Raiding the inarticulate: The internal analytic setting and listening beyond countertransference

• Published in: International journal of psychoanalysis Vol. 88; no. 6; pp. 1441 - 1456
• Main Author: Parsons, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 01.12.2007; Institute of Psychoanalysis; Institute of Psychoanalysis (British); Institute of Psycho-analysis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: analytic frame; analytic setting; Attention; Awareness; Biological and medical sciences; clinical technique (internal and external aspects); countertransference; Countertransference (Psychology); free-floating attention; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heaney; Humans; internal analytic setting; listening; Male; Middle Aged; Nonverbal Communication; Patients; poetry; Psychoanalysis; Psychoanalytic cure; Psychoanalytic Interpretation; Psychoanalytic Therapy - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; silent session; Symbolism; Unconscious (Psychology); Human; listening; Therapeutic process; Transference countertransference; internal analytic setting; Subjective experience; Heaney; Therapeutic framework; free-floating attention; countertransference; analytic setting; Suspended attention; Case study; Psychoanalytic cure; clinical technique (internal and external aspects); Psychoanalytic technique; Treatment; analytic frame; silent session; Poetry; Therapeutic listening
• ISSN: 0020-7578; 1745-8315
• DOI: 10.1516/T564-G13J-400H-2W23

The analytic setting exists not only externally but also internally as a structure in the mind of the analyst. The internal analytic setting constitutes an area of the analyst's mind where reality is defined by unconscious symbolic meaning. Clinical examples illustrate how a secure internal setting allows flexibility in the external setting without sacrifice of its analytic quality. The internal setting can help analysts listen inwardly to themselves in a way that is free-floating with regard to their internal processes. This points beyond usual ideas of countertransference. An analytic encounter may stir up elements that belong to the analyst's psyche which, rather than impeding the analysis, can actively enrich it. Seamus Heaney's writings evoke comparisons between listening to poems and listening to patients, and a week in a patient's analysis is described in relation to these themes.