ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the “chimeric” element or quality of patient–analyst interconnectedness. It explores the term “chimeric” for its wealth of mythological, genetic, biological, biomedicinal, and psychoanalytical associations, which serve to highlight the complex quality involved in patient–analyst deep interconnectedness, especially in difficult, psychotic, psychically foreclosed, profoundly dissociated, and perverse states. The term chimeraor chimerism has its origin in Greek mythology, the chimera being a monstrous creature with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a dragon’s or serpent’s tail. In modern medicine, effective chimeric protein drugs are based on chimeric antibodies that bind to the antigen to fight the pathogen, but without triggering the immune reaction in the body generally triggered by regular antibodies toward what they perceive as “foreign” elements. The chapter also focuses on the nature, the extent, and the emotional meaning of the complex chimeric element involved in patient–analyst interconnectedness, particularly in difficult, psychotic, psychically foreclosed, extremely dissociated, and perverse states.
