«Theatres of the Body»

In his new book, Joyce McDougall, the eminent contemporary psychoanalyst, my teacher, friend and colleague, touches upon the earliest, primary relationship between the infant and the mother. Deep and often painful experiences remain in the soul of every person, and it is they that determine the further course of personality development.

The book is dedicated to the work of a psychoanalyst with those who suffer from the absence of affects in their lives, who cannot experience deep feelings and emotions. Helplessness, fear of loneliness, emptiness and disappearance, primitive anger — the feelings that a baby experiences if it does not find a response in the mother’s soul — become unbearable for him. These deadly emotions pose a real threat to the survival of the infant and are therefore thrown out of consciousness without the slightest mental processing. If you start to feel, you will die. Such experiences are not expressed in words — instead of the psyche, the body speaks here. This is how severe psychosomatic disorders arise.

The psychoanalyst in working with the patient is primarily interested in what can be expressed in words (dreams, associations, fantasies), and he may not feel the messages of the body of his interlocutor. As a result, the analysis runs the risk of reaching a dead end.

Joyce McDougall realized that psychosomatic patients send bodily messages to the analyst, just as a non-linguistic infant sends bodily messages to his mother. Through her feelings and emotions, McDougall gains new knowledge about what is happening to her patient, just as a mother feels what a baby needs.

Joyce McDougall titled her book Theaters of the Body. The word «theater» reflects her understanding of the inner, mental world of people, in which the characters play out various scenarios. McDougall is sure that there are many such internal theaters within us. And the task of the analyst is to help the patient to creatively transform, to play destructive emotions, in order, perhaps for the first time, to discover the sensual side of life.

The author draws the reader into the very depths of psychoanalytic work. It forces us to work through conflicts, experience disappointment, mental and physical pain, and then overcome these feelings and discover new meanings. In describing her work, McDougall is extremely sincere and open. She is not afraid to talk about her emotions, does not hide mistakes and failures, generously shares her experience. It tempts the reader with the unknown and the unconscious, fueling the desire to be determined and change yourself, your life. Go on an exciting and difficult journey — into the depths of your «I».

Author: Joyce McDougall Honorary member of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society. He is the author of five books, three of which were published in Russian translation: Eros with a Thousand Faces (VEIP, 1999), Soul Theater (VEIP, 2002) and Body Theaters (Cogito Center, 2006).