Enactments in the Analytic Situation

As an emergent concept in contemporary psychoanalytic theory, enactment refers to situations in which the patients transferential expectations in some way have been or appear to have been actualized in a way that involves the mutual contributions of both patient and analyst. This study focuses on five analysts identifications, experiences, and understandings of one to two examples of enactments in their work. Focus is placed on both understanding how these enactments manifested as meaningful expressions of the patients issues and upon exploring the role potentially analysts themselves played in participating in and in the emergence of these situations. The results strongly suggest that enactments and their being worked through can be understood in terms corrective emotional experience and, thus, are integral to the mutative process and goals of analysis. The results also help elucidate the subtle complexities in form (both symbolic and real) and process enactments can take as well as demonstrate the degree of symmetry that exists in the mutual contributions to enactments.