Reflections on the concepts of bad faith and bastion and their use in clinical practice

In this paper, I will outline some reflections that arise from reading the work of Willy and Madeleine Baranger, such as their text ‘The Analytic Situation as a Bipersonal Field’ (1961–1962), with particular reference to Madeleine Baranger’s ‘Bad Faith, Identity, and Omnipotence’ and Willy Baranger, Madeleine Baranger, and Jorge Mom’s ‘Process and Non-Process in Analytical Work’, along with insights from authors who have studied the birth of the Self from an intersubjective perspective. I found their work particularly useful for understanding theoretical aspects so closely connected to the reality of clinical work. In this contribution, starting from some theoretical reflections, I will highlight the use of these concepts in the psychoanalytic mind at work, as a guide to addressing situations where there is a risk of a stalemate and an inability to approach the patient’s authentic core that the analytic couple seeks to contact.