Metaphoric Process and Metaphor: The Dialectics of Shared Analytic Experience

Metaphoric processes and verbal metaphors in analysis are at the service of self-objectification and activation of past affective experiences in the context of the transference. The process of working through benefits from metaphorical processes capable of integrating in concise verbalizations and complex somatic and sensory experiences past and present dynamically analogical affective experiences while opening up new affective moments with the analyst. The elaboration of the metaphors facilitates psychic transformation and leads to new metaphorical versions of who the patient is in relation to his past and present, himself and others.