ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the idea of magical feeding, which was deeply embedded in an archetypal image of mother, in whom everything was encompassed, self, mother and anima, but which was, of course, indigestible and unattainable, and led to disillusionment and despair. The author describes how differentiations gradually emerged, heralded by events in the transference, and illustrated in a series of vivid dreams, which appeared at crucial stages in the work. The dreams describe the evolution of the internal situation, regulated by the operation of the self, and acted on, from the outside, by a great struggle in the transference, to separate out self and other, mother and child, lover and beloved. This struggle was painful and disturbing to both analyst and patient but formed part of the dialectical process of change as the internal and external worlds interacted. The series of dreams illustrates a gradual transformation in John Beebe's inner world, in his relation to the feminine.
