Abstract
Patients enter states that in their spontaneity and deep interiority have qualities of the revelatory. I propose we recognize such a state as a clinical event: The person is in a state of intense internal receiving of self. We might think of it as a state of internal communication happening as the person speaks. The person feels real to herself. Her relation to her mind in this revelatory moment is easily intruded on—even by ventures of play. When the state is gone, it is gone. I single out this clinical moment from moments that are cocreated and happening within an analytic third. I argue that in the revelatory moment, a patient builds capacities to be present for pain, desire—for raw experiences ordinarily difficult to access. The state makes a strict demand on the analyst. I see it as a moment of object usage—that is, it is a moment of risk with the analyst. This moment challenges and deepens our understanding of Winnicott’s usage formulation.