Psychoanalysis.  2023 Jul;34(3):43-53. 10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.3.43.

Space and the Unconscious - Focusing on a Case Admitted to Closed Ward^a

• Lee HK
• Kim MG
• Yoon HR

• KMID: 2545035
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.3.43

Abstract

This thesis presents clinical basis for Freud’s brief thought for outer space - the projection of an extension of a psychical apparatus (A case is a conversion disorder patiet admitted to a closed ward). The environment of the closed ward caused rapid regression. As a result, unconscious contents were projected into the space. Projectiles floating in the closed space were attached to suit-able targets-transference-and the space was changed to a transition period. In early projections, the position of ego was weak due to a strong combination of the id and the harsh superego. However, the ego was expanded through a long therapeutic process. These changes were found in the reduction of A’s conversion symptoms, the subjective pressure of the space, and the change in color selection for the space. The insight that the ‘space surrounding an individual’ exists as unconscious memories, fantasies, and psychological structures will present an important perspective in clinical practice of psychoanalysis and various humanities related to space.

Keyword

The unconscious; Space; Psychoanalysis