Self Creation

3 The Therapist's Vision of the Patient

We have seen the importance of potential space in therapeutic action and the shift in the concept of temporality to which it leads. As we observed in the case of Helen, when the analytic field becomes potential space, the therapist needs to view the field from the perspective of the future-perfect tense, defining the space by what it may be. Such a concept implies that the therapist possesses a vision of the patient's potential, a sense of where the patient may be able to go. Although perspectives on therapeutic action differ among theoretical schools, any therapist who aims to nurture undeveloped potential must ponder a vision of who the patient can become. From the classical perspective, mental excavation ...