Researching archaic in the psyche

Psychoanalytical concepts

Abstract

Archaic has always been and remains an unsatisfied passion of psychoanalysis. It has always been present both in practice and in theory. Freud was among those who did not escape the fate of being fascinated by the archaic. He turned to the subject in his papers, one way or another. M. Klein’s observations of babies produced even more ground for thought and debate around archaic. However, the nonverbality of the archaic, the layers of time and defense covering it, complicate or deprive us of the opportunity to see it in its original form. In this paper, the author suggests an approach of listening to archaic in patients’ materials, through different optics. Moreover, a practical method of listening to archaic through the analysis of the defenses that the patient resorts to in therapy is proposed. The author suggests considering archaic as an entity consisting of two parts: rudimentary and potential which we can see in the primal phantasies – representatives of the archaic in the psyche.