Care, & Being Seen in the Presence of the Enigmatic, a contemplation by Jamie Crabb at Somerville College Chapel on 22/2/26

An image of Ethel Colquhoun's The Tree of Veins as an invitation image for a contemplation on "Care and Being Seen in the Presence of the Enigmatic. An abstract, tree-like network of branching lines resembling veins, roots and branches toward a heart-shaped flower/petals that beam energy from a central heart flower. The forms pulse and interconnect, evoking the flow of life, transmission, and unseen connections moving between bodies and environments.

I was invited by Sommerville Chapel Scholar and Director, Arzhia Habibi, to offer a contemplation as part of a series exploring "on being seen."

The programme for the Sommerville Chapel "On Being Seen" series. It asks us "What does it mean and feel like to be seen? Who do we see or not see around us and why? What might a relationship which allows for people, creatures and our wild world to be witnessed look like? With choral music from Somerville College Choir, poetry, Faith-based writings in multiple languages, reflections from speakers, we'll contemplate the rich and varied meanings of this theme together."

At the time, I'd been learning from writings by and about Jean Laplanche, a twentieth-century French psychoanalyst, and his concept of the enigmatic, which resonated with the theme I brought together in this contemplation exploring care: "Care and being seen in the presence of the enigmatic."

The contemplation was written to be spoken at this beautiful event, which included music, choral singing, readings and poetry. I am grateful that Arzhia and Sommerville provided the recording so the piece exists in the context it was written and shared on the day. If you prefer, listen to it on audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkcV1mF8ysU

A video with captions of Jamie Crabb sharing a contemplation on Care, & Being Seen in the Presence of the Enigmatic, Jamie Crabb, at Somerville College Chapel on 22/2/26

I explore the question of care, reflecting on lived experience and psychoanalytic thought. Drawing loosely on the work of Jean Laplanche, alongside the affective and relational developments of Gila Ashtor and the communal understanding of grief offered by Francis Weller, the contemplation considers what it means to be seen when what is seen cannot easily be understood, relating to care experience, the experience of childhood away from a biological family, as enigmatic.

Rather than offering answers, the piece invites us to stay with the enigmatic, to notice how care is felt in the body, and to explore what becomes possible when we remain present to one another in the absence of certainty. Some description of ideas that inform the contemplation can be found below.

With thanks to Arzhia for the invitation, and to Somerville College Chapel for holding such a beautiful and resonant space for these contemplations. The next spring/summer season is on the theme of For Friendship.

Following this, I was invited onto the brilliant Messy Social Work podcast with Rich Devine and Tim Fisher, where we explored some of these themes in conversation.

In that dialogue, we stayed with questions of suffering, care, and staying with what we don’t yet understand. The conversation allowed something different to happen. We spoke about:

• how care can falter, even in well-intentioned systems

• the difficulty of staying with affect that cannot be quickly resolved

• the temptation to move too quickly to explanation, reassurance, or intervention

• emotional inheritance

Listen to the Messy Social Work episode, and explore the summary and notes "on suffering, care, and staying with what we don’t yet understand."

Rich and Tim explore themes of suffering and care with Jamie Crabb in the "Messy Social Work" podcast.

Both the contemplation and podcast, in different ways, explore the question: What does it mean to stay with the enigmatic, in ourselves and in one another?

A few ideas that inform this contemplation and podcast discussion

The Enigmatic

Refers to aspects of our experience that cannot be easily understood, explained, or translated into language. These are often felt in the body as affect, tension, or disturbance before they can be thought.

Enigmatic signifiers

Laplanche suggests that from early in life, we are shaped by messages from others that we cannot fully understand. He calls this primal seduction, not to imply harm or intention, but to name the fundamental situation of being a child in relation to adults whose words, gestures, tones, and presences carry meanings that exceed what the child, and even the adult can make sense of.

These messages, which he calls enigmatic signifiers, arrive before we have the language or capacity to translate them. They are felt in the body as something confusing, charged, or unresolved. Because of this, aspects of our experience remain partially untranslated. They continue to live on in us, asking to be worked on, returned to, or lived with.

The Unconscious

Not simply something within us, but something formed through our encounters with others,  often without their knowing. It is shaped by what is transmitted to us, often enigmatically, in early relationships and the social world. For example, understandings of family, gender, etc.

Detranslation / Retranslation

Laplanche’s idea is that part of psychic life involves attempting to make sense of these enigmatic messages. Some aspects can be gradually understood (retranslated), while others remain unresolved and must be lived with.

Care

Not only support or intervention, but the capacity to remain present with another person’s experience, especially when it is unclear, uncomfortable, or cannot be easily resolved.

Care Experience

A definition by Care Experience and Culture: Statutory provisions as well as informal arrangements made through friends/family for children living in foster, residential, kinship care and children who have been adopted. This might include experiences of some children who were displaced from their first family, enslaved, abandoned by family, or had their childhoods interrupted. This broad definition recognises the emotional and psychological impact of children being displaced from family - however this happens - and do not include these in the traditional experience of ‘care’.​ See glossary HERE.

References and influences

• Jean Laplanche – Essays on Otherness; New Foundations for Psychoanalysis

• Gila Ashtor – Exigent Psychoanalysis: The Interventions of Jean Laplanche

• Dominique Scarfone - Laplanche, An Introduction & The Reality of the Message: Psychoanalysis in the Wake of Jean Laplanche

• Francis Weller – The Wild Edge of Sorrow & In the Absence of the Ordinary