| Rivista | La Rivista di Psicoanalisi |
| Fascicolo | The Italian Psychoanalytic Annual 2025/19 |
| Titolo | Playing and language in the potential space of the analytic pair |
| Autore | Giuseppe D'Agostino |
| Editore | Raffaello Cortina Editore |
| Formato |
 Articolo |
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| Pagine | |
| Lingua | inglese |
| Online da | 10-2026 |
This paper, which focuses on the aesthetic function of the analyst’s language, draws on Winnicott’s concepts of playing and potential space to explore the experience of intersubjective emotional sharing that may arise in the extra-ordinary verbal exchange within the analytic pair. Through three clinical fragments, the paper develops the idea that the analyst’s linguistic playing, when it occurs, concerns the dimension of potential space and, therefore, the creation of new symbolic content belonging to the intersubjective field. The analyst’s linguistic playing is presented here as an experience of the vitality and creativity of the unconscious, lived and experienced by the analytic pair.
KEY WORDS: Analytic field, aesthetic function, language game, intersubjectivity, language, metacommunication, paradox, playing, potential space.
