Casting the couch

Abstract


 
 
 Analysis occurs when the space of meeting becomes the place of encounter. This place is no ordinary place, it is a place dedicated to the analysand appropriating her/his own, authentic possibilities of being. The place and process which is analysis is evoked in several ways: by the presence of analyst and analysand, the 'rules' which guide the process and the ambiance of the setting. The last of these includes the use (or not} of the analytic couch.
 Drawing on qualitative research into several analysts' lived experience of having an analys and use the couch this paper discusses the role of the couch in constituting intersubjective privacy and some of the ways in which the couch contributes to a particular way ofbeing-together-with, bodily attunement, the emergence of an analytic third, and reverie.