Off the Couch, into the Toilet

Exploring the Psychic Uses of the Analyst’s Toilet

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8335060
AutoresAklilu Lemma (0000-0002-9465-9054, autor de correspondencia), Alessandra Lemma
Año2014
Volumen62
Número1
Páginas35-56
Fecha de publicación2014-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0003065113520039
PMID24610756
OpenAlexW2165150009
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias 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