From mimesis to agency: clinical steps in the work of psychic two-ness

In this paper, through the study of the clinical process of a girl starting treatment at the age of 3 years 10 months, who was thought of as a 'dummy' by her family and who came for consultation when the assumed genetic aetiology was questioned, the authors build upon Tustin's contributions on the context of togetherness and the crisis of two-ness, and upon Eugenio and Renata Gaddini's on the precursor object. The mimetic phenomena enacted with an older brother and at the kindergarten are found to result from cumulative trauma at her contacting a loving but mind-blind mother. After an initial stage of transference autism, enactment in the session of the traumatic situation was the ?rst step in surmounting her autistic pseudo-stupidity. Mimetic transference dynamics took place principally at the level of the gaze, leading to the unfolding of the work of two-ness to a differentiation from the analyst as psychic breast, on the road to symbol formation and personal agency.