A relational psychoanalysis: The real presence of the analyst

The Argentine psychoanalyst Julio Moreno (Citation2010) theorizes two models of psychic functioning. One he calls associative functioning, which is composed of mental representations and words that link together in association, integrating both the conscious and preconscious. These representations are subject to repression and phenomena of displacement and condensation. The other type of psychic functioning is what Moreno refers to as connective functioning, which is represented by the immanent, the immediate, which falls outside the order of representation. These two types of psychic processing coexist and occur simultaneously and, for Julio Moreno, "the link" is the space between the two. This work intends to explore the linking dimension that an analytic relationship proposes and that is established in each analytic session in the patient–therapist pair. For this purpose, a clinical case is shown, describing the bonding climate, the analyst's countertransference and the mutual unconscious work. It emphasizes that, in severely ill patients, the quality of the bond is more crucial than interpretative work, and for this, the live and real presence of the analyst is necessary.