A child who cut her own thinking; from an analysis with a sleeping girl

Abstract

This paper was written with the intention to make clearer some thoughts about the analysis with an adopted girl who fell asleep almost every session. Through this behaviour, the analyst was drawn into a forceful field of transference- countertransference. Finally, the analyst unintentionally and actively participated in an enactment by interrupting a session. This enactment, could be used for enhancing the understanding of the meaning of the sleeping which had to do with the analysand's thoughts about her biological mother. In conclusion, the author discusses the importance of being sensitive to what is unconsciously going on between analyst and analysand, and how one can understand why the analyst had to act concretely to become aware of what the patient needed the analyst to understand, and why, until then, it had been inaccessible for her.