Primitive Bodily Communications in Psychotherapy: Embodied Expressions of a Disembodied Psyche

(Paperback)

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Every psychotherapist will be familiar with what it means to experience the hatred and despair of their most vulnerable patients in the midst of a psychotherapy session. Most often these patients will manage to express their feelings verbally, but what about those who never developed the capacity to speak Or those who are capable of talking, but carry a complex range of unprocessed embodied feelings that cannot be verbally expressed Some patients must rely on another type of language in order to communicate their dissociative states of mind.

Primitive Bodily Communications explores how the talking cure can still work when words fail and the body talks. Non-verbal communication can be thought of as a form of body language and, even though this is a topic not frequently discussed, many practitioners have experienced working with people who communicate through the use of their bodies. The book does not refer to bodily communications as primitive because we see them as inferior to verbal language, but simply because they point to the beginnings of psychological development, to primary ways of being and relating, as well as to enduring aspects of ourselves.

The contributors explore the topic of primitive bodily communications in the context of intellectual disability, eating disorders and bodily neglect, focusing on the communicative aspect of bodily expressions within the therapeutic relationship. A wide spectrum of clinical cases illustrates how these patients can reach a state of better physical and emotional containment and, when possible, of verbal communication.

Reviews

[A] brilliant new collection . . . crisp, compelling writing
that is broad and timely in scope.

-
Dr.
Steven Kuchuck, author of The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and
Psychotherapy and Past President, International Association for Relational
Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP)

These highly skilled psychotherapists give us a remarkable
insight into how these complex communications can be received and understood in
the consulting room.

-
Graeme
Galton, Consultant Psychotherapist, Clinic for Dissociative Studies

This enlightening book dares to tell the stories of patients
often avoided or neglected by psychotherapists . . . It will be invaluable to
experienced mental health professionals and trainees alike, as diverse
psychoanalytic approaches are combined to offer a vivid and deeply moving
picture of the treatments of those shamefully forgotten by so many and from
whom we can learn so much.

-
Dr
Carine Minne, Consultant Psychiatrist in Forensic Psychotherapy

Author Bio

Raffaella Hilty M.A. (Phil) is an attachment-based psychoanalytic psychotherapist with The Bowlby Centre. She has worked as an Honorary Psychotherapist within the NHS for a number of years, and she now works in private practice in London.