On June 6, Jungian Studies Istanbul hosts a lecture by Mark Winborn on the relationship between body and psyche in the analytic encounter. Body Images: Soma in the Intersubjective Field opens with a distinction that shapes much of the field of psychosomatics. The older approach treats bodily symptoms as expressions of specific psychological conflicts, the body saying what the mind cannot. The more contemporary model, and the one Winborn will work from, treats psyche and body as a unified whole, in which somatic symptoms are approached much as one would approach a dream, not as fixed symbolic equations but as singular, individual phenomena, each one a unique expression of the patient’s unconscious life.

From this foundation, Winborn will draw on a wide theoretical range. The body theories of Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Jung, and Wilfred Bion will be examined alongside contemporary neuroscience and research on primary affect. Jung’s conceptualisations of the body shadow and the subtle body will receive particular attention, as will the psychoanalytic understanding of somatisation. Throughout, the focus will be clinical and relational: how does the body speak in the intersubjective field of the analytic encounter? How does the analyst attend to somatic information — in the patient and in themselves — as a means of understanding the unconscious dynamics at work in the room?

These are questions with direct implications for practice. Somatic symptoms are not always legible through words or interpretation alone, and Winborn’s depth-oriented approach invites participants to develop new sensitivity to the body as a living space through which unconscious material emerges.

Mark Winborn is a Jungian analyst and author whose work sits at the intersection of analytical psychology, relational psychoanalysis, and contemporary clinical theory. He has written extensively on the analytic relationship, shared realities in clinical practice, and the integration of Jungian and relational perspectives. The lecture takes place on June 6 at 9pm Turkish time, online via Zoom and in person in Turkey. Registration details are available here.