IPA Inter-Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis

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while reading a book, watching a film or participating in a scientific meeting. The same thing also happens with analysands, but analysts have access to these facts later, during the sessions. The analytic field also implies taking into account situations when psychoanalysis is not happening. For example, interruptions in the spatial, temporal or mental setting are part of the analytic field and constitute a privileged aspect of analysis. When the setting is destroyed the analytic field continues to be present and this makes it possible to observe and understand breaks in the setting. The configuration of transference and countertransference is part of the field but should not be confused with it. In the field all emotional links are transitory, even if, at first impression, certain patterns are followed. It should also be recalled that any changes in the vertex of observation can alter these patterns. The real person of the analyst, the real person of the analysand and aspects of external reality are also part of the analytic field. Gender, age, religion, ideology, beliefs and life experiences of both analyst and analysand are aspects of the field. Financial difficulties may be fantasies but they can also be real facts. Likewise, an act of terrorism can serve as material for a dyad’s dreams, but its consequences are nonetheless real. The analyst is trained to deal with dreaming and difficulties occuring in dreaming, but he must expand his perception of the field to encompass factual reality and be aware of the consequences of this reality in the dyad’s work. The analyst works to discern the area in which the dyad is working at any particular moment, even though he knows that moments are transitory and that different areas overlap. The Theatre Model and the Analytic Field Cassorla (2005, 2018) proposed the theatre model as a way to describe the functions of the analyst working as an observer-participant in the analytic field, where he is both the object of fantasies and a real person. When facing scenes placed in the analytic theatre, an analyst, with her or his analytic function intact, will carry out the following functions simultaneously: 1. Character , by interacting with the other characters that come into the field. (6) 2. Spectator, by observing and trying to understand what is happening. (The power to participate and observe at the same time allows her or him to exercise the functions described below.) 3. Co-author , to the extent that, when interacting with the characters in the field, the analyst does not necessarily do so simply according to the pressure she or he feels. Much analytic activity will consist of pointing out this pressure in order to make it understandable for the analysand (for whom it is not conscious). 4. Director, by analytically acting together with the characters in the field as she or he seeks the best way for the original plot to be understood and changed. 5. Theatre critic , by taking a step back from the scene and using her or his knowledge to critically evaluate how the drama was carried out, how the characters behaved or whether the scene could have occurred in some other way; here, she or he will emphasise the analyst’s

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