ENACTMENT - WHEN THE PATIENTS AND ANALYSTS PASTS CONVERGE

As the emphasis on analytic treatment as a relationship continues to g row, all aspects of mutuality are being examined. Although much has be en said regarding the analyst's emotional responses to the patient, en actment has been seen as a re-creation of some past event in the patie nt's life. Perhaps because of the threatening nature of the concept, a nalysts have not:paid attention to the potential for recreating their pasts, sometimes in symmetry with the patient, at other times as an ac t of countertransference dominance that disrupts the treatment and may traumatize the patient. This article focuses on enactment as an inevi table mutual event beginning with mutual projective identification, fo llowed by mutual, unplanned behavior,and culminating in a mutual sense of puzzlement and a certain sense of being emotionally out of control . The dangers of enactment are discussed, as well as its therapeutic u ses.