Continuing our Psychology in the Wild series, this reflection turns to the jellyfish—and to an encounter I had on a beautiful beach in Sicily.
It was high season, yet the beach was strangely empty. I ran into the water with joy and a sense of freedom, only to discover that I was swimming in what felt like a porridge of jellyfish. As their tentacles touched my skin, I felt painful stings across the areas of contact. After being stung several times, I practically flew out of the water.
The jellyfish’s tentacles offer an image of how overwhelming emotion can spread through our experience, leaving us feeling immobilised or emotionally numb.
Psychoanalyst Martin Stanton’s Medusa effect explores how anxiety can entangle our capacity to think. In this metaphor, raw feelings and sensations gather into a sticky mass that captures our attention and leaves little room for reflection. Panic can then become automatic, as the possibility of observing and making sense of what we feel becomes harder to access.
Approached compassionately, this image invites us to consider how much a person may be struggling to hold. Sometimes, in conversation, we find ourselves withdrawing inwardly or becoming emotionally deadened. Staying fully present may feel difficult when an experience becomes overwhelming.
In my work with clients, I have occasionally experienced a strange sense of entering a “black hole”: words continue, yet my ability to think and feel connected seems to fade. I try to approach these moments with curiosity about both of our experiences, including my own contribution to what is happening between us.
The mythical Medusa adds another dimension: those who look directly at her turn to stone. Perseus uses his shield to see her reflection without becoming petrified. For me, that reflective surface offers an image of what therapy can help us create—a way to approach difficult experience at a distance and pace we can bear.
This connects with Fonagy and colleagues’ work on mentalisation and emotional regulation: developing the capacity to recognise and understand feelings, so that they become possible to reflect on.
Sometimes this begins with a pause, a gentler pace, or a simple acknowledgement: “Something seems to have changed. Can we slow down together?”
Within that shared space, we may gradually find words for what had felt overwhelming—and recover a sense of being present with ourselves and one another.
References
- Stanton, M. (2007). Ex cathedra: Teaching, transference and knowledge. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 9(2), 147–156.
- Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E. L., & Target, M. (2002). Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self. Other Press.