Unconscious Communication in the Intersubjective Analytic Field at Times of Separation, Loss, and Termination

ABSTRACT

Unconscious communication, like transference-countertransference, is ubiquitous in life and in the psychoanalytic process. Regardless of a clinician’s theoretical perspective, and despite differences in clinical technique, Freud’s advice to turn our unconscious to the patient’s unconscious “like a receptive organ” has guided generations of analysts toward deeper exploration of the countertransference in the intersubjective analytic field (Freud, 1912a, p. 115). In this clinical article, the recognition and use of unconscious communication, from the ordinary to the more extraordinary or uncanny, is described at moments of separation as harbinger of loss and, ultimately, termination. Such moments hold potential for a depth of emotional resonance with and accessibility to our patient’s psychic realities that may otherwise be unavailable due to our systemic defense against a shared existential anxiety that all things come to an end. The emergence of unconscious communication via the analyst’s reverie and dreams are considered an opening of potential space where ending can be conceived as a bearable thought—a transitional organizing experience for the dyad.

Acknowledgments

With deep appreciation to my peer study group, Hattie Myers, Batya Monder, and Ruth Oscharoff, and to my pitch perfect, analytic sounding board, Paul Geltner: sincere thanks for the close reading and most helpful suggestions and support. The painful loss but warm internal presence of my dear friend and colleague Allan Frosch continues to reverberate and transform my thinking. I like to imagine he would appreciate this contribution.

Notes

¹ For a recent comprehensive, meta-analytic review of cross-discipline experimental research on psi and its constituent terms (i.e., extrasensory perceptions as in telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition/presentiment) see Cardena (2018); he concluded that cumulative support exists for the validity of such uncanny experiences that cannot be dismissed by poor study design, fraud, or bias.

² Reverie and dreams have increasingly been considered a kind of deeper connection, a portal to the warded off, the split, the repressed, or the unknowable, depending on how once theorizes the nature of human dynamics as laid out by Freud and elaborated and transformed over the last hundred years. (See Frosch, 2012; Dunn, 1995; Brown, 2009; Grotstein, 2009; Bass, 2001; Cooper, 2008; Civitarese, 2008; and Ogden, 1994 for explication).

³ Stoller’s paper was written prior to the Internet and social media disclosures that we grapple with today in our analytic practices. This reality can obviously confound our search for the basis for uncanny emotional communications, as seemingly unspoken or unknown facts can become public record, out of awareness or our control.

⁴ Gay (1998) noted that Freud and Ferenczi had collaborated on, but never published, their private research on “thought transference” (p. 444), and when he asked Freud’s opinion about presenting a paper on their findings to the IPA, Freud advised Ferenczi against it.

⁵ Identifying features have been changed, significantly altered or condensed; Ms. A and Mr. K were described in previous publication (Cancelmo, 2009).

⁶ P. Geltner reminded me that in Gran Torino, the protagonist describes himself as the crucified Christ, a detail that had escaped me. This suggests that what may appear uncanny is, perhaps, still known and unthought.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph A. Cancelmo

Joseph A. Cancelmo, M.S.Ed., Psy.D., FIPA, is Past President, Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst (Fellow) and Faculty member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), and a Fellow of the IPA. He is a school and clinical psychologist and has written on the application of Winnicott’s construct of the Transitional Realm to clinical technique and applied psychoanalytic consultation. Dr. Cancelmo is a graduate of IPTAR’s Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and Socio-Psychoanalytic Organizational Training Program and currently serves as Co-Chair of IPTAR’s Gould Center for Psychoanalytic Organizational Study and Consultation. He is in private practice in New York City with adolescents, adults, couples, and in consultancy with executives and organizations.