of the subjects with whom we work. We can also observe the importance of measuring the “transference manoeuvre.” In our encounter with the subject-at-work, there is much to gain in paying attention to the subject's inventiveness, as well as that of the clinician.

Discussion

By studying the etymological roots of the terms “craftwork” and “invention,” we will question the path of this inventive craftsman, a path that leads to surprise as well as to the possibility not only to find but also to ricochet. The craftsman is also described by Claude Levi-Strauss, in The Savage Mind, as “the one who works with his own hands” by “roundabout means” and who makes do “with the means at hand.” We will try to grasp how craftwork clinically summons an essential function of defending oneself against an unbearable real.

Conclusion

If, in any case, the question of creation is sometimes considered as a matter of sublimation, “craftwork” will be raised to the dignified position of a means of dealing with the symptom. The clinical examples given here illustrate and emphasize an art of resourcefulness.