At-one-ment and twoness are not opposites

Am J Psychoanal. 2024 Feb 25. doi: 10.1057/s11231-024-09434-0. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThis paper explores how at-one-ment and twoness interact in the clinical setting. Namely, how the unconscious mode of knowing the other intuitively from the inside, by becoming at-one with them, interacts with the conscious-rational mode of knowing about the other from the outside; how experiencing the other's experience as one's own, rather than like one's own, informs (and is informed by) the common clinical stance of twoness, in which analyst and patient meet as separate persons. Through clinical illustrations, I argue that these are complementary (rather than contradictory) modes of knowing, communicating and being and that, paradoxically, twoness is essential for the emergence of at-one-ment, even though the latter is inadvertent.PMID:38403736 | DOI:10.1057/s11231-024-09434-0

Source: American Journal of Psychoanalysis - February 25, 2024 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bnaya Amid Source Type: research