Are the limits of what can be said – the field of the non-verbal, the texture of affects, everything that resists symbolic capture – the true challenge facing psychoanalysis today?

In her thought-provoking podcast, “The Body as a Pulsing Frontier”, Ema Ponce de León offers her particular view on the theme of the body in psychoanalysis, developed through her dialogue with Freud and with contemporary authors. Among other ideas, she suggests that the analyst not only listens but also “resonates bodily” feeling in their own body the patient’s pre-verbal elements, especially with those with limited capacity for symbolization or with severe trauma. From this perspective, Ema Ponce proposes an embodied metapsychology in which the body is the fundamental support and grounding of the psyche, which is born out of the original body-to-body encounter, within a constitutive intercorporeality. In this embodied metapsychology, the author highlights concepts such as the tonic dialogue and introduces others such as tonic-emotional mirroring.

Ema Ponce de León is a psychoanalyst working with children, adolescents, adults, and couples. She holds a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is a Training and Supervising Analyst (Titular Member with teaching functions) of the Uruguayan Psychoanalytic Association. She currently serves as Chair of the IPA Inter-Committee on Child Abuse and as the Uruguayan liaison to COWAP (Committee on Women and Psychoanalysis). She has published numerous articles in national and international books and journals, and is co-editor of the volume “Violencias. Género–Infancia–Sociedad” (Violences. Gender – Childhood – Society). Her primary research interests include psychoanalysis and interdisciplinarity; the place of the body in clinical practice; the treatment of patients with severe difficulties with symbolization; psychic constitution; female and adolescent sexuality; and parenthood, among others.

This episode is presented in English and Spanish.

Spanish

You can download a copy of the paper here.

This podcast series is produced by the International Psychoanalytical Association as part of the activities of the IPA Outreach Subcommittee. Chair: Gaetano Pellegrini Podcast Coordinator: Florencia Biotti Editing and Post-Production: Massimiliano Guerrieri Cover Image: Psyche Receiving the Casket Back (Palace Green Murals) Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898) Birmingham Museums Trust Image credit: Birmingham Museums Trust