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An art which stirs the human soul through forms which resemble nothing known, which represent nothing, and which symbolize nothing; an art which works solely through freely invented forms, like music through freely invented notes.
—August Endel, 1980 Constructivism in Art
The aim of this paper is threefold. First, I seek to discuss the radically relational perspective in psychoanalysis called constructivism and its roots in Ferenczi's papers. Second, I will demonstrate how the constructivist approach can be applied to the analysis of dreams. Third, I would like to illustrate how constructivism offers a flexible anchor when the analyst is trying to resolve inner uncertainty and ambiguity in his/her clinical work.
My constructivist orientation took shape after more than 20 years of clinical experience, struggling with the development of my own theoretical orientation. My introduction to psychoanalytic theory was born during my work as a mental health officer with vulnerable young soldiers in the Israeli army. Let us say that the development of a good fit between theory and practice at that point was largely unformulated; however, I had the opportunity to check this fit in the course of evaluating what was most effective dealing with crisis situations. I have been struggling over the years with reconciling the discrepancies between my own values and personality and the professional training that I received in the Israeli army.
When I moved to New York, I was an immigrant from the promised land