A Crisis in the Analyst’s Life: Self-Containment, Symbolization, and The Holding Space

Flax, Michelle

doi:10.1002/j.2167-4086.2011.tb00088.x

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 28 publications

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“…Taken together, this paper proposes that 'holding space' is responsive to need, about the emotional environment (39,40), and the safety, and nurturing qualities of the space produced. In contrast to the existing evidence base, these findings offer a more positive understanding regarding the stroke survivors' experience of acute stroke unit staff members' (and in particular, the nurses') holding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holding space and transitional space: stroke survivors’ lived experience of being on an acute stroke unit. A hermeneutic phenomenological study

Suddick

Cross

Vuoskoski

et al. 2020

Scandinavian Caring Sciences

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Holding space and transitional space: stroke survivors' lived experience of being on an acute stroke unit. A hermeneutic phenomenological study Despite substantial reorganisation of stroke unit provision in the United Kingdom, limited qualitative research has explored how stroke survivors experience the acute stroke unit. This hermeneutic phenomenological study used accounts from four stroke survivors who experienced one of two acute stroke units. Through detailed analysis, the acute stroke unit emerged as a meaningful space, in two distinct but interconnected forms. As holding space, the unit was understood to offer protection and safe haven, as the stroke survivors looked to cope and respond to the temporal, bodily, biographical disruption and significant vulnerability brought about by stroke and by being in hospital. Holding was fulfilled by different people (including their fellow stroke survivors) and reflected a human response to human need and existential vulnerability. This space, and the practices within it, functioned to hold them intimately but also at a distance from their prestroke lifeworld. As such, the acute stroke unit holding space was intertwined with how it supported, encouraged or provoked transition. In the transitional space of the acute stroke unit, stroke survivors described how they survived the hospital-healthcare space, stroke unit and poststroke space. This paper articulates how transition was meaningfully signified through its absence or presence, as they transformed, relinquished or reasserted their 'self', and in one case, recovered whilst 'in there'. The findings of this study provide phenomenological insight into stroke survivors' lived experience, the meaningful holding and transitional contribution of the unit, and how these spatial forms were intertwined. These insights are discussed in relation to the existing evidence base and stroke unit provision.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%