ABSTRACT
The analyst identifies enactments through close analysis of the moment-to-moment interplay of language, physical movement, emotional expression, associative content, and already established dynamic context. Correlatively, the interpretation of enactment is oriented primarily toward the present rather than the past. With the general understanding, the analyst is technically prepared to identify enactments. And the heightened attention to the present moment works against untimely, exclusive, possibly avoidant and intellectualized preoccupation with the past or with current matters far removed from immediate transference-countertransference interactions. Thus, as analytic data, enactments must be regarded as constructions. One analyst might say to analyses and who, at that moment, is acting in a clinging manner. The emphasis on counter transference enactment has developed particularly in connection with attempts to begin and continue analytic work with exceptionally difficult cases. These cases may be those that are stagnating or frequently in explosive or life-threatening states.
