ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 focuses on the role of the body in the therapy of torture survivors. The topic is illustrated through the clinical case of Adina, for whom the dynamics of somatic transference and countertransference guided therapy toward a central theme in the psychic life of the patient. The initial phase of therapy is described in detail to show the struggle of the therapeutic dyad in exiting from the patient’s sensations of a psychic void and dis-ownership of the body through an “embodied meeting.” The concept of “psychic skin” and participation mystique is central to understanding the suffering of Adina and other torture survivors and the body-to-body communication and reveries in therapy. The treatment is conceived as a joint effort to reach symbolization through a relational “re-libidination of fragments” that enables the patient to restore an I–you dialogue in her inner world, within which reflective abilities can be recovered and a newly integrated identity be found.
