SPSI New Works: Playing with Fire: Clinical Implications of Bion’s “Shared O” with Judy Eekhoff

Psychoanalysis is a powerful medium of intimacy. It brings two people together under unique circumstances that, if successful, will radically change both. Personal psychic truths that have previously been unregistered and unknown are revealed in the intimate analytic relationship. That revelation is always uncomfortable and often meets with resistance and denial by both participants. Compassion not only for our patients but also for ourselves should be an element of every analytic encounter. It is particularly necessary since that which we do not want to be true of us, we find not only in our patients, but inside of us.

This paper explores analysts’ role as paying attention to themselves paying attention to their patients. It explores the here and now of the shared experience of analytic encounters.

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