Psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, member of Psike Istanbul and International Psychoanalysis Association (IPA). Completed his medical education at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine. Completed his psychiatry specialization at Erenköy Mental Health and Diseases Hospital. Works in private practice.
The Silent Room:
On the “pleasure of waiting” and the “blessings of silence” as a state of passivity
Michel Fain emphasizes that primary masochism (Freud, 1924) is a part of normal psychic development. When the baby’s experience of passivity while waiting for its mother in a state of basic helplessness (Hilflosigkeit) (Freud, 1918) turns into an indefinite and nameless terror (Bion, 1924), irreparable traumas may occur. The passive position ceases to be psychically investable. Is it possible for the baby to derive pleasure from its experience during the waiting period that ends with the arrival of its mother? If there is a passivity that can be invested thanks to primary masochism, which is possible with the psychic work and care of the mother, and thus can the development of a waiting capacity that makes integration possible be paved the way? If the mother arrives and picks up her baby and the waiting is over and the time is not prolonged, the baby finds the breast exactly where it is looking for it, at exactly the right moment. This experience of being at one with the baby’s primary object corresponds to the experience of the analyst empathically understanding the analysand’s inner mental experiences in the session. Within the analytical field, an analyst seeks ways to mentally access the analysand’s inner experiences. For the “analysand, the experience of being understood empathically opens the way for the “being at one with” experience that will enable the unintegrated self-parts to be included in the integrated self-part and thus for the psychic integration of the analysand in regression. For the analysand, the experience of “being at one with” can be possible at the moment when the analyst is silent, as well as when the analyst speaks. In this case, the adjustment of the balance of the analyst’s silence and voice with its timing and duration comes to the fore as the basic element of the analytical function. The experience of pleasure/displeasure evoked by waiting in the analyst’s psyche becomes a determining factor. In this presentation, all these processes operating at a deep psychic level will be discussed in the light of the analyst’s primary masochism, passivity, the feminine position based on receptivity, and mainly through the contributions of Winnicottian metapsychology and related theorists.