ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a clinical manifestation of the zero moment from the perspective of motivational systems theory and illustrates the notion of emptiness within a Western psychoanalytic model. It examines the ways in which the zero moment emerges and develops in a human relationship, and demonstrates how the partners in an analytic dyad can surrender to this process and recover a sense of being human. Based on their theoretical orientation and their response to the specific event under consideration, analysts will ascribe differing significance to factors of influence, motivation, inference, communication, and regulation. Motivational systems theory is a psychoanalytic model in contemporary self-psychology. The motivational systems consist of seven goals and intentions, five fundamental information processing systems, and two linking processes to mediate between them. The seven goals and intentions are: physiological regulation; attachment to individuals; affiliation with groups; caregiving; exploration and assertion of preferences and capacities; sensuality and sexuality; and aversive responses of antagonism and withdrawal.
