“A commonly
encountered experience of both analyst and analysand is that of the void. It is
spoken about at different stages of therapy and refers to experiences that have
different origins. Sometimes the experience of the void is around a relatively limited
aspect of the psyche but at other times the void seems much more global and
threatens to engulf the entire personality; the whole individual psyche then
seems threatened by the possibility of dissolution into nothingness.
The void
experience may result from the early failure of external objects to meet the
needs of the developing ego, which leads to the sorts of primitive terrors that
Winnicott described, or it may result when the Self itself seems threatened
with annihilation, which may be more to do with a rupturing of the ego–Self
axis. In the first case the fear is of disintegration, whereas in the second
the experience is one of the living dead, as though the individual is cut off
from her life source. But more than that, the intrusion of the void into the conscious
experience of so many of us implies that its occurrence is not only the result
of severe trauma but also a necessary aspect of the individuation process.
Drawing on the
writings of Jung and post-Jungians, and psychoanalytic thinkers such as Bion, Winnicott,
and Bick, as well as on poetry, mythology, and art, and illustrating these
ideas with dreams and other material drawn from my practice, I hereby attempt to
illuminate some of the compartments of this immense space. As Estragon comments,
in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot,
“there is no lack of void”, and this book looks at the genesis of this state in
the individual in both its pathological and life-enhancing aspects.
In certain of the
void states, particularly those arising from severe trauma, memories of past
events have disappeared as though sucked into a black hole. In others it is the
emergence of the psyche into the white light of a higher consciousness that may
be experienced in a threatening way. To feel the presence of the void is to
reach the edge of the known world, inner or outer. It is a liminal state that
extends backwards from the far side of memory yet continually emerges from the
forward edges of our experience. It is by nature frightening and, usually, well
defended against.
…My thesis is that
the void, frightening as it is, is not something that can or should be
obliterated, as that would lead to stagnation. Rather, that hidden behind the “clouds
of unknowing” (Bion, 1967) that shroud the void, lie endless possibilities for
growth and transformation and an increasingly strong connection with the
objective other. It has seemed to me that the void experience in childhood and early
adulthood is mostly associated with fear and can be deemed pathological. In
order for the ego to learn to stand alone it appears that it has to deny, or
live as though unaware of, the existence of the void. When the void is
constellated in these individuals it is often defended against rigidly and what
seems to be necessary is to help them find structure and meaning in their
lives, i.e. non-void attributes.” (p. 1-2)
Ashton, Paul W. (2007) From
the Brink: Experiences of the Void from a Depth Psychology Perspective,
London: Karnac.
