A Beginners Mind

PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student

Stephen Temple, editor

Conference held at the

College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

A Beginners Mind
PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student
Stephen Temple, editor
College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

Situating Beginnings
Questioning Representation
Alternative Educations
Abstractions and Conceptions
Developing Beginnings
Pedagogical Constructions
Primary Contexts
Informing Beginnings
Educational Pedagogies
Analog / Digital Beginnings
Curriculum and Continuity
Interdisciplinary Curricula
Beginnings
Design / Build
Cultural Pluralities
Contentions
Revisions
Projections

Offered through the Research Office for Novice Design

Education, LSU, College of Art and Design, School of
Architecture.
Copyright 2006 University of Texas San Antonio
/ individual articles produced and edited by the authors

Printed proceedings produced by Stephen Temple, Associate Professor, University of Texas San Antonio.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
written permission of the publisher.
Published by:
University of Texas San Antonio
College of Architecture
501 West Durango Blvd.
San Antonio TX 78207
210 458-3010
fax 210 458-3016

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Temple, Stephen, editor
A Beginners Mind: Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student /
edited and compiled by Stephen Temple
1. Architecture - Teaching 2. Architecture - Design 3. Design - Teaching

ISBN 0-615-13123-9

Psychoanalytic Transference and the Student / Teacher Relationship

ELIZABETH DANZE
The University of Texas at Austin
The psychoanalyst / analysand relationship
The dynamic and complex relationship between psychoanalyst and analysand in many
ways mimics and ultimately sheds light on the relationship between studio instructor and student.
At the heart of both relationships is the desire and need to create- together. By looking more
closely at one aspect of psychoanalysis- transference and specifically the therapeutic alliance
and the analytic process, we see many revealing parallels to the studio teacher/architecture
student relationship.
Psychoanalysis is a two-person interaction, primarily verbal, in which one person is
designated the help giver and the other the help receiver. The help giver is the analyst and the
help receiver is the analysand (patient). The desired outcome of an analysis is to illuminate
characteristic problems and patterns of behavior to affect behavioral change in the analysand.
Principles of mental functioning and techniques developed by Sigmund Freud are used as
primary tools in the psychodynamic relationship.1 The teacher/student relationship is obviously
not an exact parallel to the analyst/analysand relationship. While we sometimes feel as though
we are therapists to our students, we are not. As teachers we are not treating our students.
We might suppose that we have specific knowledge to impart or give them, especially to
beginning students. A psychoanalyst on the other hand helps the analysand to look
introspectively, to draw out from the inner workings of the mind in an effort to understand how the
mind of the patient works. (A much larger discussion might ensue her concerning the imparting of
knowledge versus the drawing out and analyzing). While we assume to impart knowledge through
basic design studio assignments of composition, form, rhythm, etc. (the fundamentals of design),
we are also beginning the process with our students; of helping them find their own, authentic
voice. This can be done within the context of the very first studios working through the very
specific and personal memories that each student possesses. We shall return to the use of
memories and the analysis of them on the part of the studio instructor and student but first we
must look to the definition of transference and its very particular and important role in the
psychoanalytic relationship.
Transference
At the center of psychotherapy is the concept of transference. Transference assumes
that we construct our present relationships by reproducing emotionally important aspects of past
relationships. Psychoanalysts believe that transference is a part of all our relationships making
this concept particularly important. In transference memories from various relationships are
superimposed one on another and what we observe on the surface is determined by the
subtleties beneath the surface, out of conscious awareness.2 The analysands past experiences
are then revived and not only belonging to the past but are now directed at the analyst in the
present. 3 Transference is also a repetition, a new edition of an old object relationship; it is an
anachronism, an error in time. A displacement takes place. 4 Parallel to the psychoanalytic
transference concept, in design, is for a student to draw inspiration from all prior experiences and
transfer those previous associations and connections, or even misconnections to their current
work context. Furthermore, this is essential to the development of an individual students unique
and authentic approach to design. Design springs from our past experiences, embedded in our
specifically constructed and culturally experienced internal landscape.

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The quality of the working alliance, the relationship the analysand has to the analyst, is
essential to an effective analysis. The analysts constant emphasis on attempting to gain
understanding of all that goes on in the patient, the fact that nothing is too small or obscure, ugly
or beautiful to escape the analysts search for comprehension; all of this tends to evoke in the
patient the wish to know, to find answers, to find causes. This does not deny that the analysts
probing stirs up resistances; it merely asserts that it also stirs up the patients curiosity and his
search for causality. 5 The parallels to the role of the design instructor are obvious. The teacher
is standing by as a waiting, intermittently interjecting helper; like the analyst ready to interpret, redirect, and explain, but mostly to help reveal and bring visible that which is internally hidden.
Memory
Recollecting the past, with memory as the vehicle, is an outcome of free association and
is encouraged and expected by the analyst of the anlaysand. Free association relies on the
patient embracing the expectation to say whatever comes to mind, unhampered by judgment of
any kind. The therapist listens acutely to associations looking to understand the undercurrents of
what is said. The depth of interpretation and the range of exploration is a result of this willingness
to let the unconscious emerge.
Urging students to rely on personal memories- particularly memories of spatial situations
(with their attending sensual qualities and characteristics) is a powerful way for students to come
to a design problem initially with a sense of authentic, unique authority. Using memory to propel a
specific architectural condition(s) or desire is a powerful way for the student to begin. The studio
critic then works with the student to analyze the architectural potential embodied in the memory
put forth by the student in the two and three-dimensional manifestations of it. See fig. 1-3.

Fig. 1. Early spatial memory. Scott Vandever.

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Fig. 2. Model representation of earliest spatial memory. Scott Vandever.

Fig. 3. Model of one sensual characteristic of earliest memory. Scott Vandever.

The process of creating- whether it be writing, speaking or building, is making manifest,

in an outward expression that which we imagine within. 6 In her research, Frances Downing has
found that images architects draw upon carry emotive, experiential and objective information.
These images have strong sensual qualities light, color, texture and scale. The mental image is
a self-portrait of secret wishes and desires, as well as ground for common cultural values and
assumptions. The mental image presents a personal biography as well as a vehicle for the
designer to manipulate future projects. 7 The student (and the analysand) is going from and
through memory to thought- to analyze the many manifestations and associations of specific and

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overlapping memories. Qualities such as atmosphere, context, spatial configuration, material

context, and social context are analyzed for potential insight.
Analyzing
In the studio relationship between instructor and student, we might then think of the initial
conceptual drawings, the very first drawings, ideas and models and studies, as free associations.
As the project progresses, and the instructor talks with the student and looks at the work, or picks
up a pencil to sketch along with the student, free association occurs in several ways. The design
critic brings to the students work being analyzed, personal knowledge, past experiences, biases
and many associations. The work presented stimulates in the instructor and the student
associations that are unique to each of them at that moment. The combination of criticism and
work together is never exactly the same. Each encounter is unique. After listening for months and
years to a patient free associate, the analyst sketches- mentally. Pulling together pieces of
information, thoughts, intuitions, and facts, this mental sketching is analogous to pencil sketching
or even note-taking, speaking, and writing by the designer.
Discussing, interpreting and mastering listening is crucial on the part of the teacher in
deciphering and understanding what the student is saying. Psychodynamic listening by the
analyst involves curiosity, listening to the meanings, metaphors, sequencing, and nuances that
the analysand puts forth. The analyst pays particular attention to feelings and wishes of the
patient, conveyed in the stories told. This is not unlike what a studio instructor might do in trying to
understand what drives a students work. What desires underlie a particular formal expression or
conceptual idea? What desire is imbedded in the organization of a scheme or proposal?
Understanding the intentions supporting design decisions is similar to understanding the
characteristics that provoke particular behaviors in an analysand. This is similar to looking very
closely at a students work not for what is overtly present but what is invisibly held- but present
nonetheless. What are the sensual qualities of a project for instance? The building when realized
will embody and invoke all the senses whether consciously or unconsciously conceived and
experienced. Helping the student analyze the work and identify the potential for the invisible,
ephemeral qualities of their work is analogous to the uncovering and examining of the invisible,
but fully active, unconscious terrain of the analysand.
Conclusion
That which is created in both relationships, the teacher/student and analyst/analysands,
is both verb and noun- an act and an object or outcome. In an analysis, what is created is a new
way of seeing, knowing and interacting in the world in response to the effects of past experiences
on present behavior. While not materially tangible in the same way a creative architectural
collaboration is, its affect is powerful and life altering. An architect alters the physical world
spatially, formally, and sensually, the psychoanalyst, in ways that offer a greater understanding of
who we are in the physical world. These physical, emotional, and mental worlds are not exclusive
of one another as our experiences are a continual merging of these and it is impossible to
separate one from another in the way we perceive the world.
Following are three short assignments given to students in an Advanced Design Studio
using memory as both the beginning and the catalyst for subsequent work.
Assignment 1
MEMORY
Consider this passage by Peter Zumthor in his book, Thinking Architecture:

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When I think about architecture, images come into mind. Many of these images are
connected with my training and work as an architect. They contain the professional knowledge
about architecture that I have gathered over the years. Some of the other images have to do with
my childhood. There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it.
Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the
back of a spoon.
I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunts garden. That door handle still seemed
to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the
sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the
heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen, the
only brightly lit room in the house.
Looking back, it seems as if this was the only room in the house in which the ceiling did
not disappear into twilight; the small hexagonal tiles of the floor, dark red and fitted so tightly
together that the cracks between them were almost imperceptible, were hard and unyielding
under my feet, and a smell of oil paint issued from the kitchen cupboard.
Everything about this kitchen was typical of a traditional kitchen. There was nothing
special about it. But perhaps it was just the fact that it was so very much, so very naturally, a
kitchen that has imprinted its memory so indelibly on my mind. The atmosphere of this room is
insolubly linked with my idea of a kitchen.
Now I feel like going on and talking about the door handles which came after the handle
on my aunts garden gate, about the grounds and the floors, about the soft asphalt warmed by the
sun, about the paving stones covered with chestnut leaves in the autumn, and about all the doors
which closed in such different ways, one replete and dignified, another with a thin, cheap clatter,
others hard, implacable and intimidating..
Memories like these contain the deepest architectural experience that I know. They are
the reservoirs of the architectural atmospheres and images that I explore in my work as an
architect.
When I design a building, I frequently find myself sinking into old, half-forgotten
memories, and then I try to recollect what the remembered architectural situations were really
like, what it had meant to me at the time, and I try to think how it could help me now to revive that
vibrant atmosphere pervaded by the simple presence of things, in which everything had its own
specific place and form. And although I cannot trace any special forms, there is a hint of fullness
and of richness which makes me think: this I have seen before. Yet, at the same time, I know that
it is all new and different, and that there is no direct reference to a former work of architecture
which might divulge the secret of the memory-laden mood.
Places with all of their sensuousness are obviously recalled within the context of memory and
imagination. Place of some kind is always involved in memory as backdrop or context having a
more active- or passive role. Recall your earliest memory where specific (even if you barely
recall) spatial qualities are implicated. Capture; re-present (and/or re-interpret) its essence in two
dimensional study drawings, photographs and a three-dimensional study model. How do the
method, materials and form of representation coincide with the spatial remembrances conveyed?
Assignment 2
a place of agoraphobia / a place of claustrophobia
You are to design a place for two people. One has a condition we might describe as
having an abnormal fear of crossing or being in open or public spaces. The other person has an
abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces. They each have their own room.
Additionally they have a space that is shared by both of them.

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The site is not flat. One side of the site opens to a public space, the other side to a more
private space. You have the two optional site conditions: a.) water could be introduced on one
side of the site and b.) one side (not the public or private side) may be attached to an adjacent
building.
Fold in at least one aspect of your just completed Memory assignment. What were the
spatial qualities uncovered in your specific memory? What spatial qualities did you pursue in
response to that memory? What other architectural qualities did you explore? What ideas were
embedded in your memory investigation? What architectural elements were there?
Once again, how do the methods, materials and form of representation coincide with your
design?
Documents to be produced:
model at =1
3 vertical sections =1
3 horizontal sections =1
3 empathic drawings
other(s)
Assignment 3
You are to design the space shared by a psychoanalyst and an analysands - the analytic
setting. Approach the design from three points of view; the design of the interior space as
perceived by the analysand, the design of a freestanding structure containing this space (for the
purposes of this exercise this one space will be the primary function of this structure), and the
required sequence of transition from inside to outside and vice versa. Consider the following:
1. The idea of state change and/or attitude.
State change (or phase change) refers to a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to
another without a change in chemical composition. The word attitude is defined both as a feeling
or emotion toward a fact or state as well as the arrangement of a body or thing in space. This
double meaning might apply to the analysand and the couch. The physical shift in attitude
(position) initiates and encourages awareness and change in attitude (feeling and emotion). In
this new position on the couch the analysand hovers in space and place, transferring and
alleviating a sense of gravity and of the "weight of the world. The experience of hovering and
suspension is profound and this new position, and new point of view, transforms the space of the
room from a passive container to a full participant in the work (think inward desire or drive).
2.The above describes a primary space built around a powerful intimate experience. We
might think of the space described above as being perceptually expansive and even transcendent
but in an external setting forcing it into an object- having an inside and an out. The protection and
enclosure of the primary interior space will be manifested as a building in a public setting,
specifically in this case, on the bucolic grounds of a medical campus.
3.Consider transition from one realm to the other(s).
Fold in again or continue at least one aspect of your just completed Memory and/or AgoraphobiaClaustrophobia assignments. Again, how do the methods, materials and form of representation
coincide with your design?

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NOTES
1. Robert J. Ursano M.D., Stephen M. Sonnenberg M.D. and Susan G. Lazar M.D., Concise
Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Principles and Techniques in the Era of Managed Care.
(Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1998), p.14.
2. Ibid., p.109.
3. The Freud Reader, ed. Peter Gay (New York, W.W. Norton, 1989), p.234.
4. Greeson, Ralph R., The Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis 1. (Madison: International
Universities Press, Inc., 1967), p.152.
5. Ibid., p.208.
6. Karen Franck and R. Bianca Lepori, Architecture Inside Out (Great Britain: John Wiley and
Sons, 2000), p. 22.
7. Ibid., p. 23.

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