The contribution of Meltzer’s concept of ‘geographical confusion’ to understanding development and the analytic process

ABSTRACT

The concept of geographical confusion is very useful in understanding the child and the adolescent. In addition, the clinical examples presented, taken from two different developmental phases in a life of a child patient, show the relation between unconscious phantasy, which produces geographical confusion, and the structure of personality. Furthermore, it is possible to see how analytical work that touches on phantasy through its embodiment in dreams and transference allows for profound changes in personality, also resulting in a decrease in symptomatology.

KEYWORDS:

• Meltzer
• unconscious phantasy
• child analysis
• separation/individuation

Acknowledgments

This article is dedicated to Dean who has taught me about passion and courage and the need of the mind to seek truth. I also wish to thank Joshua Durban for his helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. ‘Dean’ is now an adult. I wrote to tell him about the paper I had written and suggested we meet in person to discuss consent and to read the paper together. Dean was happy to hear from me and accepted the invitation. I was happy to see him and to hear a little bit about his life these days. He is doing well. We read the article together and I had the impression that it was a positive emotional experience for him – actually for both of us. The themes of the article were not new to him, but he did not remember that we had discussed so many things connected to his sexuality and found it very interesting. He did not consciously remember anything from the early period at all. At the end of our meeting, I told him he could contact me if anything came up for him after our meeting and reading the article together that he wants to discuss further with me.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ruth Weinberg

Ruth Weinberg is a training psychoanalyst and supervisor. She works in private practice and teaches at the Israel Psychoanalytic Institution and also at the psychotherapy program of the Medical school in Tel Aviv University.