Marion Milner, mysticism and psychoanalysis.

Marion Milner uniquely combined mysticism with psychoanalysis, arguing that undoing obstacles to mystical experiences of oneness with something beyond the self—which she sometimes called God, the unconscious, or the id—promotes health and creativity. Drawing on her self-analysis, analytic work with children and adults, and illustrations from imaginative ideas, paintings, and drawings, she made this case. This article explains and highlights her contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice, especially that associated with Winnicott, by detailing her early life, diary-keeping experiments, psychoanalytic case histories during and after World War II, her art, and her later involvement with the Squiggle Foundation and British Association of Art Therapists.

Study at a glance

Abstract

It is unusual to combine mysticism and psychoanalysis. Marion Milner, however, achieved precisely this. Through her self-analysis and analytic work with children and adults--and using as an illustration her own and others' imaginative ideas, paintings, doodles, drawings and pictures--she drew attention to the potential for health and creativity of undoing the obstacles to mystical experience of oneness with what is beyond or other than the self, which she sometimes called God, the unconscious or the id. This article seeks to explain and highlight this aspect of her contribution to, and continuing importance for, psychoanalytic theory and practice--particularly that associated with Winnicott--through detailing her early life and diary-keeping experiments, some of her psychoanalytic case histories during and after the Second World War, her work as an artist, ending with her travels and her involvement during the 1980s and 1990s with the Squiggle Foundation and British Association of Art Therapists.