Bi-logic and symmetric-logic analysis of the unconscious

Domain I · Psychodynamic & depth psychology · Ignacio Matte Blanco · 1975 · Chile

What it is

Bi-logic is mainly a theory of mind, not a manualised therapy. It has no manual, no protocol, no fixed phases, no session counts and no fidelity measure. Clinicians use it inside psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy as a way of listening and of building interpretations. Everything below…

Format

• Format and dose. Use the analytic frame you already work in (couch or chair, one to five sessions a week, open-ended). Lombardi reports high-frequency analysis for an adolescent in acute psychotic crisis. None of the sources gives session counts.
• Version followed: Ignacio Matte Blanco's bi-logic as set out in The Unconscious as Infinite Sets (1975) and Thinking, Feeling and Being (1988), applied clinically after Rayner (1995; Rayner & Tuckett's introduction to the 1988 book), the Chilean group's "bi-logic of interpretation" (Casaula,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the temptation to apply the labels without the source text.
• decompensation. Coordinate with psychiatric management, and use standard risk assessment.
• depth shifts within a single session. Re-estimate after breaks, separations and sexual or aggressive material.
• recognition and relief. If confusion grows, the stratum is deeper than you thought: switch to containment (4.9).
• confusing your own state with the patient's. Check against the session material and against your own day before you use it.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.