Second Act
Rose, now aged 15, was flown to Boston, where she underwent posterior
tracheopexy. The operation was successful, and the desired mechanical
results achieved. However, it soon became clear that she was fearful and
confused around her new identity; if she wasn’t a sick person, who was
she? She became depressed and anxious. This confused the medical team,
who had anticipated she would now be healed. After so much effort
invested, expertise recruited and tangible progress made, what was she
still unhappy about?
In therapy, Rose started expressing fantasies of being a sea creature,
able to breathe in water but not in air. She seemed to be re-enacting
her life from beginning, in the womb, from non-breathing to breathing,
from retaining to releasing. She began re-constructing her own self,
re-experiencing important parts of what happened in her early life. Her
improved health appeared to enable her to move away from survival mode,
making it safe to put down defenses. As Rose began to expel her sputum
effortlessly, she slowly learned to expel her emotional phlegm. She was
again mirroring her new physical reality with her psychic experience.
The psychologist, through being with her in her pain, could help Rose
re-live earlier experiences not yet realized, so that she was able to
develop a healthier and more integrated self. (2)