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As a Jungian analyst, I understand Dorothea's process both in developmental terms and in terms of the growth of the Self. Dorothea is said to aspire to the acquisition of knowledge and the possession of a life goal, ‘as Saint Theresa did, under the command of an authority that constrained her conscience’. One way of understanding this ‘authority’ is in terms of the Self, a psychosomatic entity which encompasses and propels the various stages of development involved in psychological growth. Martin Schmidt (2005) refers to the relationship of the Self to the ego as ‘a parallel process of both phase and field phenomena’, both being aspects of development involved in psychological growth.
The two vignettes have a dynamic quality. There is a significant passage of time between them and something evolves. Through them, it is possible to capture the effect and influence of one character upon another, either explicitly or by implication. Michael Fordham conceptualized the essence of relationship and human psychological involvement with others in his description of the way in which a dimension of the infant's interior world, the Self,