Does the analyst have a body? Body transformations under analysis

Abstract

An analytic session is an encounter not only between two minds but also between two bodies. The analyst uses his body-ego in the patient’s understanding and the patient projects his fantasies into the analyst’s body. It is this phantasmatic body that is present in the transference/countertransference game in the analytic dyad. What about the analyst’s real body? What is its importance? It is perhaps a body, whose neutrality and the patient’s projections container, remains “invisible”, “silent” to the patient, although it becomes “visible” when a change takes place: when the body becomes absent (remote therapy) or when a transformation arises in the analyst’s body (e.g. pregnancy, hurt), bringing the emergence of the “stranger” and so mobilizing new issues within the patient and the analytic pair. From her experience as an analyst and an overview of other psychoanalytic authors, the author reflects on the importance of the analyst’s body. Two perspectives are presented: (1) the body-mind relationship and the way the analyst uses his body in his clinical work; and (2) how the analyst’s real body’s transformation interferes with the analytical process.