FROZEN HARMONIES: PETRIFIED PLACES IN THE ANALYTIC FIELD

In this paper I suggest that here‐and‐now transference interpretations can be defensive when they keep the focus on the intrapsychic world of the analysand and neglect the unconscious of the analyst and the unconscious‐to‐unconscious interaction between patient and analyst. Whilst the concept of the analytic field in psychoanalytic literature provides us with a way back to Freud's original consideration of the intersubjective alongside the intrapsychic, this inclusivity has been sustained within the Developmental School of Jungian Analytic thought. To illustrate this I present an adaptation of Jung's model of the transference. Once we engage in analytic work with an individual we are inevitably drawn into a ‘dance’ together with its own particular rhythms and harmonies. Each analytic couple creates an analytic field from their idiosyncratic energy flow. Within this field, interruptions to the ‘dance’ occur; mis‐steps and disharmonies involve an unconscious refusal within the analyst as well as the patient. Both the dance and the refusal are crucial for the work, and I suggest that our attention needs to be directed here, to the blocks or ‘petrified places’. To illustrate how I believe they can be made use of, I provide material from three case examples.