The creative room

Abstract

The creative room refers to the area that arises when the third areas (intermediate spaces) of analyst and analysand overlap. This involves a partial union of the intermediate spaces of self and object. This overlapping space, the creative room, accommodates reflective observance as well as devoted association. A prerequisite for the creative room is the created room, the analytical framework. Other requirements concern properties of the analyst's and the patient's intermediate areas and their interrelationship. These circumstances are examined in the light of clinical examples. The primary concern, however is the absence of the third, when the creative room does not arise or rather, various positions of self and object around the point where the third either fails to arise or is eliminated. In a concluding section, there is an example of the creative room being extended in time for the continued creativity of the two parties (Bion and Beckett) for the rest of their lives.