OF CREATURES LARGE AND SMALL - SIZE ANXIETY, PSYCHIC SIZE, SHAME, ANDTHE ANALYTIC SITUATION

The author investigates what he terms ''size anxiety'' and ''psychic s ize.'' Psychic size is composed of experiences of smallness and largen ess with respect to parental figures,fantasies of being large or small , and the meanings of such experiences and fantasies in specific two-p erson situations. Size anxiety includes the anxiety about being a part icular size with respect to a significant other (real or fantasized). Drawing on Gulliver's Travels and on Ferenczi's paper on Gulliver fant asies, the author discusses how experiences of psychic size, rivalry, and shame provide important analytic material. Dreams and clinical vig nettes illustrate the thesis.