This paper is a further exploration of emotional connection between psychoanalyst and patient. Moments of silence, in particular, can be experiences of shared intimacy, each participant aware that the other knows who they are. Using relational concepts described by Donnel Stern and integrating them with Susanne Langer's observations about the wordless relationship between the musical performer and listener allows one to describe the processes of creative expression and creative experience as they appear to function within the psychoanalytic dyad around these moments of intimate silence. If, as Stern suggests, the words spoken by the analyst are often an acknowledgment that a shift has occurred in the interpersonal field, then perhaps the ensuing moments of silence are the opportunity for analyst and patient to jointly experience this altered configuration.
This paper considers how a contemporary lateral model of psychoanalytic supervision may be well suited to facilitate a context of what we call associative awareness, in order to examine the shifting, changing, and ever-present impact of socio-cultural identities in dyadic context (and beyond). We provide real time process of our collaboration in supervision as we worked together to come to experience dissociatively held affects related to our own intersectional socio-cultural identities, brought into the foreground through the encounter; and we situate this process and struggle within the origin story of the dissociation of culture from the discipline of psychoanalysis.
