Posted by lucie lu on October 31, 2008, at 11:32:05
In reply to Enactment in therapy » lucie lu, posted by Wittgensteinz on October 30, 2008, at 19:05:19
The process is described very well in Nancy McWilliams' book: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Practitioner's Guide. I love reading her work, she describes processes like this very clearly and compassionately. You can search inside the book for 'enactment' and there are many references to it that might be useful/interesting. It need not be sexual although when sexualization of the relationship occurs, it's often attributed to enactment to at least some degree. Twinleaf describes the enactment process so beautifully in her post. (Twinleaf, I often feel that your prose borders on poetic!) Here's the link;
The way I look at enactments (this is my lay interpretation of the process and any mistatements are mine and not McWilliams!) is in the context of the analytic or therapy space between the T and the patient/client which contains the relational elements and dynamics between them. The patient is expected to bring key elements of his/her inner life into this space for the T to interpret and the dyad studies it together. They are not supposed to "do" anything about the material, just examine and discuss. As Twinleaf expressed it so beautifully, when a dyad is highly attuned, there is more pressure for the T to not only observe but to enter into the "as if" space as a participant by introducing his/her own material. This pressure can become irresistible if the T's inner dynamics mesh compellingly in some way with those of the patient. Since this is unconscious for the T, he/she is unaware of his/her participation in the enactment. In some cases, the two then act out these dynamics in real life, collapsing the analytic space. Since such enactments may be outside the T's awareness, his/her control of the therapy is lost, hopefully temporarily, and ruptures or other consequences can follow. Enactments, like ruptures, can be extremely subtle. An alert T can recognize the enactment quickly and can often pick up useful information for the therapy this way. The important thing is for the T to recognize the enactment and take immediate steps to contain or repair it or whatever the situation warrants. Nancy McWilliams points out in her book that common roles that get played out in enactments include not only the "seducer and the seduced" but also the "uninvolved nonabusing parent and the neglected child," "the sadistic abuser and the helpless, impotently enraged victim"(p. 18) and others. McWilliams explains it all so beautifully. I love her books.
My T and I have had enactments, at least one of which he became aware of as it was happening and drew my attention to it, which was both instructive and very interesting to me. Without knowing your T's contribution there is no way for me to know if any enactment(s) are involved in the rupture, but elements of what I was reading in the posts made me wonder, especially the "cold parent/neglected child" sort of scenario. It seems unlikely to me that your analyst would be completely unaware of potential for enactments around the rupture but it might be interesting to raise the issue. Maybe something in his past replays the dynamic? Of course his material remains unconscious, in which case you may not get far. Or maybe there's simply no enactment going on at all. I don't know, just thought I'd raise it in the context of what looks like his strong apparent countertransference and the persistence of the way you two seem to be relating to each other throughout. As others have pointed out, I think you are doing everything you are supposed to be doing, which leaves your analyst's contributions.
Take care,
Lucie
poster:lucie lu
thread:859655
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20081018/msgs/860051.html