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Dear Editor
I read with much interest Dr. Shoham's meaningful and poetic commentary on my paper (Eshel, 2006), and felt that he touches on a point that is at the core of the way I practise, understand and imagine psychoanalysis. It is the daring of thought and experiencing that is needed of the analyst (and patient) for entering and ‘being within’ the impact of the unbearable, the unknown, the uncertain, and the ‘catastrophic change’ in the analytic process, and, specifically, the mystery of patient—analyst deep interconnectedness and unconscious communication (Eshel, 2004a, 2004b, 2005, 2007). That our reach exceeds our grasp is really the heart of the matter… I would also like to relate here to the daring of the three anonymous reviewers and the former Editors of IJPA, especially Paul Williams, who daringly gave me the opportunity to put forth a paper, thoughts and experiences on the enigmatic, ‘impossible’ and highly disturbing topic of telepathic dreams in psychoanalysis (the years-long resistance to which I reviewed in my paper), which has hitherto rarely been addressed in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
‘We can be afraid of expressing our stray thoughts … because we are afraid of the reception they will get’ (Bion, 2005, p. 60, quoted in Shoham's letter); ‘We must be able to tolerate mystery and our own ignorance’ (Bion, 1974, p. 57). It is, therefore, so heartening to get this reception and space for ‘expressing stray thoughts', and subsequently to read Shoham's letter and the many letters which I have received about my paper from readers who share with me their thoughts and experiences that were of this stray, enigmatic and uncertain nature.