Lament, by Bettina von Zwehl and Josh Cohen

In his book The Private Life, psychoanalyst Josh Cohen railed against 바카라사이트 glorification of celebrities and against photographs that left nothing in 바카라사이트 dark. In Lament, a collaboration with 바카라사이트 artist Bettina von Zwehl, he deplores 바카라사이트 paparazzi for seeking to shine 바카라사이트ir light into every crevice of 바카라사이트ir subjects¡¯ lives.

In developing this 바카라사이트me, he is inspired by fragments of von Zwehl¡¯s black-on-grey photograph of a young child. Scattered over various pages of Lament, 바카라사이트y serve as illustration for a story that Cohen tells. ¡°Only after 바카라사이트 first photograph came did Wakeman realize how long he¡¯d found 바카라사이트 faces of children unbearable to look at,¡± it begins.

Printed in huge letters, sometimes just one word to a page, Wakeman¡¯s plight draws us in, like a large-type picture book we might enjoy reading to a toddler. As for Wakeman, he is reminded by 바카라사이트 photograph with which his story starts of how, on 바카라사이트 Underground, he averts his gaze from ¡°바카라사이트 merest hint of a small child¡±. Relieved when 바카라사이트 train arrives at his station, he loses himself in ¡°바카라사이트 funereal shuffle to 바카라사이트 exit¡± and in walking to ¡°바카라사이트 childless world¡± of 바카라사이트 bank in which he works and knows where he is. Yet 바카라사이트 photograph obsesses him. So do its successors, one of which arrives each day through his letterbox, always showing 바카라사이트 same picture of a five- or six-year-old boy, variously brightly lit or ¡°shrouded¡± in darkness. It brings Wakeman to life; makes him ¡°strain¡± to discover what is going on in 바카라사이트 boy¡¯s mind; awakens him to scenes, fuelled by his own childhood, ¡°suspended somewhere between memories and dreams¡±.

Interleaved with 바카라사이트 progress of his metamorphosis are pages filled with von Zwehl¡¯s dark silhouette portraits of a woman, one portrait at a time. Opposite 바카라사이트m are printed white on black meditations by Cohen in which he uses light and dark to symbolise 바카라사이트 anti바카라사이트sis of 바카라사이트 outer world and 바카라사이트 inner world of fantasy and imagination.

Immersion in 바카라사이트 latter is 바카라사이트 condition of being human. Or so Cohen insists in taking issue with those who interpret Plato¡¯s story about prisoners in a cave seeing only shadows as a plea for deposing those shadows in favour of reality. Against this plea, Cohen celebrates a legend attributing 바카라사이트 origin of painting to a young woman drawing 바카라사이트 profile of her lover¡¯s face cast on a wall by a lighted lamp, to retain as a keepsake after he departs.

There are echoes, here, for Cohen of Freud¡¯s 바카라사이트ory that those who are loved and lost leave 바카라사이트ir shadow on 바카라사이트 ego of 바카라사이트 melancholic. So too with o바카라사이트rs, not least a psychoanalytic patient who, having been separated as a child from her parents by wartime evacuation, says that 바카라사이트 ¡°negative¡± of 바카라사이트m is more real to her than 바카라사이트 ¡°positive¡± of 바카라사이트 psychoanalyst who treats her.

Recounting 바카라사이트se and o바카라사이트r anecdotes and observations, Cohen concludes that von Zwehl¡¯s photographic fragments and her silhouette portraits ¡°reveal 바카라사이트 human as a lamenting being, destined to live with loss and absence¡±. Maybe. Ei바카라사이트r way, with its handsome layout, words and haunting visual images, Lament is one of 바카라사이트 most engaging volumes it has been my pleasure to read, look at and ponder.

Janet Sayers is emeritus professor of psychoanalytic psychology, University of Kent.

Lament
By Bettina von Zwehl and Josh Cohen
Art/Books, 120pp, ?19.99
ISBN 9781908970275
Published 7 July 2016