On the Belatedness of Psychoanalytic Clinical Writing

Abstract

The belatedness of analytic writing and its effects on analytic processes are explored through the concepts of nachträglichkeit and thirdness. The temporal gap between being with and writing about functions as a meaningful pause filled with opportunities for investigating unconscious pathways to the analyst’s countertransference. The significance of analytic narration in affecting specific psychoanalytic developments is explored. The theoretical framework utilizes the concept of après coup, which brings to light new meanings in an afterwardness of time. Aspects of analytical writing dynamics are discussed as equivalent to those of nachträglichkeit. Analysts also deploy thirdness in constructing presentations of clinical material. This could be an intrapsychic third or an external figure representing an internal introjected third. A clinical vignette demonstrates the enhanced understanding achieved by writing. It specifically assisted in exploring the analyst’s enactment relating to change in the setting, the background for which was a move to online analysis. This evoked infantile anxieties and painful confusions about loss. Historically, the patient had to navigate a path through miasmic ambiguities between reality and phantasy, truths and lies. A conclusion is reached, arguing that analytic processes extend beyond the duration of sessions, and that the processes of clinical writing can provide a significant contribution.

Keywords:

• Analytic writing
• belatedness
• thirdness
• unconscious pathways
• nachträglichkeit
• enactment
• caesura
• online analysis
• analytic setting

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara Collins

Sara Collins is a Training and Supervising analyst at the British Psychoanalytic Association in London and its former Director of Training. She is a Board member of the Psychoanalytic Quarterly and the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Book Review Editor of the IJP.