the embodied self: movement and psychoanalysis

By integrating principles from her background as a movement psychotherapist and movement analyst with key concepts from contemporary psychoanalysis, the author offers a new perspective on exploring the interrelationships between nonverbal and verbal “articulation” in any therapy setting.

The author starts by presenting theory from both disciplines, showing how the two perspectives can be “embodied” within a mutually supportive framework. She then applies a synthesis of movement analysis and psychoanalysis to several vivid psychoanalytic observational studies of infants and young children, with an in-depth focus on preverbal/nonverbal communication via the language of movement. The author then describes her clinical work with three adults, illustrating how the kinds of primitive psychophysical patterns highlighted in the observational studies are seen to underlie current issues her patients face in movement psychotherapy.

The book aims to provide a practical and experiential working model for developing therapists’ “embodied attentiveness,” which will enhance their recognition of the sensori-affective manifestations of transference and counter-transference. It will inform the work of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, dance movement therapists, and body psychotherapists, as well as those involved in psychoanalytic observational studies. It will also be of interest to anyone interested in exploring the interrelationships between the psyche and the body.