On Separating One from the Other: Images of a Developing Self

Through clinical material from a lengthy analysis, the author reveals how the process of transformations (Bion) – in dreams, fantasies and enactments – enabled one analysand to develop a psychic skin (Bick) made up of mindful understanding and tolerance for the primal dreads of unravelling, crumbling and spilling out (Tustin), which may have been trans‐generationally acquired in perinatal life and that may have been inherent in the patient becoming pre‐maturely aware of bodily separateness from the (m)other. The author also demonstrates how the patient's creative expression of these developments gradually became liberated during the analytic process and the ways in which this process, not unlike a succession of dreams, evolved and was addressed throughout the therapy, uniquely illustrating the arduous process of separating one's self out from some constricting maternal antecedents and internal objects (Klein).
Source: British Journal of Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Rozsika Parker Prize 2015 Source Type: research