‘Moments of Grace’ in the Psychoanalytic Encounter

In this video recording of my WPF seminar on the ‘Sublime in Everyday Life’, I move beyond the feelings of terror and awe that one experiences in one’s encounter with the sublime by describing the unanticipated and surprising everyday ‘openings’ to the ‘otherness’ of the other (both with a small ‘o’ and a big ‘O’) through what I call ‘moments of grace’. I believe that there is a lot to be gained by transcending the ‘traumatophilic’ aspects of the sublime in order to capture these moments of grace that the sublime experience holds for us which could lead to the co-creation of new and unexpected ways of meeting the ‘other’. Chance encounters with strangers, coming into contact with natural beauty, listening to the ‘music of what happens’, processing loss and falling in love, sharing moments of reverie with one’s patients are all examples of these ‘moments of grace’ that could help us bear the ‘gravity’ of our despair for a ‘life that does not live’.

Here is a link to Anastasios’ WPF talk:

'Moments of Grace' in the Psychoanalytic Encounter - YouTube