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between external reality, id and super-ego. The “Self” is the set of representations concerning the person himself when he is an object (potential or actual) of his own subjective experience. Unlike ego, id and superego, which are dynamic components of the psychic apparatus, self is a content of the apparatus, in the same way as the representations of objects. Being a unit with continuity over time, self is configured as one internal structure of the psyche, in which, however, it has a complex location: various and often conflicting representations of the self are distributed in the ego, in the id and in the super-ego (Kohut 1971). Accordingly, the self appears to be partly conscious, partly unconscious. Bolognini proposes a model of interplay of Ego and Self in the dyad patient/analyst, where 4 combinations are explored: 1. The contact between the Ego of the Analyst/the Ego of the Patient, whereby portions of the patient’s psychic life are communicated at a conscious level. The aim of the relationship is to provide the equivalent of a geographical map to allow the patient insights and new points of view on himself. The couple does not enter the inner world, and surface space is explored and this could be an informative and explanatory way to work in analysis. 2 The contact between the Ego of the Analyst/ the Self of the Patient: Here, the analyst is able to organize himself in a fairly stabilized condition of preconscious receptivity, while maintaining his own experiential center of gravity in the conscious ego, in situations in which the patient is instead available to a more profound and complete exchange. The analyst is also able to notice projective intrusions of the patient, which he recognizes as elements of non-self and to give back, formulating dynamic hypotheses, to the patient’s internal processes including extensive scenarios of his patient’s dreamlike life. 3 The contact between the Ego-Self of the Analyst /Ego of the Patient. Here, the analyst uses the resonance of his own self to identify, comparatively, the underdeveloped or inaccessible areas of the patient’s self; but he also experiences, with his own self, the ways, the levels and the strength with which the unconscious defensive Ego of the patient suspends, chokes or usually cancels the subjective contact of the patient with his own self (Bollas 1987). The wide and deep contact with the his own self allows the analyst to receive, experience and discern the parts of the patient’s mental life (object and functions) that have been split and projected into him. 4. The contact between the Ego-Self of the Analyst /the Ego-Self of the Patient. In this configuration, the contact with the patient is deeper: the preconscious channels widen and the exploratory functions of the observing ego of the analyst can illuminate, deepen, and gain contact with parts of the patient and of himself. Here, the analyst does not deduce, but sees more; the introjective processes prevail over the projective ones; the projective processes of the patient, experienced by the analyst, are not only objects of verbal communication, but they are more often treated through the identification and a creative play. Overall, Bolognini (1991) advocates for a widened definition of the concept of the self. According to such a broad definition, the self would correspond to the internal reality (including object representations) which turns out to be a lasting, characterological and constituent part of a person’s mental world, and which may be the object of his subjective experience. Seen in this way, the nuclear part of the self is the part in which the elements that have most profoundly and authentically been the object of projective identification form an organic nucleus with the person’s hereditary somato-psychic constitution; at this level any
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