This paper examines the use made of the transitional object in order to construct a coherent sense of self. Examples are cited from both Freud's and Winnicott's work about the use of an object to manage separations and extend a sense of self. Then some current case material is presented to make sense of the meaning of a patient's strong attachment to a negative transitional object in childhood. Its influence on her current state of mind and relationships is explored. A theoretical term, ‘the existential object’, is introduced to make sense of her use of objects. Contemporary thinking about the loss of the mother in early childhood and its influence on the sense of self is explored with reference to Andre Green's work, which is then related to Freud's and Winnicott's earlier thinking on the subject.

This paper attempts to understand the interpersonal nature of bodily experience. It explores the way the body symptoms we meet in the consulting room, and in everyday life, express and communicate disturbances in our relationships with others. The article seeks to understand how others that are close to us can really get under our skins. The work of the philosopher of the body, MerleauPonty, findings from contemporary developmental psychology, recent psycho-biological studies and psychoanalytic insights are all drawn upon as a way of offering an introduction to contemporary developments in thinking and research on the body. The article explores the interdependence of body and environment. In particular, the body is always in an interpersonal context with others. Bodies are interdependent; communication is first and foremost bodily. Bodily behaviour and biological functions develop in the context of a relationship. The relationship with the other influences the formation of bodily processes and actions. Clinical examples are drawn upon to illustrate how interpersonal disturbances in development are expressed in bodily symptoms. The difference between a hysterical and psychosomatic body symptom is also briefly addressed.

This paper considers participation in exercise activities as a form of ‘self-handling’. The focus is on individual exercise rather than on activities, such as those involved in some sports and martial arts, which involve pair or group interaction. The author suggests that the way in which physical activity is used, abused, or avoided in adult life is linked to the quality of primary relationships and in particular to childhood experiences of handling (Winnicott 1962a, 1970). She suggests that exercise evokes ‘memories-in-feeling’ (Klein 1957) of early experiences of handling and is thus essentially object related. A number of different psychic functions of exercise are considered in relation both to theory, particularly Winnicottian theory, and to clinical material. As we are all aware, not everything a client does in the external world is raised for consideration in the context of the therapeutic relationship. The author reflects on the need to consider the meaning of the client's introduction of the subject of exercise into the therapeutic discourse, as well as the meaning of the physical activity itself.

Therapeutic beginnings, endings and outcome are discussed in relation to brief, time-limited and long-term psychodynamic counselling work, and are compared and contrasted in terms of the specific tasks and techniques needed for each of these therapeutic modes. It is shown how beginnings determine the end and how important it is at assessment which mode is chosen for clients. A description is given of how the time-limited practitioner, who pursues a modest, focused goal, uses planned endings as a valuable tool, while the long-term open-ended counsellor grapples with problems of when to end and how much is enough, with difficult notions of dependence which complicate the issue of termination and with the participant's universal wish to have a perfect ending. Finally, there is an attempt at discussing post-termination issues of outcome, evaluation and research which focus on questions of what works, who needs what, and which treatment is best for whom, while still seeking valid measures for defining improvement, establishing psychic change and long-lasting effects, and for ensuring reliable standards of evidence-based practice.

What lessons for psychotherapy can be drawn from the enjoyment and sustenance we find in the use of literature? This paper looks back on a recent creative writing project undertaken with patients in a hospice day centre, and suggested reasons why the patients found this activity not only enjoyable but also therapeutic. Both the hospice as an institution and the poetic form are defined in terms of a transitional space. The article shows how the act of reading and writing poetry places a value for patients on not knowing at a time when the plain hard facts of terminal illness loom large. The author describes a practical way of engaging with poetry in this context, and uses clinical material to describe how the literary arts can provide a transformational object, and a point of inspiration, that may help patients to negotiate the changes brought about by their illness.

This paper identifies the fear of attending to and engaging with the patient's body and the therapist's body, regardless of therapeutic orientation, as a topic rarely explored in books and articles but pervasively experienced because of the cultural norms brought to the consulting room. It explores how we might name the constituent parts of this fear and describes how they inter-link. A case study then exemplifies learning about and transforming such fear in both patient and therapist. Finally, the paper offers suggestions of how therapists might increase their awareness and turn this fear into a tool which extends their range of skills.

In 1926, Jung 'stumbled' upon alchemy and saw 'that analytic psychology coincided in a most curious way with alchemy'. After two decades of study, he published The Psychology of the Transference in which he connects the transferential relationship in psychotherapy with a sixteenth-century alchemical 'opus' called the Rosarium Philosophorum . This paper explores the psychology of the Rosarium using two non-Jungian approaches - Fairbairn's theory of object relations and Clarkson's model of the therapeutic relationship. Following a short review of these approaches, the Rosarium is discussed, step by step, to determine whether and to what extent the story illustrated in this philosophical text can be considered to be a general description of a relational theory of personality development and integration. There appear to be a remarkable number of similarities in the Rosarium and the psychologies of Fairbairn and Clarkson. As Jung wrote about his Psychology of the Transference , 'this venture must be regarded as a mere experiment' but this exploration of the Rosarium , using two different contemporary psychology narratives, represents an 'adventure' that might go some way to confirming Jung's view that the Rosarium Philosophorum is a symbolic representation of the archetype of relationship and a manifestation of a universal relational psychology.