Between Symbiosis and Separateness: A New Psychic Space

Togetherness, although it constitutes an extremely close encounter between partners, remains capable of preserving the separateness of its constituent elements, and may even regulate the degree of cohesion and the degree of distinctness within the partnership. Such an encounter occurs between mother and infant and may give rise to a kind of 'mental space' between them, from which triadic object relations may also emerge. A dynamic process of this kind can preserve the initial narcissism. By contrast, symbiosis constitutes a pathological, bilateral process.