What challenges face the patient and analyst in constructing the analytic space? How can the analyst navigate the interplay of intense emotional dynamics to enable meaningful transformation?

In this article, titled "The Analyst and the Patient: Building a Space for Thinking", Alberto Carrión García de Parada,  delves into the intricate process of building a shared analytic space. Drawing on his extensive experience in child and adolescent psychoanalysis and parent-infant psychotherapy, he examines the dynamic interplay of transference and countertransference, highlighting the analyst's active role in containing disturbing emotional and mental content.

Integrating classical theories with contemporary developments, the article references key figures such as Wilfred Bion and León Grinberg to explore the evolution of the analytic process through shared emotional "storms" and the gradual dismantling of initial patient resistances. By emphasizing the importance of the analyst's reverie and countertransference awareness, the article underscores how the analytic setting can serve as a transformative framework for emotional containment and psychic development.    

Alberto Carrión García de Parada is a Clinical Psychologist and Training Psychoanalyst of the Madrid Psychoanalytical Association (APM). He is also a child and adolescent psychoanalyst, and has a special interest in parent-infant psychotherapy. He has directed the children and adolescents Department and is currently president of the APM.

He participates as a lecturer in an annual cycle on cinema and psychoanalysis organised by the Colegio Mayor Isabel de España. He has given many lectures in psychoanalytic forums and is the author of several articles in the journal of psychoanalysis of the APM as well as in other psychoanalytic psychotherapy journals. Some of these articles are:

The role of the psychotherapist in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children and adolescents (2008). From play to sport (2012). The child psychoanalyst. Transformations in the mother-baby bond (2018). Frame and reverie (2020).

Other articles written in collaboration with several authors:

Adolescence and melancholic functioning (2010). Enuresis: a manifestation of childhood regression (2011). 

He has participated in the book Interrogated Parentality, edited by the APM (2020).

A subtitled version of this podcast is available on our YouTube channel:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhxiwE76e0QaOquX3GujdwNLFsgxUQNXz&si=yf381EDu3pess6Yz

This episode has also been published in Spanish.

This Podcast Series, published by the International Psychoanalytical Association, is part of the activities of the IPA Communication Committee and is produced by the IPA Podcast Editorial Team.

Co-Editors: Gaetano Pellegrini and Nicolle Zapien. This episode has been produced in collaboration with Ana Maria Martin Solar.

Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri.