Talking to the unconscious: Attunement to unconscious thought*

This chapter discusses some major manifestations of five modes of unconscious thought within the analytic process. Five modes include concreteness, fluid boundaries between self and others, timelessness, inescapable connectedness to others, and tolerance of contradiction. The chapter also discusses other important primitive modes, such as condensation, displacement, and thinking in symbols. With respect to each of the modes, it offers some thoughts on what it implies about formulating clinical interpretations. Interpretation can be experienced as a humiliating display of the analyst’s omniscience or at least a narcissistic preoccupation with understanding everything. It could be the analyst’s narcissistic need to prove that he or she is truly helpful. Insistent interpretation could express fear of unfocused, wordless experience or at least of the experience then taking shape; in this respect, the analyst is felt to be seeking relief in the closure of rationality and reflection.