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Dr. Joseph Newirth, Professor of Psychology at Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, identified himself initially as both poet and engineer who fit with his interest in symmetry as fulcrums for change. The engineer understands structure; the poet puts disparate things together to catapult us to places unreachable by rational linear thought.
What is this symmetry? Symmetry is what happens when the analyst steps out of his role as expert joining the patient as an equal by using jokes, metaphors or songs. In symmetry Aristotelian logic is cast off and in this flight from the concrete the patient may be transformed.
If symmetry leads to transformation then why do we fear it? “Most psychoanalytic theorists … believe that the analytic relationship should provide as little gratification for patient and analyst as possible” (Newirth, 2009). This discomfort with joy goes back to Freud who feared that if people gave into pleasure, civilization would be lost … we would be drawn into the world of the primal horde of sexuality and murder. When therapists abandon the hierarchical stance, they feel vulnerable but Newirth suggests that often the most memorable and powerful moments in analysis are those imbued with a combination of both joy and fear.
The older hierarchal view of the mind sees meaning as buried and needing to be unearthed; the transformational model of the mind does not reconstruct the past but instead creates meaning. Fonagy and Target (1996) see play and pretend in therapy as a way to help patients emerge from a closed world of facts. The patient may see the outside world as an immutable one that they must adapt to. Through “pretend” they can expand their experiences; they can “try on” roles and emotions, they can find out more about their internal space. By playing with and joking about the transference-countertransference fantasies the analytic pair is transforming their roles and their relationship.
The Boston Process of Change Stud