The Empty Space

I am pleased to share in honoring Mike Basch's memory with this dedication. In June 1972, Mike asked me to discuss his paper Psychoanalytic Interpretation and Cognitive Development before the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society. In this paper he presented the thesis that an interpretation of repressed, unconscious material leads only to a partial resolution. There still seemed to be a resistance to insight and conscious understanding due to a second line of resistance arising from the defense of disavowal, which had interfered with the development of inner speech at the time of the original repression. In his meticulous way, he drew on the work of Piaget and Vygotsky to argue his case. He was then, as he always had been, an original thinker, searching for new ways of understanding but also significantly tolerating the ambiguities and the not knowing of psychoanalytic life and theory. I hope this chapter is in the spirit of his approach, of trying to be creative, as much as one can be, and not be afraid of new ways of thinking, but also being able to tolerate the inevitable uncertainties of our knowledge.

Winnicott introduced the concept of the transitional or potential space, an ill-defined area where creativity and illusion reside. The child fills this space in a way that reconciles reality and illusion, to a large degree for the purpose of soothing himself or herself. When that space is not filled, it produces distress in the child. It also is troubling to our analytic patients and to ourselves as well. Attempts are made to fill that space. The child creates a transitional object. The patient fills his or her space with memories of the analyst. We analysts, faced with a similar dilemma, may need to make interpretations, in part because of our inability to tolerate not knowing. The need to fill the empty spaces in our lives can be conceptualized on the basis of many theoretical points of view, but the common denominator seems to be the intolerance of ambiguity, uncertain