Making conscious the unconscious in order to modify unconscious processing: Some mechanisms of therapeutic change

This paper examines some of the mechanisms through which interpretion aimed primarily at increasing conscious awareness call nonetheless produce unconscious changes, the latter being deemed the basic aim of psychoanalysis. The concept of valency or motivational weight of the interpretation is proposed to assess which forces of the various motivational systems the interpretation mobilizes (hetero/self-preservation, sensual/sexual, attachment, narcissistic, psychobiological regulation etc), on which of the above-mentioned systems imerpretation relies, and which would oppose therapeutic intervention and why. Certain conditions are also analysed that could explain the so-called 'change through the analytic relationship'. pointing out that, despite the major differences between this form of change and change through interpretation, both of them would share certain mechanisms. This conclusion leads to the need to qualify the idea that interpretation would be exclusively aimed at declarative memory, with no effects upon procedural memory. The paper examines the potential consequences for therapeutic techniques derived from recent findings it? neuroscience oil so-called labile state memory, and proposes the coupling of experiences as one of the analytical instruments used for therapeutic change. A clinical vignette is included to illustrate some of the theoretical and technical aspects considered.