Vertigo and object relationship.

Vertigo appeared to me in analysis to be an expression of separation anxiety; we can observe the vicissitudes of the object relationship by way of the development of this symptom in the treatment. I identify different forms of vertigo according to the particular stage reached by the patient, from fusion-related vertigo via vertigo about being dropped, vertigo associated with aspiration, vertigo connected with the alternation of prison and escape and vertigo related to the attraction of the void, to competition-related vertigo which appears in an oedipal context. They correspond to different moments in the constitution of relational space: first, the two-dimensional world in which even the void is inconceivable; then, the sensation of the void manifesting a disavowal of the absence of relationship; next, the constitution of a three-dimensional space in which the patient initially feels carried by the object but then discovers that he can carry himself; and, finally, the constitution of the internal space which allows internalization of the feeling of 'buoyancy'.