THERAPEUTIC ACTION - THE NEW OBJECT AND R EPRESENTATIONAL CHANGE

Herzog comments on the transformation of intrapsychic representations as it occurs through the vicissitudes of an interaction as well betwee n infant and parent in a developmental course as between patient and p sychoanalyst during psychoanalysis. The author illustrates by means of a child analytic case study that this change of representation depend s mainly on an open exchange between perception, memory, and represent ations. If this dynamic fluency is forestalled - a state which Herzog terms ''mimetic occlusion'' - an opening has to be regained in psychoa nalytic treatment. In child analyses an access for a representational reopening can be provided by playing. The author differentiates betwee n a ''displacement play mode'' in which intrapsychic conflicts are ext ernalized through the manipulation of symbolic objects, and ''interact ive enactment'', a play mode in which conflictual issues are negotiate d directly between patient and psychoanalyst. A mimetic reopening of t he representational world following an aporia can be reached according ly to the libidinous cathexes, the object relations, and the shape of the inner relationship of the self to the self of the other - the obje ct.