title: The body emerging from the "neverland" of nothingness.
abstract: The author considers sensory perceptions arising from the body to be the first expressions of self-consciousness and mental existence in patients who are overwhelmed by a dimensionless abyss of nothingness. This perspective can help the analyst in catalyzing the patient's integration with his deepest levels of mental functioning. Clinical material from the four-session-per-week analysis of a psychotic patient is discussed. To this analysis and, finding the body meant finding "the land that never was," a "land" that could begin to exist in analysis thanks to a relational working through within the analytic couple.
authors.affiliation: Italian Psychoanalytic Society. dr.riccardolombardi@libero.it
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lombardi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003243:Consciousness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D014167:Transference, Psychology