ABSTRACT
Nina Coltart understood, wrote about, and embodied paradox. As she affirmed with respect to Buddhism (which she practised for decades): “For a Westerner to proceed healthily on the spiritual path which may lead to self-transcendence, and loss of ‘the fortress of I’, there needs must exist already a stable, strong sense of personal identity” (1992, p. 167). Thus, as a psychoanalyst, Coltart remained firmly grounded in the foundations of classical theory, and a crispness of technically practised formulations and interpretations, while also bringing us with her into the realm of ambiguity, mystery, silence, faith, patience, awe, and even joy in working “in the dark”.
