ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 explores the resonant/relational imagination: therapeutic attunement and unconscious communication in the dyad, sometimes even eerily when the dyad is separated in time and space. Psi phenomenon or extraordinary, paranormal perception is discussed from a clinical, scientific and historical point of view to help elucidate the relational imagination, so critical and valuable in clinical work.
Freud and Ferenczi explored the unconscious transfer of thoughts and feelings between patient and therapist, what they termed “thought transference” or telepathy and what we call unconscious communication. Freud wrote that these uncanny phenomena are indisputable and that eventually science will explain them. This exploration continues today, and numerous scientific explanations are offered, including using quantum physics as a metaphor to understand unconscious communication. The discovery of mirror neurons and a literal and metaphorical understanding of the new science of fractals also aid in comprehending this type of communication.
Projective identification is explored as a form of telepathy. Parallels are also drawn between psi and Winnicott’s concept of transitional space when boundaries blur and symbiotic phenomena emerge. Various scientific studies are reported that validate psi phenomena, including (1) person-to-person effects at a distance with a stranger and (2) the effects of mind on a machine, although the studies remain controversial.
