On Coming Into Possession of Oneself: Witnessing and the Formulation of Experience

In this paper I use clinical theory and illustration to explore details of the formulation of experience, which depends upon the metamorphosis of experience from not-me to feels-like-me. I take the position that the movement from not-me to feels-like-me, with the accompanying possibilities for formulating new meaning that open at such moments, happens when we not only know or feel something, but also, and simultaneously, sense ourselves in the midst of this process-that is, when we know and feel that it is we who are doing the knowing and feeling. When these two events co-occur, which depends upon the process of witnessing and the breach of dissociation, we come into possession of ourselves. Witnessing of one person by another is a process of recognition, but it is also a kind of affirmation performed by "someone who is trusted and justifies the trust and meets the dependence" (Winnicott 1971, p. 60).