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This paper is concerned with the complexities of psychic movement in analysis. ‘It is not,’ as Moore says, ‘about how change is effected but about the shape of change itself’.
While a purely linear model is compelling in that change through a number of sequential states is easy to grasp, Moore thinks it is oversimplified and can be persecutory in that each stage ‘should’ be negotiated successfully and speedily. She finds Jung's spiral or cyclical model of individuation a more fruitful approach when thinking about change, as it allows both for movement and stasis and, within this, for movement up and down, backward and forward, towards and away from the centre.
It is in this area that Moore develops her thesis. While the spiral is undoubtedly a powerful, ubiquitous symbol, it does not, as a model, account for all movements in analysis. She refers particularly to the sudden jumps or changes of direction that a patient may make in the here and now of an analytic session. Moore stresses the archetypal nature of patterns of change in analysis as involving linear regression and progression, spiral movements forward and backward and sudden change.
Sudden change can be understood by Jung's idea of enantiodromia where sooner or later everything turns into its opposite, and more helpfully by catastrophe theory, formulated by Thom (1975) from studies of changing form in embryology. Catastrophe theory describes mathematically how different influences can play on a system gradually and then produce a sharp change in direction. It can, Moore believes, give us a common language for physical, biological and psychological events. Using two case examples, Moore illustrates the complex patterns of stasis, movement, and change in direction that can take place in analysis.
The way in which Moore interweaves her depth and breadth of knowledge with vivid clinical material is impressive. Her paper is thoughtful and can help to liberate us from a blinkered perspective to the process of change a