Staring at absence... Opening up to the invisible

The author relates the end-of-analysis dream of an analysand trapped in impossible grief for her mother, who had died prematurely. Due to the sustained gaze and presence of the analyst, the fixation on the absent figure and the lacerating grip of the image finally released their hold on the patient’s psyche. An entirely different sight was aroused, a bridge to restoring the analysand’s perception of herself and, by that very token, an opening to the invisible and its creative potential.