Mutuality: Clinical and Metapsychological Potentials of a Failed Experiment

Ferenczi's experiments with mutual analysis are often dismissed, without acknowledging the results obtained from them and his own cautionary remarks about their limits. Though ultimately failed, Ferenczi's experiments with mutual analysis were a source of clinical and metapsychological knowledge, despite the fact that he was unable to elaborate them in his lifetime. In this paper I connect mutuality to the development of the psyche, especially to the constitutive core of the intrapsychic. To understand the latter, it is necessary to take into account, among others, issues such as the common attribute, the mutual flux between the unconsciouses, the dialogue of unconsciouses, the maternal profundity, the primal relationship with the mother, and, above all, the primal unity between mother and child, which are fundamental for the emergence and development of the primary psychic forces. Incidences of rupture, distortion of the core of mutuality in the psychic life, its loss and disadjustment, by means of external traumatizing forces, and some clinical implications are described.