The Self as a Process of Transformation

Abstract

The present article conceives the self as a perpetual flowing process. The self is best illustrated by comparison to a flowing river that whoever dips in would experience as different at any given point in time. It may, at the same time, be observed from above—not only from within the water. Psychoanalysis as a flowing process is illustrated through a clinical example of a self who is “stuck” and the work accomplished by analyst and patient together to renew motion. The presentation focuses on the moments of intervention on the part of the analyst as exemplifying the point in time of reviving the process. These moments are open to diverse interpretations to which varied psychoanalytical schools contribute. The variety of interpretations of the analyst’s interventions and the patient’s responses, as well as of the factors that contribute to the transformation of the self, corresponds to the concept of the self and of psychoanalysis itself as multifaceted processes.