Raiding the inarticulate: The internal analytic setting and listening beyond countertransference

Abstract

The analytic setting exists not only externally but also internally as a structure in the mind of the analyst. The internal analytic setting constitutes an area of the analyst's mind where reality is defined by unconscious symbolic meaning. Clinical examples illustrate how a secure internal setting allows flexibility in the external setting without sacrifice of its analytic quality. The internal setting can help analysts listen inwardly to themselves in a way that is free-floating with regard to their internal processes. This points beyond usual ideas of countertransference. An analytic encounter may stir up elements that belong to the analyst's psyche which, rather than impeding the analysis, can actively enrich it. Seamus Heaney's writings evoke comparisons between listening to poems and listening to patients, and a week in a patient's analysis is described in relation to these themes.

The Missing Father Function in Psychoanalytic Theory and Technique: The Analyst’s Internal Couple and Maturing Intimacy

“…More implicit, non‐interpretive interventions—such as silences, moments of emotional disengagement (by analyst or patient), aspects of the analytic setting's structuring function (including, at times, neutrality itself), the analyst's theory and way of formulating interpretations (independent of their content) as well as the ability to utilize acute enactments (Cassorla ), and the analyst's way of relating to his/her mind as the internal setting (Britton ; Civitarese ; Diamond ; Parsons ; Zweibel )—can likewise function as the necessary paternal third, pulling patient and analyst out of their unconscious symbiosis to open triangular space. Indeed, just as the child cannot directly participate in the parents’ intimate relationship, the patient cannot be in the mind of the analyst who is in dialogue with him‐/herself (Schoenhals ).…”

“…Specifically, the analyst's maternal mode of orienting him‐/herself toward the patient conveys a “soothing kind … of … joining” (McWilliams , p. 525) that entails the function of taking in and holding inside—a “maximally receptive state” to unconscious communication, wherein the analyst listens in order to “hear meaning” (Parsons ) that emerges primarily from the analyst's state of reverie (Bion ) . Such receptivity enables the analyst to experience unintegrated and disintegrated states that allow for being and becoming (rather than knowledge and insight per se).…”

“…Within this paternal order, the psychic functions of penetration, insemination, guardianship, law‐making, and enforcement prevail (Bollas ). In short, an investigative attitude and a focused mind—enabling the analyst to listen to abstract meaning (Parsons ), as well as to integrate, represent, and make meaning—help the analyst “dismantle and investigate” (Birksted‐Breen , p. 30) as well as withstand the pressure to act. The analytic position, then, is a third position at its very core, one that comprises both a “personal,” maternal dimension and a “technical,” paternal one, grounded in both mutuality and asymmetry, respectively (Zweibel ).…”

Psyche–Zeitschrift Für Psychoanalyse Und Ihre Anwendungen

“…She reflects on her analysis of Ms. A, which took place more than a decade ago, and discusses how she managed this challenging analytic situation. The author also investigates the work of several clinicians who have written about the phenomenon of chronic silence in an analysis, from the perspective both of the patient and of the analyst, and their interactions—such as, for example, Reik (), Freud (), Green (), and Parsons ().…”

“…She believed that the analyst understands the patient's unconscious through her own unconscious, and that she needs to remain open to being affected by surprising and foreign bodily sensations and fantasies in order to understand the patient's unconscious conflicts that cannot yet be spoken about. Similarly, Parsons () emphasized, with his notion of emotional availability , the analyst's twofold task of being receptive to his patient's unconscious and also to his own, so that he can become aware of his own resistances to listening and taking in the patient's communications.…”