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Sustained receptivity to emergent process is engaged in a more or less continuous manner to generate and elaborate unconscious fantasy as a primary and desired outcome of the analytic exchange. When engaging primarily with this listening stance, the analyst seeks to address the analysand’s concerns by more fully elaborating them, thereby containing and symbolizing heretofore unrepresented, ‘undreamt’ states. The pursuit of dream-like images is privileged, with the goal of transforming the analysand’s anxieties and the meanings derived from them. Because the privileging of this attentional set favors the generation of unconscious imagery in a dream-like context, the argument is sometimes made that analysts primarily utilizing this approach neglect or even dismiss the analysand’s historical narrative (and its concomitant myth-making, i.e., personal hermeneutic). For example, a patient may report a dream. A field theorist would be interested in expanding the patient’s associations, elaborating the dream field in ‘waking dream thought’ during the here-and -now of the session. If there is a reference to the analyst’s office, there would be responses by the analyst that would encourage further elaboration. Perhaps the analyst’s office is on a lower floor of a building – this might represent deep structures, the unconscious, delving ‘down’ to archaic layers, or realizing buried affects. Rather than interpreting these images to find the ‘right’ meaning, the analyst might respond by adding to the associations with a response such as, “The unconscious is deep.” This type of response is considered “unsaturated” in the sense that it remains ambiguous, does not specify particular contents (especially those related to the analysand’s history), and allows the patient to take the prompt in any direction s/he may choose. Another example might include a particular ‘prop,’ such as a wooden paddle. The analyst may simply repeat the name of the prop in an effort to wonder what might be added. The analysand could respond by adding an historical reference, such as, “My mother whallopped me once.” Maintaining a diffuse attentional set, the analyst would attend to what the analysand adds but also notice any reveries that may be occurring within herself/ himself. Perhaps the analyst thinks of the woodenness of the paddle, the hardness of the handle, leading the analyst think about the analysand’s anger or potential to be unfeeling. Then another image may arise, perhaps a Flamenco dancer with straight, ‘hard’ arms placed above her head, and an angry expression on her face. This process would continue throughout the session, with the express intention to elaborate the unconscious associations and expand the analysand’s ability to play with metaphoric, associational imagery. Within the interpersonal-relational perspective, Stern’s expansion of ‘relational freedom’ (Stern 2013c) with loosening and relaxing of the interpersonal field, that creates a possibility of emergence of new experiences, belongs to the diffuse attention set. However, in Stern’s conceptualization, the key event often precedes new verbal understanding, including interpretation, even if the verbal interpretation is unbidden and may appear as though it is the source of the therapeutic action.
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