ABSTRACT
I first met Francesca Colzani at a conference in New York City, where some of my photographs were on display. Francesca, a psychoanalyst from Chile, later invited me to a conference to be held the following year in her country – one that would involve an artistic presentation. I was intrigued by this offer, since I had never been to Chile and I liked the artistic connection. As it turned out, I had the opportunity to collaborate with her, a talented and creative artist, and we became part of each other’s psychoanalytic family. Francesca’s workspace is a perfect example of this chapter’s topic, “the crowded office.” As already discussed in previous chapters, the psychoanalytic office is a meaningful extension of the life of patient and analyst as they go about their mutually engaged work. In addition, the multiple presences found in the office often reflect a complex genealogy, both familial and psychoanalytical. Both analyst and analysand make personal contributions, bringing in those who possessed them or guided them on their journeys to the analytic room. But this discussion will focus on the analyst’s presences, as well as on the complex affiliations in the history of psychoanalysis that cast deep shadows in most psychoanalytic offices.
