On black holes, psychic deadness and aliveness

In this article, the author uses the astrophysical term of the ‘black hole’ to describe the subjective feelings of patients who have experienced trauma in their inter-personal relationships, such as sudden separation or adultery. Such experiences are actually breakdowns that occurred in the past, but were not fully experienced. The fall into a black hole represents a deep regressive state in which the patient encounters a psychic deadness that he or she has tried to avoid. Presencing and therapeutic passion on the side of the therapist can help them to survive and confront dissociated self-states. Recovery from a black hole experience relies on physical and psychic aliveness, which are facilitated by the analytic setting

Addiction · Alternative medicine · Feeling · Psychiatry · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychodynamics · Psychotherapist · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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