What we call seduction - a dazzling magic that shakes us, or a series of deceptive flashes, a trap - nests in our daily transactions, but haunts mental expressions and symptoms.
The main goal of the analytical endeavor is to ensure the spontaneous emergence and unfolding of transference, so that it can be processed. The analyst is not a seducer, but tries to activate mental movements and prevent the suggestion and seduction that were inherent in hypnosis and the cathartic method of the beginnings of psychoanalysis.
However, as clinical experience accumulated, it became apparent that the analytical condition is not entirely neutral, but contains possibilities of seduction. These aspects can sometimes function in a mildly stimulating way, revealing and fostering mental organization, and at other times acquire traumatic dimensions and trap the analysand, freezing their mental plasticity. Thus, behind the dimension of seduction, a fragile balance is formed. On one side are support, the anti-alienation process, pleasure, the process of symbolization, and identificatory completion, while on the other side lurk captivity, confusion, and the final nullification of the analytical endeavor.
The texts that make up this Monograph attempt to ascertain the position that the concept of seduction holds in psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. It explores its relationship with the analytical framework, trauma, identity organization, the primal scene, as well as its contribution to humor, artistic creation, and the formation of myths.