ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy to persons exhibiting borderline personality or, broadly speaking, primitive personality—brought to the attention phenomena taking place during treatment, that are beyond the verbal interchange of patient-analyst. This chapter discusses the meaning of intense bodily feelings—such as physical discomfort, agonizing bodily tension, cold sweats, bodily nervousness, restlessness—accompanied by mixed feelings of agony, fright, frustration, self-pity, and a sense of incompetence. It also discusses the role of these feelings in the analytic situation. The chapter explains the way in which these feelings relate to the containing function of the analyst. It focuses on the countertransferential bodily feelings, their comprehension, meaning and relation to the containing function. The chapter explains how they were provoked and how they affected the therapeutic relationship. A synthesis of theoretical and clinical considerations is also attempted, although the full analysis of the case presented, as well as the psychoanalytic process involved.
