2nd Prague conference
otto fenichel
AND HIS LEGACY

In this clinical presentation, I will describe and examine a phase in the analysis of a 45-year-old women where, after a long period of impasse and therapeutic stalemate some progressive moves in the transference-countertransference could be detected and worked through. This more hopeful phase, however, turned out to be rather short-lived, like the Prague Spring of 1968, and was followed by renewed paranoid anxieties, suspicions and disappointed hope in the analytic relationship. A closer look at of some of the material, dreams, interpretive moves and countermoves in the analytic field during and in the immediate aftermath of these unusual weeks of détente gives hope and reason for the possibility that nevertheless some seeds of freedom from a pathological organization have been sown in this phase and might be incubated in either patient or analyst during another phase of regression and repression. A retrospective discussion and analysis of such material can unearth building blocks for further progress in therapeutic processes and help to better assess potential openings as well as backlashes in the therapeutic field. Some of the described dynamics might also be applied to occurrences on a wider, societal and political stage.