[No data] by and the Growth of the Relational Mind

Author:and the Growth of the Relational Mind
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

From this perspective, reality and truth cannot be distinguished from fantasy and uncertainty in absolute terms because the ability of different parts of the self to recognize other parts as me is always relative. Consequently, reality and truth for the part of the self that is “me” can be fantasy and speculation to the parts that are “not-me.” What we call reality, and in turn what we call “truth,” will depend on which part of self has access to consciousness at that moment.

Bringing “reality” into the picture does not change my stance. Marcia Cavell (2000), in a published exchange concerning our respective views on the topic of reality, stated that although “points of view are multiple … reality is one and the same for all of us” (p. 525). My reply (Bromberg, 2000b) was that although I felt this to be a useful point when made by a philosopher (see also Cavell, 1998) it was highly problematic if offered by a clinician because a clinician is always working within a complex field where such a distinction more often than not inhibits rather than facilitates personality growth. My perspective on the nature of reality and truth is derived from a self-state view of the mind wherein reality is shaped by the self-organizing configuration of each self-state. The reality experienced by one self-state will be consistent or inconsistent with the realities of other self-states to the degree that dissociative protection against affect dysregulation is present as a mental structure.

A patient’s therapeutic growth depends on facilitating the negotiated coconstruction of a transitional space within which the question of objective versus subjective, and “true” versus “false,” loses its meaning. As Winnicott (1951) put it, in discussing whether transitional phenomena were “true,” “no decision on this point is expected. The question is not to be formulated” (p. 240). In this transitional space, reality is a shared mental state—a channel of implicit communication that supports what Buck (1994) calls a conversation between limbic systems (cited by Schore, 2003a, p. 276). It is by allowing the boundary between self and other to become increasingly permeable that the patient/analyst relationship permits the development of a relational unconscious—a shared therapeutic space in which old truths can be reorganized into new patterns of self/other meaning.

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