Internal and External Reality1

Traditionally IPA Congresses have been opportunities to exchange convergent and divergent theories and experiences between analysts from all over the world. However, the main theme of the Chicago Congress 2009, ‘Psychoanalytical Practices: Convergences and Divergences’, brought the different ways in which psychoanalysts listen and conduct a psychoanalytic process to the center of research efforts and plenary discussions. The challenge here is to identify a common ground not only among different theories but taking account of the complexities of the analysts’ different regions and cultures. The apparently basic psychoanalytical concepts of Internal and External Reality, this panel's topic, do not escape from the diversity of underlying assumptions. As Elias Rocha Barros mentioned, this panel was suggested by CAPSA not only to promote inter-regional data but also because it allows several other themes to be addressed.

The panel began with Jorge Maldonado's lively presentation of clinical material based on two analytical sessions with a patient he has been working with for three and half years, four sessions weekly. The presentation of the clinical case primarily addressed the difficulty his patient had in exploring her fantasy world as a consequence of anxiety. Maldonado puts forth the view that various disorders may disturb the process of symbolization when there is an excess of anxiety (Klein, 1930). As a consequence, instead of symbol formation we have symbolic equations or, as in the case of his patient, it may result in an inability to use the symbols the ego has already constructed.

The second line of Maldonado's presentation addressed the patient's tendency to make rationalizations and intellectualizations. He believes that these defenses work as a hard, artificial outer shell preventing her from feeling anxiety but also blocking her creativity and progress in the analytical relationship.

Maldonado worked from the hypothesis that in the first session there is a cl