Initiating Psychoanalysis

Reith, Bernard; Lagerlöf, Sven; Crick, Penelope; Møller, Mette; Skale, Elisabeth

doi:10.4324/9780203801987

Cited by 6 publications

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“…The criterion for the reliability of the information is the situational or scenic evidence: “Such information is practically never capable of being checked by repetition, and it is therefore discarded or not mentioned by most interviewers even though it is the richest in what it discloses regarding the prognosis of the therapeutic process” (Argelander, , p. 28). An overview of the international development and the theory and practice of the psychoanalytic initial interview is given for the first time in Initiating Psychoanalysis: Perspectives (Reith et al ., ).…”

Section: The Diagnostic Standpointmentioning

confidence: 97%

Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

Wegner¹

2014

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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From the very first moment of the initial interview to the end of a long course of psychoanalysis, the unconscious exchange between analysand and analyst, and the analysis of the relationship between transference and countertransference, are at the heart of psychoanalytic work. Drawing on initial interviews with a psychosomatically and depressively ill student, a psychoanalytic understanding of initial encounters is worked out. The opening scene of the first interview already condenses the central psychopathology - a clinging to the primary object because it was never securely experienced as present by the patient. The author outlines the development of some psychoanalytic theories concerning the initial interview and demonstrates their specific importance as background knowledge for the clinical situation in the following domains: the 'diagnostic position', the 'therapeutic position', the 'opening scene', the 'countertransference' and the 'analyst's free-floating introspectiveness'. More recent investigations refer to 'process qualities' of the analytic relationship, such as 'synchronization' and 'self-efficacy'. The latter seeks to describe after how much time between the interview sessions constructive or destructive inner processes gain ground in the patient and what significance this may have for the decision about the treatment that follows. All these factors combined can lead to establishing a differential process-orientated indication that also takes account of the fact that being confronted with the fear of unconscious processes of exchange is specific to the psychoanalytic profession.

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Section: The Diagnostic Standpointmentioning

confidence: 97%

Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

Wegner¹

2014

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

Abramovitch¹

2021

J Analytical Psychology

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This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst‐initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one‐sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.

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The analyst's anxieties in the first interview: Barriers against analytic presence

Møller¹

2014

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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To answer the questions: why don't more people enter analysis and how do we get more people to do so? Attention is drawn to anxieties in the analyst that become obstacles to the initiation of analysis. The main focus of the paper is how to understand why analysts, irrespective of patient characteristics, seem to have resistances against embarking on analysis. Being a meeting between strangers the consultation activates strong emotional reactions in both parties. One way of coping is defensively to diagnose, assess and exclude instead of being present as an analyst. The analytic frame of a consultation is ambiguous, and a secure analytic function is needed in order to meet the openness and unpredictability of this frame. A fragile psychoanalytic identity is seen as central to analysts' failure to create an analytic practice; it takes years to develop and maintain a robust analytic function, and analytic work continues to cause disturbing emotional reactions in the analyst. Analysts' vulnerable identity is also linked to the history of psychoanalysis that has fostered an ideal of analytic practice that is omnipotent and impossible to reach. Therefore it is no wonder that attempts to reach a convinced recommendation of analysis can become diverted in the process of consultation. Confronting these inner impediments in order to strengthen the analytic identity is suggested as a better way to get more analytic patients than to keep looking for so-called analysability in patients.

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Initiating Psychoanalysis

Cited by 6 publications

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Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

Process‐orientated psychoanalytic work in initial interviews and the importance of the opening scene

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

The analyst's anxieties in the first interview: Barriers against analytic presence

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