Acute enactment (staging) as a 'resource' for the unveiling of a collusion of the analytical duo.
Keywords:
proceso psicoanalítico, baluarte, actuación, enactment, contratransferencia, material clínicoAbstract
The objective of the paper is to discuss some aspects related to the functions of enactments in the analytical practice. After a review of the concept, a borderline patient, with whom the analytical process seemed to be developing productively, is described.
Following a change in the setting, an intense, acute enactment took place. Its understanding enabled to realize that the analytical couple were involved in an unconscious collusion, where a symbiotic relationship had been established between the
patient, the analyst and his family, as a chronic enactment. That relationship prevented the analyst from touching highly destructive unconscious fantasies and archaic traumatic situations. The comprehension of the enactment enabled the dissolution of the
collusion. It is proposed that, besides the resistance aspect, the collusion may have been useful to strengthen the patient’s mental mechanisms and the trust in the analytical work, which demanded certain time. The acute enactment arises, unveiling the collusion, when the patient and the analyst feel able to face the terrible feelings related to the triangular situation.
It’s speculated that both enactments may occur in the analysis of these kind of patients, and their function is to re-lived their archaic experiences in the analytical process, also with the aim to elaborate them. It’s also proposed some differences between the “acting-out” and “enactment” concepts, emphasizing the obstructive aspects in the first, and the communicative aspects in the second. Finally, it’s proposed a classification of enactments: normal, pathological, acute and chronic enactments.
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