Plurality of psychic states in the field

Abstract

The archetypal images of separation and dissociation are very present in Jung’s model of individuation, and Jung proposed a dynamic relationship between conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche of analyst and analysand. In addition, numerous contemporary authors emphasize the multiplicity of the self and the emergence of the field created by both participants, allowing for symbolization and transformation. I describe here my attempts to reach the encapsulated psychic split of a client. Defeated in my search for any conscious, developed self‐state that could readily match his, I had to nurture the field of our relationship, where a child was imprisoned and allow space for daydreaming. The field ultimately supported the emergence of a primitive part of me matching his, which he required to safely mirror his experience. In staying and dreaming within this field of longing, we reconstructed his initial trauma. The defeat of my ego and the response to the multiplicity of Mark’s states through the sustained reverie of holding a child, a single archetypal image, stirred the good mother in me, forged a container for non‐rational, affective somatic psychic splits, and initiated psychic changes.