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Presenter: I would like to discuss a session I had today with a thirty-year-old woman. She came into the consulting room and sat down; she never lies on the couch. She smiled and said, “Today I won't be able to stay sitting here.” I asked her what that meant; she said she was very agitated. I asked her what she considered as being very agitated. She smiled and said, “My head is dizzy.” She said her thoughts were running away, running over one another. I suggested that when she felt like that she also felt that she was losing control of her body. She smiled and said, “Perhaps; it looks as if that were true.” When I continued, suggesting that when her mind was running away like that, her body had to follow her mind's movements, she interrupted me, saying, “Now, don't you try to make me stand still.”
Bion: Why should this patient think that the analyst would do anything? You cannot stop her coming or send her away; she is a grown woman and presumably therefore free to come and see you if she wants to; if she doesn't want to, she is free to go away. Why does she say that you would try to stop her doing something? I am not really asking for an answer to that question – although I would be very glad to hear any answer that you have – but simply giving an example of what my reaction is to this story.
P: I was interested to know why she had said, “Don't try to keep me still”. She said she didn't know the answer to the question, so I suggested that she was preoccupied by my being quiet, still. She said that she did not regard me as being still, but as dominating my movements, my mind controlling my body.
B: As you have been seeing this patient for some time, you both know a certain amount about one another. From the point of view of the group here, I wonder what any of us thinks so far. Do you get a
feeling that you want to know more? Or do you feel that you would not want to see this patient again? In fact, I would like to hear what she had to say without my asking questions