The Blood Crisis: A Choice Between Dying and Rearranging?

First Florence Ferenczi Special Issue

“…Such genuine self-disclosure and self-analysis is enormously informative for clinicians actively struggling with countertransference in the analytic field on a daily basis. Judy Vida's remarkable narrative of self-disclosure and self-analysis draws the reader into her intimate analytic space where she struggled with her ''blood crisis'', defined as ''…a sudden unexpected change of fundamental premises that shakes stability, identity, and self-understanding…'' (Vida, 2018). We are drawn into a profound analysis of Vida's painful relationship with her mother triggered by her reflections upon reading Sally Hemings by Chase-Riboud.…”

“…Emancipation from an internal ''higher power'', as Vida points out, involves a rearranging of one's inner world, and is not an easy process for anyone who has structured their ways of being in servitude to the will of another for much of their lives. ''Rearranging is a process, not a result'' (Vida, 2018). In the process of re-arranging, Vida has moved from a subaltern position to one of liberation experiencing the lightness of unfettered being in the process.…”