ABSTRACT
This chapter describes two qualitatively different uses of the toilet in the context of the analytic relationship specifically. The first concerns a perverse use of the toilet to enact sexualized, hostile, intrusive dynamics in relation to the analyst. The patient alternates between being the voyeur, fantasizing the analyst in the toilet, and being the one in the toilet who is looked at by the analyst. The second use denotes anxieties about phantasized damage done to the object if the patient exposes felt-to-be unacceptable, messy parts of the self. The patient may not even be able to use the analyst's toilet at first, displaying phobic avoidance of it because they fear exposing a messy, dirty part of themselves that could contaminate the longed for 'clean' relationship with the analyst. The patient's eventual use of the actual toilet may be a first step towards giving expression to the warded-off dangerous feelings before these can be more safely integrated into the analytic relationship.
