Enactments in the Analytic Situation: a Focused Study of Five Analysts' Identification Andexperience of Enactment and the Role They Played

As an emergent concept in contemporary psychoanalytictheory, enactment refers to situations in which thepatient's transferential expectations in some wayhave been or appear to have been actualized in a waythat involves the mutual contributions of bothpatient and analyst. This study focuses on fiveanalysts' identifications, experiences, andunderstandings of one to two examples of enactmentsin their work. Focus is placed on both understandinghow these enactments manifested as meaningfulexpressions of the patients' issues and uponexploring the role potentially analysts themselvesplayed in participating in and in the emergence ofthese situations. The results strongly suggest thatenactments and their being worked through can beunderstood in terms 'corrective emotional experience' and, thus, are integral to the mutative process andgoals of analysis. The results also help elucidatethe subtle complexities in form (both symbolic andreal) and process enactments can take as well asdemonstrate the degree of symmetry that exists in themutual contributions to enactments.