Under the Gun of Countertransference: A Discussion of Laura D’Angelo’s “The Loaded Chamber”

Abstract

What should we do when a patient brings a loaded gun into a session? In a relational psychoanalytic paradigm, it’s impossible to know in advance what the response to a moment of such intense pressure might be. An analyst’s ability to respond quickly, in a way that facilitates change, depends on adhering to asymmetrical aspects of psychoanalytic ritual while simultaneously holding that adherence dialectically with spontaneous personal participation. Deviations from ritualized aspects of the frame in the form of spontaneous gestures are what afford improvisations their special charge; how analysts make use of their countertransference can, therefore, be the key to an enactment’s potential. This paper discusses how Laura D’Angelo’s spontaneous decision to initiate an improvisation communicated her willingness to extend herself “beyond the call of duty.” In this example, the most significant aspect of the improvisation may not be so much what was being improvised as who was initiating the improvising.

Keywords:

• Asymmetry
• countertransference
• enactment
• improvisation
• spontaneity

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Having been trained as an MD-psychiatrist, I feel comfortable using the term “patient” to describe those with whom I work—just like any other physician. Please feel free to replace “patient” with “client” or any other term of choice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hilary Offman

Hilary Offman, MD, FRCPC, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in Toronto, Canada. She is a lecturer and supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, with hospital appointments at the University Health Network and St. Michael’s Hospital. She is a supervising analyst, faculty and Board member for the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (TICP). She is the former co-chair of the Candidates Committee for the International Association of Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (IARPP) and a current member of the IARRP Board of Directors, where she chairs the International Membership Outreach Committee. Her writing interests include themes of otherness, queerness, and fatness. Her papers are used to teach about working psychoanalytically with patients who identify as non-binary.