Extract
[...] Geysken's text and the concept of resilience converge towards a vision of mental health that, in my humble opinion, goes beyond the simple search for healing. They invite us to embrace the complexity of human existence, to accept our vulnerabilities and to develop a more authentic relationship with ourselves and with others. The bricolage of the incurable and resilience remind us that life is a dynamic process, where suffering and joy coexist, and where our ability to adapt and reinvent ourselves in the face of challenges is an inexhaustible source of strength and creativity. [...]
[...] The context seems to be different, but the therapeutic appeal is just as interesting. The situation here is that of art workshops for artists in the hospital for adolescents. The authors highlight that these workshops, although led by artists and not therapists, constitute a valuable social space where adolescents can interact not only with each other, but also with an adult outside the medical framework. This heterogeneous collective promotes the 're-weaving of social ties' and allows adolescents to reconnect with the outside world, often distanced by their psychic suffering. [...]
[...] The act of 'tinkering' requires a collaborative approach, where the patient is encouraged to take an active part in their own care, exploring their resources and developing strategies to cope with their condition. The patient is therefore no longer a passive 'patient' but an actor in their own change. I had the opportunity to experiment with this procedure. With one of my patients suffering from anxiety disorders, we focused on eradicating anxiety, exploring together ways to manage and transform it into a force. [...]
[...] Thus is our society, marked by an frenzied quest for perfection and self-control. I also observe this same trend in the growing pressure on certain patients to obtain a quick and definitive solution to their psyche. A kind of road map, identical to each person, featuring a magician, the psychoanalyst, and the little rabbit pulled out of the hat, the patient. This is a real problem for me, as we can indeed see management models and action plans, often inspired by a medical-psychiatric vision, that tend to promote the idea of total healing, thereby fueling the hope of a life without psychic suffering. [...]
[...] Fortunately, the tinkering of the incurable is itself also incurable, even if it's only on the margins. Workshops, therapeutic clubs, surprising encounters, and gatherings based on heterogeneity are ways of shaping this incurable tinkering. Especially in the services I speak of, these inventions of institutional psychotherapy are simply the only option so that chronicity does not petrify into a deadly timelessness." Geysken Thomas, 'an incurable bricolage', in Institutions, Revue de psychothérapie institutionnelle October 2016, p 20 Introduction The psychoanalyst Thomas Geysken, in his article entitled 'An incurable bricolage», published in the Journal of Institutional Psychotherapy, presents knowledge on the acceptance of the incurable. [...]
