Situation Analysis

This notion (l'analytique de situation) is intended to highlight what the dynamics of analysis owes globally to the structured situation in which it unfolds. It stands in a dialectical relationship with the interpretative function, which it supports and completes. Situation analysis refers implicitly to the intrinsic value of the lived experience of the session. It underpins the transference dynamic inherent to the encounter between the patient and the overall means offered by the analytic method. In a more objective manner, in this or that privileged moment, situation analysis refers to the identifiable role played by the ensemble of the analytic site in the enactment of the transference intrigue.

Here is an example of a moment when the suspension of the interpretative register makes these issues immediately comprehensible. The patient had been in analysis for several months. He respected the analytic frame scrupulously and seemed to have invested intensely in his sessions; essentially, he was taken up with an activity of remembering, evoking the characters of his history, and sketching out constructions related to his past. He gradually let himself think more associatively but, in spite of the spontaneity of his speech, his discourse was marked by a certain vigilance.

One evening, when his session finished at 8 p.m., he fell silent just before the end. And in the silence that followed, the church clock

nearby chimed eight times; a few seconds passed, the patient seemed tense and, impulsively, exclaimed, addressing the analyst directly: “But… I don't want you to give me more than my time!” He fell silent, feeling a bit embarrassed, but apparently relieved. The analyst ended the session as usual.

For the analyst who was attentive to the transference neurosis that was developing, it was clear that the circumstances had evoked in his patient feelings of anxiety linked to the fantasy of seduction by the adult − anxiety that there was no question of interpreting at this