Communication in the contemporary world is characterized by the use of technological tools that allow a rapid and essential exchange, yet poor on the emotional level. Abstract art - Kandinsky being one of its main representatives - seems to dwell in a bi-dimensional space where the third dimension is created by the emotional bond between the artwork and those who look at it. Similarly with this, a series of clinical vignettes is offered by the authors to discuss the notion of third dimension in psychotherapy as the affective-emotional universe arising between psychotherapist and patient through their empathic bond. In child and adolescent psychotherapy the third dimension can be reached by using technological tools as a mediator object, since they are often perceived as an easier and safer communication channel than a direct patient- therapist relation, whereas in adult psychotherapy the third dimension can be experienced when the therapist acts as an image where the patient can mirror himself thus activating, in the relational space, those affective-emotional resources that the latter could not activate in his own world.
Keywords: Third dimension, affective-emotional universe, bi-dimensional space, technological tools, mediator objects, mirroring.

Tiziana Baisini, Roberto Carnevali, The third dimension in psychotherapy as an expression of the affective/emotional universe in a bi-dimensional space in "GRUPPI. Nella clinica, nelle istituzioni, nella società" 3/2015, pp. 23-37, DOI:10.3280/GRU2015-003003