©2004 Institute of Psychoanalysis At-one-ment, intuition and ‘suchness’ 1 LEANDRO STITZMAN Avellaneda 75, Florida – Vte. López, (1602) – PBA, Argentina — delicuescente@yahoo.co.uk (Final version accepted 23 July 2003) Many senses exist for perceiving sensory experience; there are in turn others which make it possible to perceive emotional experience: intuition is one of these. The author, using W. R. Bion’s work, studies intuition psychoanalytically, considering it to be a powerful ‘sense’ in clinical work. He describes the metapsychology of intuition, and proposes models that make it possible to think—from different perspectives— about how to make use of it in an analysis. To this end, he examines a series of useful processes and concepts: growth, tolerance, ‘suchness’, suffering and courage. The author defines the intuitive mechanism as a derivation of the renunciation of memory, desire and understanding; such a renunciation, learning from the experience of suffering the pain of facing the Truth in at-one-ment, makes it possible to tolerate the frustrations associated with observing the analysand ‘such-as-he-is’. Finally, once immersed in the intelligence of intuition, the author considers ways in which intuition might be linked with concepts, with a view to interpreting the facts that must be transformed in the analysis. Keywords: growth, pain, faith, transference, interpretation, intuition, suffering, suchness, tolerance, at-one-ment Prelude It is to some extent misleading to use verbal language to try to express ideas that have a high level of abstraction. I find myself on the spot in wishing to do so without losing respect for the facts I would like to conceptualise. I am concerned with avoiding the trap of simplification, and the incarceration of facts in concepts. It is my intention to speak of facts about which someone unfamiliar with analytical clinical work would hardly be able to think. To do so, I am obliged to betray certain concepts. I ask the same of my reader: that he should notice the fire smouldering under the ashes that I present and, in a sort of betrayal, should think freely and even wisely about the thoughts presented here. These notes are, then, a point of departure, not one of arrival. What follows is a set of thoughts in search of models that a thinker may find valid to think about the mind. The model I propose is that of a powerful tool forged in the ardent nucleus of faith: intuition—seen as an analytical ‘sense’. 2 Int J Psychoanal 2004;85:1137–55 1 Translated by Peter Shaio. 2 While intuition as such has many manifestations, depending on the model, the development I propose is limited exclusively to intuition as a tool the analyst uses within the analytical session.