Connectedness, Permeable Boundaries, and the Development of the Self: Therapeutic Implications

Abstract

The listening perspective from which the analyst works, however it evolves and is shaped by personal history, training, theory, and therapeutic experience, represents a sensibility that dramatically influences the course and nature of the analytic journey. Inherent in Kohut's listening perspective is an awareness that connectedness—the feeling of being a felt presence in another's life—is the unarticulated process upon which self-structure develops. Building on Kohut's implicit understanding of the importance of permeable boundaries inherent in connectedness, this article suggests a shift in the listening perspective to one that emphasizes the analyst's and the patient's experience as a felt presence in each other's lives. Employing verbatim interchanges highlighting the issues of selfobject transference, resistance, self-disclosure, and the disruption repair process, this article illustrates how a connectedness sensibility can expand, deepen, and fundamentally alter the listening perspective, organizatio...