The analyst's narrative function: Inventing a possibility

Translations of summary

This article describes a psychic function common to analysts that was gradually revealed through clinical work with children. It is a psychic quality derived from function α, which involves analysts’ capacity for reverie – their narrative function. The author presents two clinical situations where this function developed in the analytic field in relation to patients’ difficulty in symbolizing. In the first case there was an early traumatic experience unavailable for representation. The analyst lent the patient her ability to represent and produced a narrative that made it possible to create a world of phantasies and transform nightmares into ‘dreamable’ dreams. In other words, she removed the quality of unbearable, irrepresentable reality that characterized those raw experiences encrypted in the psyche. In the second case the analyst's narrative function sought to connect with the isolation, the shell that housed a child suffering from an autistic disorder whose ability to represent had not been established. The analyst provided meaning for the patient's repetitive, stereotyped play, thus weaving the child's subjectivity and gradually introducing a notion of alterity. The author seeks to show how this function, in the thematic construction of the session, facilitated both the working‐through of a traumatic situation (with the ability to share representations) and the constitution of the psychic fabric.

La fonction narrative de l'analyste: l'invention du possible

L'auteur de cet article décrit une fonction psychique commune aux analystes, qui a été progressivement mise en évidence à travers le travail clinique auprès d'enfants. Il s'agit d'une qualité psychique issue de la fonction alpha, qui fait appel à la capacité de reverie de l'analyste – sa fonction narrative. L'auteur présente deux situations cliniques où cette fonction est mise en œuvre dans le champ analytique suite aux troubles de la symbolisation rencontrés chez les patients. Dans le premier cas rapporté, on a affaire à une expérience traumatique précoce inaccessible à la représentation, où l'analyste se voit offrir au patient sa capacité de représentation en élaborant un récit qui permet de créer un univers fantasmatique et de transformer les cauchemars en des rêves « rêvables ». Ce faisant, l'analyste supprime le caractère insupportable et irreprésentable de la réalité attachée à ces expériences brutes encryptées dans la psyché. Dans le deuxième cas, l'analyste fait appel à cette fonction narrative pour établir, en perçant son isolement et en ouvrant une brèche dans sa coquille, un contact avec un enfant présentant des troubles autistiques et dont la capacité de représentation n'a pas pu être développée. En donnant un sens au jeu répétitif et stéréotypé du patient, l'analyste parvient à tisser la subjectivité de l'enfant et à introduire progressivement la notion d'altérité. L'auteur cherche à montrer comment, dans la construction thématique de la séance, cette fonction a permis à la fois de favoriser la perlaboration d'une situation traumatique (avec la capacité de partager les représentations) et de fabriquer un tissu psychique.

Die narrative funktion des analytikers: erfindung des möglichen

Beschrieben wird in dem Beitrag eine für Analytiker charakteristische psychische Funktion, die man in der klinischen Arbeit mit Kindern entdeckt hat. Es handelt sich um eine psychische Eigenschaft, die sich von der Alpha‐Funktion herleitet und an der die Reveriefähigkeit des Analytikers beteiligt ist — die narrative Funktion. Die Autorin schildert zwei klinische Situationen, in denen diese Funktion im analytischen Feld in Reaktion auf die Symbolisierungsschwierigkeiten der Patienten auftauchte. Im ersten Fall lag eine frühe traumatische Erfahrung vor, die nicht repräsentiert werden konnte. Die Analytikerin stellte dem Patienten ihre Fähigkeit zur Verfügung, ein Narrativ zu repräsentieren und zu konstruieren, das es möglich machte, eine Welt der Phantasien zu entwickeln und Alpträume in „traumbare” Träume zu verwandeln. Mit anderen Worten: Sie nahm den Alpträumen die Eigenschaft einer unerträglichen, nicht repräsentierbaren Realität, die jene rohen, unbearbeiteten und in der Psyche verkapselten Erfahrungen charakterisierte. Im zweiten Fall wurde durch die narrative Funktion der Analytikerin eine Verbindung zu dem in einer Schale isolierten Kind hergestellt, das unter einer autistischen Störung litt und dessen Fähigkeit, Repräsentationen zu bilden, nicht entwickelt war. Die Analytikerin verlieh dem repetitiven, stereotypen Spiel des Kindes Bedeutung, baute auf diese Weise seine Subjektivität auf und führte nach und nach das Konzept der Andersheit ein. Die Autorin versucht zu zeigen, wie diese Funktion im thematischen Aufbau der Sitzung sowohl das Durcharbeiten einer traumatischen Situation (mit der Fähigkeit, Repräsentationen gemeinsam zu teilen) als auch die Konstituierung der psychischen Struktur ermöglichte.

La funzione narrativa dell'analista: invenzione del possibile

Questo articolo descrive una funzione comune agli analisti, che è gradualmente emersa nel lavoro clinico con i bambini. E’ una qualità psichica che deriva dalla funzione α che coinvolge la capacità di rêverie –la funzione narrativa dell'analista. L'autrice presenta due situazioni cliniche nelle quali questa funzione si è sviluppata nel campo analitico in relazione alle difficoltà di simbolizzazione del paziente. Nel primo caso il paziente aveva sofferto un trauma precoce non rappresentabile. L'analista ha vicariato la sua capacità di rappresentare e ha fornito al paziente una narrativa che ha reso possibile creare un mondo di fantasie e di trasformare gli incubi in “sogni che possono essere sognati”. In altre parole, ha bonificato quell'elemento di realtà intollerabile e irrappresentabile che caratterizzava il vissuto grezzo criptato nella psiche. Nel secondo caso l'analista ha cercato di stabilire un collegamento con l'isolamento, il guscio in cui dimorava un bambino con un disturbo autistico, la cui capacità di rappresentare non si era ancora costituita. L'analista ha dato significato al gioco ripetitivo e stereotipato del paziente, tessendo così la soggettività del bambino e introducendo gradualmente la nozione di alterità. L'autrice si propone di dimostrare come questa funzione, nella costruzione tematica della seduta, abbia facilitato l'elaborazione di una situazione traumatica (con la capacità di condividere le rappresentazioni)e la costituzione del tessuto psichico.

La función narrativa del analista. la invención de un posible

Este artículo describe una función psíquica del analista que se fue definiendo a partir de la experiencia clínica con niños. Se trata de una cualidad psíquica derivada de la función α, que involucra la capacidad de rêverie: la función narrativa del analista. La autora presenta dos situaciones clínicas en las que esta función se fue constituyendo en el campo analítico ante la dificultad de simbolización del paciente. En el primer caso, en el que se había producido una experiencia traumática precoz inaccesible a la representación, la analista prestó al paciente su capacidad de representación y construyó un relato que permitió la constitución de un mundo de fantasías y la transformación de las pesadillas en sueños soñables, es decir, despojó esas experiencias en bruto, encriptadas en el psiquismo, de su carácter de realidad insoportable e irrepresentable. En el segundo, la función narrativa de la analista buscó una conexión con el aislamiento, la caparazón autista en la que vivía un niño con trastorno autista en quien no se había establecido la posibilidad de representación. Le ofreció al paciente significados para el juego repetitivo y estereotipado, tejiendo así su subjetividad y presentando gradualmente la noción de alteridad. La autora procura mostrar de qué manera la función narrativa, mediante la construcción de las temáticas de las sesiones, permitió tanto la elaboración de una situación traumática gracias a la posibilidad de un representar compartido, como la constitución del tejido psíquico.

Key words:

• trauma
• autism
• child
• relational psychoanalysis
• technique

1. This study was presented as an open forum topic at the 48th IPA Congress on 3 August 2013.

2. Translated by Laura Garmeson.

1. This study was presented as an open forum topic at the 48th IPA Congress on 3 August 2013.

2. Translated by Laura Garmeson.

Notes

1. This study was presented as an open forum topic at the 48th IPA Congress on 3 August 2013.

2. Translated by Laura Garmeson.

3. As defined by Bion (19901990 [1962]).

4. As Viderman says (1970), the person under analysis will never recover his own history but will instead construct myths, which will be what make him who he is.

5. Ana Maria Azevedo (2008) published a commentary on this paper in which she defends the analytic experience as a pairing moment in the constant motion of subjective and intersubjective exchange, in which a new psychic meaning is constructed that is then experienced and verbalized within this pairing, frequently producing important psychic transformations. It brings the dream process closer to both the psychoanalytic process and the emotional experience as lived by the analytic pairing, as moments in which re‐transcription in time and space can be achieved. From these studies (Azevedo and Pato, 1989; Azevedo, 1990, 1997) she points out that construction and interpretation are forms that complement one another and make up part of the analytic work, asking: What are our conjectures if not, sometimes wordless, constructions around our patients? What are the things our patients relate if not references to their beliefs and their interpretations of lived facts? She defends that the presence of the analyst, performing an active, participatory role that is permeable to the emotional climate and sharing the emotional situations which emerge, even wordlessly, with the person under analysis, can come to be experienced as an important element in the constructive redevelopment of damaged relationships.

6. As proposed by Viderman (1970) and Bertrand (2008).

7. As defined by Winnicott (19881988 [1951]).

8. This case illustrates “a problem of early relational failures, resulting in an explosive infantile mental sexuality that could be deactivated with various strategies, but could only begin to be transformed when it encountered an available mind” (Ferro, 2001, p. 15).

9. Guilherme was born in September 2007.

10. In the home videos it is possible to discern the early signs of autism as described by Muratori and Maestro (2007) in particular those related to a core deficit in intersubjectivity and a longer span of attention directed preferentially towards objects.

11. As described by Meltzer (1979).

12. This state of despair, representing the fear of breakdown and primitive agonies, has been described by Winnicott (19941994 [1963]).

13. The notion of reclamation is developed by Anne Alvarez (1994) in her book Live Company as a function of the mother to call the baby to engage in contact and in linking, highlighting the repercussions for the baby's emotional development which can result from failures of communication on the mother's side. She calls attention to the importance of the vital capacity of the mother to reclaim or demand the baby's vitality, summoning the baby to relate with her and to connect with reality, and in this way advancing its emotional development.

14. Alvarez (1985) discusses the concept of neutrality as proposed by Freud, sometimes defined in a very static, passive or containing way, and shows how in some cases an alternative psychoanalytic attitude is necessary to achieve some sort of therapeutic action. She proposes that the analyst adopt an attitude that sends diplomatic missions across the frontier. The feeling and thinking capacities of autistic, schizoid or emotionally deprived patients who are chronically ill is severely limited, so the analyst must temporarily occupy the place of the patient's auxiliary self.

15. I am reminded of Brazelton et al. (1974) when he speaks of the qualities of a live object which awaken capabilities in a baby: improvisation, alerting, amplification, deliberate alternations, movement, change, variations on a theme.

16. As proposed by Grotstein (1981).

17. Thomas and His Friends is a children's television series broadcast by the Discovery Kids channel (2000). Thomas is a little blue train who has a series of adventures at the rail station on the Island of Sodor with his friends Edward, Annie and Clarabel. In this series the humans are mere accessories.

18. This function seeks to dilute the emotions in a narrative or even create narratives that can give emotions form and visibility until the patient is able to produce a story capable of transporting emotions that are familiar to him (Ferro, 2001).

19. In reference to his work with a little boy known as M. who had been diagnosed with autism, Barros (1978) highlights the importance of the therapist's attitude in the sense of providing an adequate ‘holding’ for the patient in the analytic situation as something palpable and concrete. … often through actions …. Offering a constant and consistent container for the patient to project his psychic world into and redefine intense feelings of love and hate.

20. McQueen is the protagonist of the film Cars (Disney, 2006), a young, successful racing car who is always accelerating through life. With the help of his friends he discovers that there are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorships, learning the true values of life at the same time as finding love for the first time. It is an animated film with non‐human characters, but it carries a humanist message.

21. This session took place after one year and nine months of analytic work.

22. According to Dupoux and Mehler (1990), motherese is “the dialect of all mothers of the world when they speak to their babies, in which the voice is higher with exaggerated intonation” (p. 221).

23. For Serge Lebovici the therapist places himself in a state of “metaphorising empathy” characterized by a perceptive emotional connection with the suffering of the other which until that moment had remained unnamed and unrepresented, but on being contained and metabolized by the therapist can then be dealt with as a thought and representation. The commentaries and interventions of the therapist can direct attention towards or condense aspects of observations or interactions and perceptions of inter‐ and transgenerational contents of the unconscious, thus enabling contact with an unfamiliar part of the personality (Lebovici and Stoleru, 1983; Lebovici, 1991, 1993).