Joyce McDougall on Theaters of the Mind

"The conflicts and characters of the past, as well as our own various child and adult selves, are the essential elements that make up our secret scenarios...On the psychoanalytic stage the different theaters and their varied cast of characters slowly emerge. As an analysand begins to have confidence in the analyst's interest and ability to contain the conflicting emotions of love, hate, fear, anger, anxiety, and depression that come to the fore, particularly when fantasies about the analyst and the analytic relationship develop, the I begins to revel the different psychic theaters in which its conflicts are expressed. It also allows the inner characters to be recognized by both analyst and patient. Among the throng appear many different aspects of the self, some idealized and others repudiated by the conscious adult I." (p. 13)

Joyce McDougall (1991). Theaters of the Mind: Illusion and Truth on the Psychoanalytic Stage. New York: Brunner/Mazel.