THE NONVERBAL DIMENSION IN PSYCHOANALYSIS - STATE AND ITS CLINICAL VICISSITUDES

The author focuses on state, a particular and continuing dimension of non-verbal expression which, though generally seen, heard or felt, oft en remains implicit. Basic, primal, reflecting psyche and soma woven t ogether state lies in a direct link with our earliest beginnings. Conv eying one's affect, the sense of one's body-of one's self-in relations hip to oneself and to the outer world, it influences and is influenced by the presence of the other. Thus, a change in state may be an early cue of the experiential effect of a perception, reflecting the impact of another's felt participation-including that other's state-the plac e from which we may truly find ourselves as participant-observers. Sta te illuminates our unceasing subjectivity. In ifs subtle manifestation , it offers an added 'royal road' to what is yet unconscious, opening vital pathways of psychic experience that might otherwise have remaine d unnoted Brought to collaborative and explicit focus, stare can be mu tually observed and enquiry as to its meaning undertaken. It can be ve rbalised and it can be analysed. Further, in sharpening our observance of nuances of data, attention to state will deepen consideration of t he nature of our analytic evidence. Clinical examples are offered in e laboration of these ideas.