CLAUSTRO-AGORAPHOBIC DILEMMA

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The concepts of marsupial space, psychotic islands, and psychic retreats are 'places' inside the mind and body that narcissistic, schizoid, psychosomatic and borderline patients 'visit' or hide to avoid the pain of the 'nameless dread' (Bion) of being intrusively inside the object or painfully outside the object. Through the understanding of these phenomena, the analyst uses his counter-transference to understand what is being said or enacted in the room, in the moment by moment shifts with the patient. By interpreting the primitive anxieties and their purpose, links to thinking can be made within the 'analytic couple', to facilitate psychic development and integration in the patient. This understanding can be helpful to avoid impasses in treatment. Clinical material will be presented to highlight aspects of Henri Rey, Herbert Rosenfeld and John Steiner's ideas of pathological narcissistic organizations.

 

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