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In the book Passage from the Physical to the Symbolic Body, Dr Eliana Rache invites us to take part in an ongoing interrogation of different elements of our discipline. It is an enjoyable and profound text that takes us through the evolution and opening up of classical psychoanalysis, which has largely resulted from the current clinical demands of symptoms that go beyond psychoneurosis. The book places special attention on the processes by which the body makes itself present in the non-verbal, both in the act and directly in the imposition of the soma, with a focus on the non-verbal and the primitive sensory-motor aspects of communication that are present in verbal language.
Rache addresses the new conceptual instruments developed by diverse psychoanalysts who have engaged in this therapeutic field. The book focuses on narcissistic pathologies, approaches to these pathologies, and the need for changes to the classical psychoanalytic device in order to deal with the phenomena that occur in the transference-countertransference exchange, especially the openness to the psychic associativity of non-verbal languages that this exchange requires.
The author presents an ongoing dialogue between clinical work with severely ill patients and theories, both her own and those she selects from other authors, to provide a foundation and justification for the phenomena of the interpersonal transference-countertransference field. She demonstrates her profound knowledge of Freud's body of work, and she offers contributions based on her training in Kleinian theory, but she does not stop there; she begins her dialogical journey with post-Freudian developments. She frequently alludes to Ferenczi, Bion, and Winnicott, to then include the contributions of French analysts such as A. Green, Joyce MacDougall, Piera Aulagnier, as well as Sara and César Botella, culminating in a strong theoretical engagement with Roussillon that motivates, and saturates, a large part of her current vision. Her en