ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an integration of dynamics systems principles with the concept of “thirdness” in understanding the epistemology of the analytic encounter, particularly with respect to mutative properties of the alliance between analyst and patient. In particular, the systems principle of emergence—a phenomenon in which something that is more than the sum of its parts is created—can help psychoanalysts to better understand the construction and utility of the analytic third in shaping the particular clinical dyad. The chapter argues that the analytic third is an emergent phenomenon. It examines how the development and expansion of a capacity for “play”—with words, in relating to others, with the metaphor of the transference—is one of the essential elements of therapeutic action. A clinical vignette taken from an analysis of an adolescent boy will serve to illustrate dynamics systems principles. The notion of linearity in psychoanalytic models of development has been particularly influential in shaping ideas about therapeutic action.
