Symposium

Dr. Feldman will describe the anxiety evoked in patients threatened by invasion or engulfment by objects on the one hand, and their fears of isolation and abandonment on the other. He will illustrate patients’ struggles to nd a tolerable distance in relation to their objects. The analyst has to cope with anxieties evoked by the patient’s projections and nd a therapeutic distance that enables thinking and clinical working.

Drs. Long and Wilson will consider the clinical implications of the claustro-agoraphobic dilemma, elaborate on the use of projective identication in these situations and the resultant impairments in the capacity for symbolic functioning. They will comment on Dr. Feldman’s clinical approach for patients struggling between engulfment and abandonment in relation to their therapist.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the clinical signicance of the claustro-agoraphobic dilemma
• Explain the emotional dialectic of isolation and abandonment vs. persecution and invasion
• Discuss a clinical approach for patients struggling with this dilemma to tolerate treatment