ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents the case of a young woman, Chloe, who contacted him following an operation for a glioma in her brain. He explores the neuronal and psychic deficiencies caused by the operation: Chloe explains to the author that when she reads a book, she remembers the atmosphere and the climate of the book, but not the characters and what they say to each other. The therapist’s maternal “mirror” allows connections to be rebuilt between behaviours, emotions, and thoughts and enables the psychic apparatus to be repaired. With Chloe, a psychic apparatus that had been damaged by the tumour and the operation, and thereby to facilitate rebuilding and strengthening of the synaptic connections. Recalling the psychic and emotional experience activates the associative neuronal networks. In Chloe’s case, the intervention was followed by severe aphasic problems that have since disappeared; the neurosurgeon also notes the relatively faint Germanic intonation.
