The Labyrinth of Possibility: A Therapeutic Factor in Analytical Practice

What exactly happens between the patient and the analyst when therapy is effective? Profoundly unsatisfied by the orthodox but vague explanation that “the therapeutic factor is the relationship”, the author Giorgio Tricarico explores a hypothesis that is able to comprehend many different methods of both therapy and analysis. Starting from his own clinical experience, Tricarico runs into the image of the classical labyrinth (Daidalon) and a deeper analysis of what this symbol implies, revealing it as a symbol of "Possibility". The worldwide presence in different cultures and ages of the labyrinth as such a symbol may indeed point to the existence of an element beyond it, whose activation in the relationship between patient and analyst could be a fundamental factor for psychic change. Different methods of cure, seen through the lenses of the hypothesis expressed, may share a common factor of transformation. With the help of clinical cases, the concept of "impossibility" in analysis is also explored. Situations in which every change seems to be impossible compel us to widen our concept of possibility and to return to its original meaning, far away from the omnipotent one the Western world blindly keeps repeating.