ABSTRACT
As a psychoanalyst, psychologist, dancer/dance movement therapist and movement analyst, my goal is to describe relationships among the body, movement and emotion, how these perceptual vantage points can enhance and inform each other, and how viewing/observing the language of the body and movement through psychoanalytic lenses can give rise to insight into dynamic interpersonal processes. This research uses the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) (Amighi, Loman, Lewis & Sossin, 1999; Birklein & Sossin, 2006; Birklein, (2018); Kestenberg, 1965, 1975, 1985; Kestenberg & Buelte, 1977; Kestenberg & Sossin 1979; Loman, 1996; Sossin & Birklein, 2006; Sossin & Loman, 1992; Sossin, 2002) which is a comprehensive assessment tool for the appraisal of movement within a developmental diagnostic framework. KMP captures patterns that readily relate psychic functioning within a psychodynamic framework to concepts such as attunement, empathy and trust, and to the negotiation and resolution of relationships. Since the KMP effectively describes the relationship between embodied states and mental states in interaction and makes elements of interaction more visible while underscoring salient features, it will be used as a research tool to investigate parental stress and how different stress-states of a parent are passed onto the child through non-verbal transmission.
