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Transference and Countertransference in Analysis Dealing with Eating Disorders Marion Woodman  In the Zen art of archery the arrow, if released at its highest point of tension, a tension constellated between the arrow and the bow, flies directly to its target. In analysis, the highest point of tension between analyst and analysand, depending upon the rapport between them, may constellate itself at any time. A powerful transference onto the analyst may be compared to the release of the arrow. If the transference flies wide of the mark, as it often does, the arrow is not flying on the full energy or strength of the bent bow. Then the analyst has no difficulty recognizing the transference and where psychically it is coming from. When, however, the communion of arrow and bow is such that they fuse into one (the point of highest tension), then the transference in striking home, flying to the dead center of the bull's-eye, produces a very different situation, one that is much more difficult to deal with directly because the arrow may have struck the analyst's most painful complex. Transference in analysis often has for its true object the analyst's own point of wounding, and when it strikes home, the result inevitably is a countertransference. If the analyst is not fully aware of his or her own shadow response, real damage can be done. If, however, the analyst knows his own autonomous complex and how to deal with it (how far and no further), then the striking of it by the transference can become one of the most creative stages of the analysis, a stage in which the real work can be done. The analysand penetrates the analyst's wound (as the God enters through the wound) and what can flow from it is a healing if-and only if-the analyst has been there and dealt with it, and the analysand in the process is able to recognize that what is going on is, to use one mythical representation, fighting the Medusa by means of the mirroring shield. My image of the analyst at the end of the day is St. Sebastian, his flesh penetrated by arrows, which do not cause undue pain or suffering because he understands the nature of his wounding-an understanding which in the case of the analyst is the product of his or her own analytical experience and training analysis. The healing comes through the consciousness of one's own authentically lived life. In dealing with eating disorders, it is imperative to separate the symptom from the disease. The symptom may be obesity, loss of weight, and/or vomiting. The analysand usually wants to correct the weight problem." Weight in itself, however, is not necessarily a problem, although current collective attitudes would lead one to believe that success or failure in life and love depends on whether one is fat or thin. Some people by nature carry more weight than others; their big bodies radiate energy and are the right carriers for their psychic dimensions. If through illness or dieting they become thin, they are diminished. Others carry extra weight to counterbalance a highly intuitive, imaginative nature that tends to slip out of its physical home; it therefore needs the extra weight until it finds its grounding in its own earth. Weight gains and losses can vary within a wide range without any change in caloric intake if, for instance, such a person is engaged in artistic creation or is closely relating to someone who is dying. The disease is not the weight, but rather the psychological wounding that is manifesting through the eating disorder. The analyst through her body responses can recognize whether the body sitting opposite is a mound of unconscious flesh or whether it is a conscious body, and, by watching its fluctuation in weight, she can keep a very conscious eye on shadow activity. The process, as I see it in working with eating disorders, is to recognize the wounded instincts, to nurture and discipline them back to health, and to bring the ego into a loving, firm relationship to them. Then the body gradually and naturally becomes the right container, whether large or small or fluctuating, for that particular psyche. Next Page http://maxpages.com/marionwoodman/woodman8 |
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