Dr. Robert Fischel:
On Whales and Adventures Therein:
Loss as a Mutative Experience in Psychoanalytic Treatment
Discussant: Dr. Leonard Shengold

Summary

Literary and clinical material is presented illustrating the role of loss in emotional growth and change. Jonah's experience within the whale - an experience which leads to his eventual capacity to relinquish his harsh sense of justice - is compared to an analytic patient's efforts in working through an acute depressive experience which helped her understand and resolve long-standing characterlogic difficulties.

Within the whale and within the psychoanalytic situation, Jonah and the patient both experience depressive affect as they allow themselves to become aware of views of themselves that are no longer tenable. Jonah realizes he has lost his identity as a prophet who is responsible to God and his people. He then becomes more open to self-reflection which could lead to a loss or attenuation of his harsh sense of justice and to the addition of a sense of mercy and compassion. The patient lost her ideal view of her childhood as being "happy" as she relinquished her denial of childhood thoughts and feelings that included a sense of herself as damaged, angry, spiteful and hurtful. These fantasies and feelings had continued to interfere with her current, adult life until the emotional learning she experienced in her analysis significantly reduced their influence.

Pinocchio, too, is able to turn a loss into a gain: he relinquishes a particular identity - or, perhaps, a stage of childhood development characterized by a particular kind of drive and defense constellation - to become a more civilized, empathic and loving boy. Melville's Ahab, however, never overcomes his loss. He destroys himself and his crew.

Analysts are often surprised by our patients' responses to loss experienced both in and out of the analytic situation. Some patients do not benefit from the loss they experience in the abstinence and regression of the analytic situation. Others may benefit if their suffering is attenuated by interventions that are not restricted to interpretation. Still others need less or no attenuation for them to use the experience of loss as a stepping stone to significant growth and positive change.

An analyst needs compassion for his or her own clinical limitations to navigate these turbulent waters. Without such compassion, s/he may have more than the usual difficulty determining whether a patient requires a change in the treatment or whether such a change would prematurely interfere with gains the patient might achieve if the analytic situation were left intact.