LaMothe Ryan
Saint Meinard School of Theology, 200 Hill Drive, St. Meinard, IN 47577, USA.
Am J Psychoanal. 2008 Dec;68(4):360-78. doi: 10.1057/ajp.2008.29.
In this paper, I use the notion of alterity to amend Winnicott's view of potential space. I suggest that the parent's potential space--omnipotent recognition and treatment of the baby as person--makes possible the baby's belief in and experience of omnipotence, which is manifested in his/her omnipotent recognition and treatment of objects in terms of utility, pleasure, and function. This early manifestation of potential space gives way to recognition of objects as proto-persons, which accompanies the child's illusion that the (transitional) object recognizes him/her as a person. Here the child learns to surrender to the object's omnipotent constructions and, in these moments, there is a proto-communion--an illusory experience of mutual joining together as persons. This eventually gives way to a potential space wherein two or more people mutually and omnipotently construct and surrender to each other as persons, subordinating pleasure, function, and utility to the recognition of the Other as person. This depiction of potential space can serve as a framework for understanding the process of therapy as a struggle not simply of reality and illusion, but one of recognition and treatment of Others as persons and the possibility of communion and community.
在本文中，我运用他者性的概念来修正温尼科特的潜在空间观点。我认为，父母的潜在空间——将婴儿视为一个人进行全能的认可和对待——使婴儿对全能的信念和体验成为可能，这表现为他/她根据效用、愉悦和功能对客体进行全能的认可和对待。潜在空间的这种早期表现让位于将客体识别为原初之人，这伴随着儿童的幻想，即（过渡性）客体将他/她识别为一个人。在这里，儿童学会向客体的全能建构屈服，在这些时刻，存在着一种原初的交融——一种作为人相互联结在一起的虚幻体验。这最终让位于一个潜在空间，在其中两个或更多的人作为人相互且全能地建构并向彼此屈服，将愉悦、功能和效用置于将他者识别为人之下。对潜在空间的这种描述可以作为一个框架，用于理解治疗过程，它不仅仅是现实与幻想的斗争，更是将他者识别为人并进行对待以及交融和社群可能性的斗争。
