IPA Inter-Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis

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him the impression that he has lost his analytical capacity. He is afraid he has done some harm to his patient and imagines impending complications. Phase 2 . The analyst, bearing his negative feelings, notes the consequences of his behavior. To his surprise, the analytical process becomes more productive and the symbolic network of thought expands. The understanding of Moment M strengthens the analytical bond and the patient associates it with previous traumatic situations that are being worked through. Further investigation into the facts described lead the analyst to realize that, in Phase 1, he had been involved in a prolonged collusion with his patient ( chronic enactment ) in certain areas of functioning of the analytical dyad, which he had not perceived. The collusions, now identified, alternate between sadomasochistic scripts and scripts of mutual idealization. Analyst and patient control each other mutually and become extensions of one another. Reviewing Moment M the analyst realizes that, in fact, he lost his analytical capacity not at this time, but earlier, during Phase 1. Moment M indicated, in fact, that this ability was being recovered. For example, the supposed aggression of the analyst had undone a masochistic collusion, or a relationship of mutual idealization that was blocking the analytical process (Phase 1). Moment M revealed an acute enactment that had undone the earlier chronic enactment at the same time that it made it perceptible. The acute enactment therefore manifested the trauma of having come in contact with triangular reality. Sometimes, before the clear perception of the acute enactment, such momentary contact with triangularity may be marked by almost imperceptible acute ‘micro-enactments’, when the defensive organization immediately circles back to chronic enactments (Cassorla, 2008). During the unperceived chronic enactments, the analyst continues to work persistently even though he may feel he is not being sufficiently productive. Even so, in parallel areas his work implicitly continues to give meaning to the traumatic holes in the symbolic network. The defensive organization is gradually undone even though this may not be apparent in the analytical field. Acute enactment, that is, the sudden perception of triangular reality, emerges when there has been sufficient restoration of the symbolic network. The analytical dyad senses that the separation between self and object will be bearable. This separation, therefore, can be considered a mitigated trauma. Acute enactment is thus a mixture that involves both traumatic affective discharges and the symbolization of traumas in the here and now of the analytical process. When the analyst perceives the enactment and, in a Nachträglichkeit fashion , resignifies it, the symbolic network is broadened further. This broadening enables the emergence of new associations that are related to traumatic effects being worked through, thus stimulating constructions by the analyst (Phase 2). When the patient brings mainly symbolic aspects into the analytical field by means of communicative projective identifications, an instantaneous dual collusion is formed between patient and analyst. It is then undone by transferential interpretations by the analyst. By analogy, these instantaneous collusions can be called normal enactments. Cassorla (2008, 2013) discussed these clinical aspects using Bion’s theory of thought and proposed that chronic enactments constitute a situation where both members of the

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