ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three positions or vertices from which experience is organized. In health, there is fluid movement between and among these positions, which supports the symbolic processing of experience. Each position has its own version of dissociation as well as areas of the psyche that are represented or not represented. Patients who have been traumatized present a multiplicity of represented and unrepresented states, some of which are seemingly contradictory. Often their movement between positions becomes fixated, interfering with the representation process. It is suggested that analytic awareness of these positions and their dissociative processes increases the intimacy of the analytic dyad, promoting mentalization and symbolization
