The Psychoanalytic Space
“Through his anthropoanalytic approach (Daseinanalyse), the psychiatrist and neurologist Ludwig Binswanger (1946) distinguishes between the geometrical space (measurable by natural sciences and mathematics) and the anthropological space (immeasurable and unthinkable but “emotionally attuned”). Specifically, he describes a pragmatic space or an oriented space (action space) on the one hand and a soul space on the other.”
The Psychoanalytic Space is a phrase that can apply in three ways: firstly, to the physical space (the consulting room, waiting room, etc.); secondly, to the metaphorical space – the ‘womb-like’ atmosphere or ‘field’ which provides a place to think, feel, dream and host the analytic relationship; and thirdly, to the reverie-inducing space, which is a combination of both metaphorical and physical elements. The reverie-inducing space is a semiotic synthesis because it brings together what the space must do and how that will be done.
What we know as ‘mind’ or ‘self’ begins with the very foundational, sensory experiences that we all encounter as infants. We come into the world in a storm of sensory experience – texture, sound, vision, smell and taste. How we experience and process such sensory states is the beginning of our sense of self. The therapist-patient connection within the psychoanalytic space explores these pre-verbal, pre-symbolic sensory experiences. It draws on the metaphor of the enveloping and evolving bond between mother and infant.
This thesis will explore the place of the thinking, feeling, sensing body in ‘analytic space’, with a focus on auditory experience. Attention to the senses is paramount in the attempt to achieve a safe, facilitative ‘flowingness’ within the space.
“The individual often behaves as if his wisdom and intelligence would be contaminated if he allowed himself to recognise that his body thought...”
The psychoanalytic space is also an architectural space (see photo below), thoughtfully constructed to host and frame the the physical and metaphorical aspects of the psychoanalytic encounter.
“It is necessary to have, in our home-like work spaces, the sense of privacy, a feeling of safety and belonging, an asylum for self-definition away from the world that demands our attention and can threaten access to the deep regions of unconsciousness, with its living terrors and creative powers to transform pain into language, into healing, into art. This seems to apply not only for our patients, but also, since many of us spend so much time at work, for us analysts”
The psychoanalytic waiting-room: immersive music, light and shade, colour and texture provide a sensory introduction to the analytic session.
My psychotherapy office, shown above, was refurbished as part of this PhD project to focus on facilitating psychoanalytic goals of creativity, emotional safety and depth of thought. Design elements of colour and texture were introduced to emphasise the sensory environment. In the waiting room, the mesh-like curve of an artist’s mural was intended to draw the patient’s eye upward to the high-pitched cathedral ceilings to encourage reverie.
“Jungian analysts have a term, ‘temenos’, that describes “a sense of secure continuous containment, derived from the Greek for “a sacred space”. It is used to describe the therapeutic space, the emotional atmosphere of the physical (office) setting. Healing is seen to be composed of both the relationship and the space.”
The indigo tones of the consulting room are thought to evoke a sense of reflectiveness and containment. This shade of blue underscores the contrasting cathedral ceilings, painted a warm white. The moss-like carpet feels plush and cool underfoot. In the waiting room, specially-curated music is heard from myriad unobtrusive speakers surrounding the listener, from six different room locations. The scent of vaporised oils complements the office’s curated elements of wood, stone and textured surfaces. Care is taken to engage, but not overpower the senses. Moving through concentric circles to the innermost circle of the consulting room (street > office lobby > inner courtyard > waiting room > consulting room) represents movement from outer to inner, towards facilitating the range of emotions to be experienced in the psychoanalytic session.
“Through such evocations, we come to know ourselves as little children who have sought the safety of a corner, confided our loneliness to the walls and the lamp. Is it then so surprising that we should later become that place – the corner to whom others confide?”
Inevitably, there are shades of light and dark in the atmosphere of the psychoanalytic space. Any music chosen for this space should be ‘not so light’ as to cover over darker emotions, and not so dark as to precipitate intense sadness or anxiety. Above all, the atmosphere, assisted by music, should engender a feeling of spaciousness, safe enough to facilitate all shades of emotional expression.
“The light-dark dimension, already present in the ‘scala naturae’ or ‘order of ascent’ of the ancients – according to which the human occupies a place which extends from the beasts ‘below’ to the angels ‘above’. As the material suggests, it is not that the lightness of art and music evolve from the shade of instinctual conditions; clearly, both light and shade are there at birth. Both are part of mother-infant communication. Both must be accommodated in any therapeutic intervention, and they are simultaneously elaborated in the creation of artistic and cultural phenomena. To neglect the shade is to tell only half the story.”
Texture
Shape
Colour
Aroma
Touch
Sound