Doubt
Kathryn Rickard
Routledge eBooks September 16, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781003795803-24 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that doubt within "Releasement Level B" of the psychoanalytic model of surrender is not ordinary uncertainty but the loss of psychic structures that previously secured meaning, and that it may be a condition to be endured rather than resolved. The contrasting cases of Bill and Winston illustrate a collapse of meaning without replacement and a sustained capacity to remain within uncertainty without reconstituting conviction. |
Abstract
This chapter examines Doubt within Releasement Level B of the psychoanalytic model of surrender, describing a disruption in which previously organizing psychic structures no longer hold and no new organization has yet taken their place. Doubt does not appear as ordinary uncertainty but as a shift in how experience is borne, as interpretations, convictions, and orienting frameworks lose their reliability and cannot be restored through effort, explanation, or interpretation. What emerges is not new understanding but the loss of structures that had previously secured meaning and coherence. Drawing on psychoanalytic perspectives and mystical accounts of states in which established forms of knowing recede, the chapter explores how doubt may function as a condition to be endured rather than resolved. Through the contrasting clinical cases of Bill and Winston, doubt appears in distinct forms: as a collapse of meaning without immediate replacement, and as a sustained capacity to remain within uncertainty without reconstituting conviction. The chapter also considers the therapist’s countertransference, including pressures to restore coherence or provide direction, alongside the task of remaining present with what does not yet cohere.