Bipolar Dynamics of Vitality

Abstract The author reflects on the ideologies of cure underlying many clinical interventions, especially psychiatric ones, in which in the treatment of mental disorders, aspects of normalization and control seem to prevail over those aimed at supporting and integrating the patient’s subjectivity and vitality. Drawing on contributions from psychoanalysis and transactional analysis as well as classic and contemporary philosophy and some neuropsychological studies, the author discusses the transformative potential of vitality. She argues that it develops through bipolar dynamics and that personal balance continuously sways between opposite polarities: enchantment and disillusionment, pleasure and safety, novelty seeking and harm avoidance. She underscores that the more intensely a person lives, the easier it is for their mood to swing between two extremes. A fundamental clinical task is to accept patients’ unpredictability, welcome their vitality, and harness it as a valuable resource in the therapeutic relationship rather than confusing it with mania.