On Moving and Being Moved: Nonverbal Behavior in Clinical Practice

271 Pages·2001·19.19 MB·English

by  Frances La Barre

On Moving and Being Moved

On Moving and Being Moved
Nonverbal Behavior in
Clinical Practice
Frances La Barre
Copyright © 2001 by the Analytic Press, Inc.
The following materials are reprinted here by permission of the publisher:
Basic tension-flow patterns from The Role of Movement Patterns in Development, Vol.
2, by J. Kestenberg and K. M. Sossin, pp. 5,7-8, 11, Dance Notation Bureau Press,
1979.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted
in any way whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
First published by:
The Analytic Press, Inc.
101 West Street, Hillsdale, NJ 07642
This edition published 2012 by Routledge:
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue 27 Church Road
New York, NY 10017 Hove East Sussex BN3 2FA
Set in Palatino 10/12 by EVS Communications, Point Pleasant, NJ
Index by Leonard Rosenbaum, Washington, DC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
La Barre, Frances.
On Moving and Being Moved: non-verbal behavior in clinical practice / Frances
La Barre.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-88163-316-X
1. Psychodynamic psychotherapy. 2. Nonverbal communication.
3. Transference (Psychology) I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Nonverbal Communication-psychology. 2. Psychoanalytic
Therapy-methods. 3. Psychoanalytic Theory. 4. Transference (Psychology). WM
460.5.C5 L 113n 2001]
RC489.P72 L23 2001
616.89'14-dc21
00-038089
Dedicated to
my parents, Vera and Richard La Barre

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Parti The Choreography of Conversation 1
Chapter 1 Language and Nonverbal Behavior 3
Chapter 2 Talking and Acting 7
Chapter 3 Attunement 15
Chapter 4 Temperament, Interaction, and Self 25
Part II Psychoanalytic Theory: The Setting of the Unseen Scene 39
Chapter 5 The Body 41
Chapter 6 Interaction: The Patient's Action 63
Chapter 7 Interaction: The Analyst's Action 75
Part III The Logic of Action: Studies of Nonverbal Behavior 97
Chapter 8 The Intrinsic-Meaning Position 99
Chapter 9 The Cultural School 117
Chapter 10 The School of Practical Analysis 141
Chapter 11 Toward Complementarity 165
vii
viii Contents
Part IV The Logic of Action in the Clinical Setting 171
Chapter 12 The Matching and Clashing of Temperament 173
Chapter 13 "Drive" as an Aspect of Interaction 195
Chapter 14 Body Attitude and Countertransferential
Experience 207
Chapter 15 The Interactive Effect and Meaning of
Speech Rhythms 219
Conclusion 233
References 237
Index 247
Acknowledgments
T he idea for this book sprang from my recognition that two profes
sional worlds I have lived in, dance and psychoanalysis, had been
integrated in my work as an analyst, but their connection not yet
articulated. Further, their integration had helped me approach the increas
ingly diverse field of psychoanalysis itself as full of complementary rather
than contradictory schools of thought. As a result, I am indebted to an
unusually wide range of teachers and colleagues who have helped nurture
this work.
Teachers and helpers in the dance/movement world showed me how
to live the nonverbal more fully: Katya Delakova, June Ekman, Anna
Halprin, Moshe Feldenkrais, Paula Mason, Fanya DelBourgo, and staff
members at the Laban Institute for Movement Studies.
Bridging two worlds, Dr. Judith Kestenberg, Dr. Mark Sossin, and Susan
Loman, D.T.R., taught me how to understand and administer the Kestenberg
Movement Profile. I am very grateful to Mark Sossin and the late Judith
Kestenberg for their permission to reprint the tension-flow illustrations.
My patients have been unwitting, as well as witting, and wonderful
teachers as they pressed me to understand better and held on while I tried
to learn their ways of being and speaking.
Several colleagues read the first version of the book and encouraged
its further development: Dr. Frank Reissman, Dr. Kathryn Rees, Dr. Mildred
Schwartz, Dr. Stuart Marcus, Dr. Phyllis Urman-Klein, Dr. Elizabeth
Minnich, Mrs. Margaret Rustin, Dr. Emmanuel Kaftal, Dr. Donnel Stern,
and Dr. Michael Moskowitz.
I owe a special debt to Dr. Kathryn Rees, and Mrs. Margaret Rustin.
Kay has been an inspiring reader, easing my doubts and raising good ques
tions. Margaret generously guided me in the art of infant observation and
ix