Commentary on “Transformations in hallucinosis and the receptivity of the analyst” by Civitarese

Abstract

After summarizing Civitareses complex and stimulating thoughts, merits of his conceptualization are emphazised firstly before coming to drawbacks of it. As a supplementary perspective on the conceptualisation (TH) of Civitares the commentary is focused on a slightly different approach. Transformation into hallucinosis is linked to excessive forms of projective identification., which can have massive influence on the analyst, thus pressing him into (behavioral) patterns similar to what was phantazised, or hallucinated or deluded by the patient about the relationsship. If the analyst is after a shorter or longer period able to recognize, how near he is or was to the Patient's deluded or hallucinated Constructions of his world, this will give him a further source to sense and to examine the patients experience.

Residues in the analyst of the patient's symbiotic connection at a somatic level: unrepresented states in the patient and analyst

“…Damage to the infant's cortical functioning if the mother's reflective function is missing in the first year of life is noted by Perry (1997) and Schore (2001) as also a factor, and may need unusual levels of symbiosis. Civitarese's (2015) paper and the careful critiques that follow it by Hinz (2015) and Sandler (2015) open up important horizons in the rather over-used term 'reverie' to describe the analyst's state of mind when listening to the patient. The re-enactment of the ending as a repetition for Horace of the rejection of a depressed mother and the dramatic presentation of the severed arm might be better understood as representational achievements where before there was an absence of representation.…”

“…Civitarese's () paper and the careful critiques that follow it by Hinz () and Sandler () open up important horizons in the rather over‐used term ‘reverie’ to describe the analyst's state of mind when listening to the patient. The re‐enactment of the ending as a repetition for Horace of the rejection of a depressed mother and the dramatic presentation of the severed arm might be better understood as representational achievements where before there was an absence of representation.…”