The transferential chimera II: some theoretical considerations

Abstract

The author develops here a theoretical model to account for the different levels of organization and functioning of the transference chimera of which he gave a clinical presentation in an earlier article. From his reading of Jung's 'Psychology of the transference' he derives a dynamic model of the chimera and links it to quantum mechanics and chaos theory not so much to describe the reality of the phenomenon, but to offer a model of representation as a conceptual and meditative tool for analysts to use in their practice. The main hypothesis of this work is that the chimera arises from the intimate interplay of the respective de-integrates of the analyst and of the patient, thus constituting a genuine self in the transference. The author concludes with some implications for the analyst's own internal position.

Some Questions Raised by the Practice of Online Analysis1

“…I presented this work at the IAAP's Cape Town Congress in 2007 and it was published in this Journal in 2006and 2008(Martin-Vallas, 2006, 2008. It describes what I called the transferential chimera, that is to say a psychic neo-reality emerging from the encounter between the analyst and the analysand, a neo-reality that at once contains, represents and energizes the analytic process.…”

From end time to the time of the end: some reflections about the emergence of subjectivity

“…In fact, during all of those years, I had to accept being for André the mirror that reflected his un‐representable, un‐sufferable affects. I had to feel what he himself could not feel until the time when, within this in‐between space of the transference that, in the wake of Michel de M'Uzan (1994, 2008), I have called the transferential chimera (Martin‐Vallas 1998, 2006, 2008), a mirror would hang before both of us so that we could dismantle our shared fascination with the Gorgon.…”

The Therapeutic Relationship: Transference, Countertransference and the Making of of Meaning – By Jan Wiener

“…It is interesting that in Chapter 4 Wiener refers to a different reading of the Psychology of the Transference by François Martin‐Vallas (2006, 2008) but does not elaborate in detail. Martin‐Vallas has a different approach to the transference matrix.…”

“…Martin‐Vallas (2008) turns to the words of the text of Psychology of the Transference and constructs a model of a complex dialectic between the setting, the inside and outside directionality in the quaternio and the neo‐reality or transference chimera of the deintegrating aspects of patient and analyst. These are activated by the analytic encounter and the attempt to reach and articulate the unknown and unrepresentable aspects of psychic reality (p. 51).…”