Trauma, reverie, and the field

The author uses a clinical vignette to demonstrate complex concepts at work--concepts such as those derived from a productive grafting of Bion's thinking onto the concept of the psychoanalytic field. The underlying theory is narrated by the use of images, which the author finds to be the most appropriate way to demonstrate this theory at work--a theory of the mind based on the concept of digestibility of emotions, as well as the progressive introjection of instruments to render such an operation possible. Key points include the waking dream thought, the analyst's reverie, unsaturated interpretations, continual re-dreaming on the content of the session as permitted by the field, and the development of the ability to metabolize emotional contents.