I’m not Myself Today: Dialogues with Philip Bromberg

Abstract

Abstract The author illustrates how 35+ years of interaction with Philip Bromberg affected her clinical and theorical work. Some of the phenomena described include a woman’s experience of herself across the menstrual cycle, the vicissitudes of how sexual encounters are experienced and remembered, and “spectatoring”, i.e., watching oneself have sex as if it’s happening to another person. These phenomena are observed through the lens of dissociated self-states. This exploration ends with a verbatim account of an informal supervision with Bromberg and its impact on patient and analyst.