ABSTRACT
Jung was inspired by the principle of opposing forces in dynamic relationship. Fordham explored this idea in developing a psychological understanding of the body in infancy. Mind and body were seen as a pair of opposites and the dialectical processes operating between them were key to the quality of emerging consciousness and to pathological states resulting from faulty early interactions. Catherine Kaplinsky weaves the dialectical processes into an exploration of the body in the consulting room with illustrations from clinical material. She shows how changes occur when the opposites collapse into one another constituting a coniunctio. Out of this process a symbol is born, facilitating the transition from one psychological state or attitude to another.
