“A Lingering Whiff of Descartes in the Air”: From Theoretical Ideas to the Messiness of Clinical Participation: Commentary on Paper by the Boston Change Process Study Group

Abstract

From a perspective in recognition of my unconscious attachment to their theoretical conceptualizations as well as intrinsic blind spots to both their and my conceptualizing, I offer a consideration of the clinical assistance and difficulty created by the Boston Change Process Study Group's formulation of the reflective, the implicit and the disjunction between the two as an “intention unfolding process.” I first consider how their conceptualizations can either clarify or obscure organizing experience for the analyst trying to make sense of what is going on between her and her analysand. Then I consider how these ideas might guide or mislead the analyst's active participation in the micromoment process flow of clinical interaction. The impact of dissociation is recognized as constitutive of a messiness and uncertainty that accompanies, and often can undermine, the adoption of any theoretical “idea,” including these, for clinical organizing and intervening activity.