We explore transference issues of silence and non-verbal communication in the psychotherapy of an 11-year-old child. When the silence of the analyst encounters that of the patient, the analytic process aimed at creating a secret recipient may pass through non-verbal motricity, so that facial expressions, physical posture, the whole undefinable gamut of the patient’s expressions, will step in to shore up verbal motricity that is lacking.
Adolescence, 2025, 43, 1, 23-33.
This paper presents the psychoanalysis of a fourteen year-old girl, who had experienced a lack of containing from early in her life. In the beginning of the analysis she was superficially verbal, but gradually she regressed and slept most of the time during the sessions. Sometimes she would suddenly wake up very scared and look at me as if I were a monster, but when she saw that it was me she would fall asleep again. This went on for over a year, and it was reported that she had fewer problems outside the session. Gradually she became more verbal, speaking with a soft voice, more in touch with her inner emotions.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°1, pp. 11-27.