Truths, Reveries, Internal Moments of Meeting: Reflections on the dialectics of the analytic relationship

AbstractConceptualizing intersecting psychical dynamics taking place within the analytic relationship, the concept of truth is considered as an integral element of the patient's unrepresented, subjective self-experiences, particularly in respect to traumatic aspects. Truth is also conceptualized as a process of exploration of traumatic elements emerging dynamically in the context of transference.During such processes, it is possible that the patient's traumatic truth may collide with certain aspects of the analyst's mental life affecting deeply his/her phantasy and stirring strong feelings and representations of traumatic self-experiences of personal and subjective meaning. These instances are vital intersubjective aspects of the analytic relationship. They facilitate the exploration of the patient's unconscious inner truth and are signified as internal moments of meeting, emphasizing a psychical interchange between the analytic dyad and creation of a mental-cradle, a space for exploring and representing ...