Enactment, Classical and Relational Perspectives

Abstract At times unable to communicate through language, severely disturbed patients may enact situations with the analyst that symbolize their traumatic experiences. The psychoanalytic literature identifies this phenomenon as enactment. The concept of enactment has generated considerable controversy and discussion in both the classical and relational communities. Classicists focus discussion on the precise definition, relative legitimacy, usefulness and role of enactment. Relationists consider enactment central to the analytic process and focus on how best to utilize this process therapeutically. Much of the difference of opinion between classicists and relationists is generated by underlying philosophical divergence in their respective views of developmental theory, operation of the primary mechanism of defense, the structure of the unconscious, and the mechanism of cure.