ABSTRACT

There is a consensus in the field of psychodynamic and interpersonal psychotherapy that a patient who is stuck goes around the same circle endlessly (Binder, 2004; Coren, 2001; Genova, 2004; Goldfried, 2003; Levenson, 2003; Wachtel, 1993). This is a very ancient formulation, actually, which Dante Alighieri (1300/1994) made the very structure of Hell, or The Inferno. Sartre (1943/1989) described it as No Exit. Thus, it is a kind of space, with a circular motion within it.