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It is a very remarkable thing that the Ucs of one human being can react upon that of another, without passing through the Cs This deserves closer investigation … but, descriptively speaking, the fact is incontestable
Contemporary psychoanalytic interventions (require that) … the analyst be able to work in that transitional field that joins the unconscious of the patient and the analyst.
The presence of a presumed intersubjective field or an “analytical third” raises questions about its theoretical nature as well as the possibility of a therapeutic function involving an unconscious link between the analyst and analysand.
It is primarily the clinical aspects of the theme of unconscious communication that I want to depict and explore. I begin by proposing a number questions about the nature of the unconscious and its manifestations:
Do the opening quotations presuppose the existence of a “dyadic unconscious,” that is a singular shared structure that can arise or is jointly created and maintained by the dyadic interplay within that relationship?
* Presented to the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, Toronto, June 6, 1997
What about the thorny problem of a purposeful connection between unconscious processes that bypass and are independent of both observational psyches?
In metapsychological terms, what is this “transitional field”?
Is there indirect transmission of unconscious contents into that transitional field, or are they in an uncanny way deposited from one unconscious to another?
Communication is an act of imparting news or information, and it also can mean a shared connection between people and places So called one-person psychology gives consideration to the first part of this definition, that is, with the focus on a distinct giver and a distinct receiver of ideas. The latter feature stresses the shared and potential mutual influence between persons and is often referred to as the inter-subjective approach. The evolution of the scope of psychoanalysis now inclu