Toward a Contemporary Squiggle Game: Erotic Transference Issues Between Adolescent and Analyst

This article suggests an adaptation of the squiggle game for use with adolescents. We consider the squiggles as a surface equivalent to the skin and as a space of carnal depth able to eroticize the transference between the adolescent and the analyst. In fact, the squiggle game opens the way for the elaboration of adolescent issues tied to the romantic encounter. Our propositions are in continuity with Winnicott’s hypotheses about the self, whose birth and subsequent integration depend on the relations between psyche and soma, insofar as the environment carries out its holding and handling functions. Indeed, the psyche may be described as an unconscious construction of the body, waiting to be explored and put into words. Thus, our propositions also relate to Stern’s work on the unformulated experience. In discussing our hypothesis, we present a case involving a 17-year-old adolescent boy and three squiggles.