Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Unconscious encounter
Had I ‘forgotten’ to confirm my appointment with JG? On reflection I realised I had simply
expected the offered interview to stand, and had not felt the need to confirm – perhaps an
unconscious belief that JG would be available to me. I also wondered if JG was ambivalent
about an interview, preferring to let his written words speak for themselves? Given JG’s
powerful belief in the unconscious, in part matched by my own, something was happening
through our mutual awareness of the other’s unconscious, which transcends continents.
What mattered is what happened in the moment in that we met and gave time for
unconscious processes to come into consciousness, thus offering a mutually informed
unconscious meeting at another level. My time with JG was to have a very powerful impact
on me. Between interviews I dreamt of JG, Scotland, angels – replicating JG’s vital dream
relating to Klein – yet distinctly linking with my origins in Scotland. We discussed this as
JG felt I was co-operating with the unconscious by letting it be both in the dream and in the
presence of each other an unconscious symmetry was being revealed.
Intersubjective presence
As a Scotsman, my very presence had important associations for JG as one of his most
significant dreams that subsequently shaped his development as an analyst was of
experiencing two angels in a scene set in the Scottish Highlands. While I do not claim to be
a ‘messenger from God’ I was aware that I am still a minister of religion that in analytic
circles is about as rare as the appearance of angels. I had a sense on our departure that
something in me and of me was to have a powerful impact on JG and the same dynamic that
I would be powerfully impacted by JG. In fact this is exactly what a guru is able to do, but I
think JG is not fully aware of this as he too is in thrall to his own guru in Bion. Two factors
230