“Not Without a Will; Not a Child; Certainly Not a Thing”: The Birth of an “I”

Abstract

This paper focuses on Freud’s subjective presence in the room as a major curative aspect in his one-session consultation with Margarethe. It is suggested that embedded in Freud’s way of listening, active encouragement, and authoritative intervention, there was a mutual impact and recognition that may have created space for an experience of agency to develop within the mind of the patient. Whereas Freud’s influence on the patient is obvious, a close look at the encounter illustrates that the patient felt that she had her own impact on Freud. In other words, in a not-so-classically Freudian way, Freud may have been (or allowed himself to be) touched and moved by the patient, which in turn fostered the development of her subjective self and the transformative nature of this one session.

Keywords:

• intersubjectivity
• mutual recognition
• agency

Acknowledgments

Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Spring Meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39), American Psychological Association, San Francisco, April 2015; and the meeting of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Rome, 2016. Thanks to Jonathan Slavin, PhD, ABPP, for discovering “Margarethe” and creating this panel, and for his generous contributions to several drafts of this paper. Also many thanks to Miki Rahmani, MA, for her careful reading and substantial suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mia Medina

Mia Medina, PsyD, is adjunct faculty at the Bilgi University Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology in Istanbul, Turkey. Prior to that, she was staff psychologist and supervisor at Faulkner Hospital in Boston, MA, and adjunct faculty at Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Her previous written work has been on contemporary relational approaches to trauma and the therapy process. She is in private practice in Istanbul, Turkey.