CONTAINERS, MENTAL SPACE AND PSYCHODYNAMICS

The concept of the container has a place within cognitive science as w ell as within psychodynamic theories. Cognitive semantics has shown th at many metaphors giving meaning to daily life-events use the containe r as a basic reference point. Psychoanalytic theory, most notably, Fre ud's psychosexual developmental model, illustrates how the container o f the body results in meaning. Object relations theory in psychoanalys is has shown how patients with borderline personality disorder behave according to the dynamics of container and containment. Both the cogni tive and the psychodynamic conceptions of containers are clinically re levant. The fundamental notion of the container leads to an exploratio n of container dynamics' both in cognitive semantics and in psychodyna mic work. A model of the cusp may be of help in the description of the dynamics at the border of the container. Furthermore, the description s of the patient's communication of emotion and thoughts may involve t hree interacting dimensions: an effective-perceptual dimension, a phan tasy dimension and a socio-interactive dimension. The interaction betw een these dimensions has implications for dealing with container dynam ics and the process of containment.