Exploring, claiming and expanding the frontiers of an emerging self

Abstract

ABSTRACT The author discusses her evolving understanding of the growth and transformation she is witnessing in her work with one analytic patient, a young, white, cis-gendered woman with a history of profound neglect and relational trauma, a life-long struggle with severe anxiety, OCD and somatic symptoms. Steve Stern’s concept of “airless worlds” and what he refers to as a process of “re-subjectification” inform the author’s conceptualization of the therapeutic processes taking place in this treatment. The author presents clinical material, applying these and related ideas to demonstrate how she and her patient have worked together to recognize the toxic and negating identificatory structures and processes Stern refers to, appreciate these in their historical context, and being to transform some of them. This process has allowed the author and her patient to begin to illuminate the contours of her patient’s emerging subjectivity as her patient learns to explore and lay claim to a self that extends beyond the borders of familiar territory inhabited by early toxic and negating identifications.