2024 11 29T1449

The journey from containment to self-containment.

Caper:

If the container is identified with in the spirit of hatred and envy, then dependence on the hated object will be perpetuated. True independence from the container--self-containment--is the product of a relationship, based on love and gratitude, with a separate object, which implies a recognition of difference.

Steiner, from On Seeing and being Seen:

[In containment] relief from anxiety comes from a sense of being understood by the analyst, and it relies on the analyst's authority. However, understanding has to arise from within. It depends on the capacity to think and judge for oneself, and to achieve it the patient must give up his dependence on the views and judgments of authority figures, including the analyst.

Relinquishing this independence ushers in.... a movement towards independence and towards facing the pain of the mourning process. In this phase the reality of dependence on the object must first be acknowledged and the reality of the loss of the object must then be faced in order that mourning is worked through. Both are often vehemently resisted. (Emphasis mine)

Having a sense of being understood is not at all the same thing as understanding for oneself. Self-containment is in part a capacity to understand oneself in a way that relieves one's own anxiety, and in this way it involves thinking for oneself. This implies that being unable to think for oneself makes one dependent on others, who do their thinking for them. Further, people often vehemently resist thinking for themselves, being unable to acknowledge their dependence on the object: their fantastic representation of the external object--the authority figure who is the object of their dependence.

Tags: Containment [[psychology]]