Off the Couch, into the Toilet

Exploring the Psychic Uses of the Analyst’s Toilet

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8335060
AutoresAklilu Lemma (0000-0002-9465-9054, autor correspondente), Alessandra Lemma
Ano2014
Volume62
Fascículo1
Páginas35-56
Data de publicação2014-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0003065113520039
PMID24610756
OpenAlexW2165150009
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas12

The analyst’s consulting room toilet lends itself to myriad uses in the context of the analytic relationship. It is a place where “dirty” secrets may be excitedly deposited and where perverse fantasies can be fueled and acted out, as illustrated in the analysis of Mr. D. This perverse use of the analyst’s toilet is contrasted with the case of Ms. C., whose anxieties about the destructiveness of her aggression led initially to a phobic avoidance of the toilet and then evolved toward its use as a container for parts of herself she felt were bad and unacceptable, thereby protecting the relationship with the analyst, who could not yet be trusted to receive and survive her projections. In these cases the toilet becomes quite concretely the location of the “toilet-breast” (Meltzer 1967), a means of preserving a more idealized relationship with the analyst

Aggression · Container (type theory) · Context (archaeology) · Sociology · Toilet · Engineering · History · Medicine · Psychoanalysis and Social Critique · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy