Grief and Rejuvenation: A Mutual Journey

Because we value the analytic relationship as a vehicle for change, we enter into authentic, intimate relationships with our patients. Although we hope to use ourselves emotionally to help our patients, sometimes our own feelings inadvertently intrude and negatively affect the treatment. This articl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychoanalysis, self and context self and context, 2018-01, Vol.13 (1), p.17-22
Main Author: Slowiaczek, Maria L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analyst's affect
analyst's vulnerability
countertransference
deadlock
enactment
Grief
Intimacy
stalemate
Vulnerability
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Summary:Because we value the analytic relationship as a vehicle for change, we enter into authentic, intimate relationships with our patients. Although we hope to use ourselves emotionally to help our patients, sometimes our own feelings inadvertently intrude and negatively affect the treatment. This article is a clinical illustration of how the analyst's own emotional vulnerability interacted unconsciously with a particular patient, such that a loss of relational vitality resulted. The analyst needed to access her own emotional state and reconnect with parts of herself in order to both be more fully engaged with the patient and make room for parts of the patient that she was previously unable to reach.
ISSN:2472-0038
2472-0046
DOI:10.1080/24720038.2018.1388065