La persona dell’analista tra l’interpersonale e l’intrapsichico

The analyst’s personality between the interpersonal and the intrapsychic In the history of psychoanalytic thinking, the inter-psychic and the intra-psychic approach have always been, necessarily and naturally, interwoven, tacitly, since Freud’s beginnings. The intra-psychic is inhabited by the already lived relationships, the inter-psychic is conditioned and coloured by the "shapes" of the internal world. This basic approach has gained further attention in modern time, because, after Freud, the most significant acquisition was the exploration of early levels, at the somatic root of the mental processes; of those areas of the mind where the boundaries between inside and outside, between mind and body are not definite and the limit between "me" and "not-me" is confused and unstable. In clinical practice, the constant focus on the different levels of the transference/countertransference confronts us with this double register. The problem then becomes how to conceptualize those pre-symbolic areas of unclear distinction between inter and intra-psychic during analysis, how to assign them a meaning and, especially, how to give them back to the patient. When working at those early psychic levels, the analyst’s contribution is substantial: he/she has to move on a triple cognitive, affective and sensory register that calls upon his/her creativity and generosity, but also leaves a bigger margin to abuse.

Keywords: Intrapsychic, interpsychic, transference, countertransference, tridimensionality

Simona Argentieri, La persona dell’analista tra l’interpersonale e l’intrapsichico in "PSICOANALISI" 2/2009, pp 71-80, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2009-002005