INHALL: Jay Barlow - Maman

This paper traces a decade-long analytic treatment with Alma, who entered intensive analysis in late adolescence following the death of her father and the intensification of a mother complex. Central to the clinical narrative is the emergence of a recurrent hallucinatory figure, the “She”-spider, evolving from dreams and fragmentary sensations into an embodied presence within the consulting room. The spider becomes not merely a symptom, but a psychic structure through which trauma, dissociation, and an ambivalent maternal object are communicated and lived.

Drawing on Jung, Bion, Winnicott, Bick, Meltzer, Laplanche, and Ferenczi, the paper explores how hallucination, unconscious communication, and participation mystique may emerge when affect regulation is fragile and symbolic function compromised by early relational trauma. Particular attention is given to the analyst’s embodied countertransference and the role of patience, witnessing, and carefully paced containment in facilitating psychological development. Louise Bourgeois’ spider imagery and Maman sculptures are interwoven as symbolic companions to the clinical material, expressing maternal themes of protection, predation, entrapment, and repair. The paper culminates in a significant frame rupture that enables movement from malignant dread toward mourning, separation, and the beginnings of greater psychic agency.

Jay Barlow is Director of Training at the Society of Analytical Psychology where he is a training and supervising analyst. Jay holds an MA in Jungian and post Jungian studies and has worked as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. He supervises and teaches on various analytic trainings. His private practice is in Clapham, London.