The Contribution of the Analyst's Actions to Mutative Action: A Developmental Perspective

The concept of action has evolved since Freud's initial attempts to address the topic. It is no longer viewed as just serving a defensive function. Instead it is increasingly seen as a mode of experiencing and communicating, one that is less developmentally advanced than the verbal one usually emphasized in psychoanalysis. Research from many fields documents the view that experiencing, thinking, and communicating originate in bodily action. Hence psychoanalysts have learned to use the patient's actions to broaden their understanding of the patient and to deepen the analytic process. But they have been slower to apply this understanding to their own actions. This paper uses an extended clinical vignette of an action intervention by the analyst to demonstrate its importance in maintaining and deepening an analytic process. It then suggests a theoretical and clinical rationale that such action interventions are a common and necessary aspect of most analyses. Finally it raises the question of whether such interventions can be regarded as interpretations offered at the developmental level being used by the patient to communicate at particular moments in analysis. Can they be viewed as the initial interpretation in the process of interpretation?