A Rhizome of the Non-understandable: Gender Diversity and the Emergent Androgynus in Clinical Practice.
AUTHORS: Mario Saiz (Chair) (SUAPA), Ma. Paz Abalos (SCPA), Claudia Grez (SCPA), Susana Toloza (SCPA), Madeleine Porre (SCPA), Javiera Falcone (SCPA), Gabriel Campi (SUAPA).
The aim of this presentation is to show and discuss the preliminary results of a qualitative and quantitative research study: “Researching Dreams”, carried out by the First Latin-American Inter-Regional Group on Research. This research is supported by the IAAP´s Academic Sub Committee and is a joint effort of IAAP analysts from Chile (SCPA) and the Uruguayan-Argentinian Society of Analytical Psychology (SUAPA), both Group Members of CLAPA.
Results show that we can understand the Androgynous as a catalyst for change and transformation. We analyzed a series of 400 dreams of patients from our clinical practice with the purpose of delving deeper into the understanding of the anima, the animus and the androgynus and their effects on the psyche by means of what remains non-understandable to consciousness.
In accounting for its forms of presentation and personification, its degrees of differentiation, and its relational dynamics with the anima, animus and the dream-ego, we have found that the occurrence of the androgynus coincides with points of inflexion in the therapeutic process and the life of the patients. This is confirmed by the emergence of unexpected symbols that point towards the multipotentiality and multidimensionality of the psyche, introducing new and unexplored possibilities that lead to gender diversity.
It is also the aim of this presentation to show that the androgynus is a process. As such, the androgynus stands as an “in between area” (between its initial state, the androgynus primigenius, and its final and terminal state, the androgynus finalis), where multiple and diverse relationships are developed, and where tendencies to being are deployed. Consequently, it contributes significantly to the therapeutic processes of our times. Clinical case examples will be presented to illustrate this process in the context of the individuation process of the patients.
The preliminary results of this research allow us to understand the androgynus as the origin, process and opus of individuation, as a constituting energy of the psyche that explain new possibilities of being, the multiple, flexible and fluid identities we can see today. Its effect may be recognized nowadays in the emergence of new identities and genders, stemming from the androgynus which has hitherto dwelled both in the personal and cultural shadow.
Initially, the symbols of the androgynus may seem incomprehensible, yet they represent the emergent rhizome of the new that develops and expands as a novel energy within the psyche. As it unfolds in the process of individuation, the ambiguity, imprecision and uncertainty of the non-understandable in it, hold the secret to its understanding.
453 words.