Birds on a Wire: A discussion of Çevrim’s “The Vulture in the room”

ABSTRACT

Birds on a Wire is a discussion of Mustafa Çevrim’s, ”The Vulture in the Room”, a beautifully intersubjectively focused clinical paper. This discussion focuses on the bidirectional, self (therapist)regulation and self with “other” (patient and therapist) regulation. Çevrim’s elegant adherence to contemporary Self Psychological/Intersubjective Systems theory is spotlighted, as the emergent self object twinship transference highlights the dyad’s shared understandings through their co-created metaphoric use of bird imagery. Çevrim’s application of a Brandchaftian model of systems of pathological accommodation and his tracking of therapeutic rupture and repair sequences reveals a process of transformation and growth for patient and analyst. Finally, there is a consideration of the impact of what I term, the analyst’s “generative thoughts” on therapeutic process and contextualization.

KEYWORDS:

• Contextualization
• pathological accommodation
• therapeutic rupture and repair sequence
• twinship self object transference

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacqueline Gotthold

Jacqueline Gotthold is on the Executive Committee at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York City, in addition to being on the faculty as a supervisor, instructor and training analyst. Jackie has been a faculty member and supervisor for the Minnesota Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, as well as teaching for various institutes in the US and abroad.

As member of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP), Jackie established the Child and Adolescent Initiative at IAPSP and served on the International Council. As a member of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), Jackie serves on the IARPP Child and Adolescent interest group. Working with children, adolescents and adults, Jackie practices in New York City.