When the analyst is a "new bad object": analytical care between compulsion to repeat and openness to change

The seminar aims to stimulate reflection on the self-reflexive aspects of the analyst's participation in the process. In particular, the inevitable re-proposal by the analyst of the familiar relational models on which the patient has structured his or her internal world is examined through a vast clinical exemplification. Because of elements proper to his personality, it may happen that the analyst reproposes himself as a "new bad object", i.e. as an object that disapproves and disconfirms (Fairbairn), and that he must engage in a struggle with himself in order not to be trapped in the role of the ancient object. Steven Cooper, who addressed these issues in his 2010 book, A disturbance in the field, argues that the patient emotionally perceives the flows of the analyst's inner struggle and, thanks to this, the analytic couple can understand its repetition through the analyst maintaining a constant self-reflexive position. This constitutes an important part of the therapeutic action. This is followed by an extensive historical review of the concept of therapeutic action, in relation to the analyst's inevitable limits in carrying out his or her task.