Clinical Paper by Heinz Weiss: Claustro-Agoraphobia. The Impact of Concrete Thinking on the Analyst’s Internal Space

ABOUT

In this paper the author refers to the claustro-agoraphobic dilemma as described by Henry Rey, Donald Meltzer and others. Presenting detailed clinical material from a borderline patient, he emphasises the role of concrete thinking in claustro-agoraphobia and its impact on the analyst’s internal space. He explores the role of the analyst’s counter-transference and argues that a transition from concrete to symbolic thinking and together with it the construction of a three-dimensional mental space is only possible when reparative processes emerge.

Heinz Weiss, M.D., is the Head of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart. He is also the head of the Medical Division and member of the directorate of the Sigmund-Freud Institute, Frankfurt/Main, and Chair of the Education Section of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Amongst many publications he is the author of the book “Trauma, Guilt and Reparation: the Way from Impasse to Development'' (Routlege 2020) and more recently, co-edited with Susan Finkelstein, “The Claustro-Agoraphobic Dilemma in Psyhcoanalysis: Fear of Madness” (Routledge 2022/2023).

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