Abstract:This paper presents a detailed description of the psychoanalytic identity, whose nucleus is the psychic representation of psychoanalysis in the internal world of the analyst--i.e., psychoanalysis as an internal object. Psychoanalytic training is, of course, crucial to the development of a psychoanalytic identity, but as a result of ambivalence, the psychoanalytic identity is apt to be diluted both during training and after. This process is reinforced by the worldwide trend for analysts to analyze fewer cases. … Show more
“…This situation makes the sharing of clinical material a potentially threatening experience and thus fundamentally disturbs the possibility for the creation of a peer culture, which could help analysts in a continuous process to build up and consolidate an analytic identity and function. A similar concern for the instability of psychoanalytic identity is expressed by Wille () in the following way:The so‐called crisis in psychoanalysis, usually referring to the problem of too few analytic patients and too few analytic candidates, is first and foremost a crisis in ourselves and, in particular, in our psychoanalytic identity… (p. 1193)…In addition to familiarization with unconscious functioning, identification with the function of the analyst, and development of a self‐analytic function, the conscious recognition of one's own hostility toward psychoanalysis is very important. (p. 1193Furthermore, it is a fallacy to think that there are analysts who have problems with their analytic identities and others who do not.…”
Section: Vignettes From Collegiate Discussionmentioning
confidence: 85%
“…This situation makes the sharing of clinical material a potentially threatening experience and thus fundamentally disturbs the possibility for the creation of a peer culture, which could help analysts in a continuous process to build up and consolidate an analytic identity and function. A similar concern for the instability of psychoanalytic identity is expressed by Wille (2008) in the following way:…”
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.
“…This situation makes the sharing of clinical material a potentially threatening experience and thus fundamentally disturbs the possibility for the creation of a peer culture, which could help analysts in a continuous process to build up and consolidate an analytic identity and function. A similar concern for the instability of psychoanalytic identity is expressed by Wille () in the following way:The so‐called crisis in psychoanalysis, usually referring to the problem of too few analytic patients and too few analytic candidates, is first and foremost a crisis in ourselves and, in particular, in our psychoanalytic identity… (p. 1193)…In addition to familiarization with unconscious functioning, identification with the function of the analyst, and development of a self‐analytic function, the conscious recognition of one's own hostility toward psychoanalysis is very important. (p. 1193Furthermore, it is a fallacy to think that there are analysts who have problems with their analytic identities and others who do not.…”
Section: Vignettes From Collegiate Discussionmentioning
confidence: 85%
“…This situation makes the sharing of clinical material a potentially threatening experience and thus fundamentally disturbs the possibility for the creation of a peer culture, which could help analysts in a continuous process to build up and consolidate an analytic identity and function. A similar concern for the instability of psychoanalytic identity is expressed by Wille (2008) in the following way:…”
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.
“…The former approach emphasizes the elimination of symptoms through the evidencebased administration of medication, while the latter approach regards the symptom as psychologically meaningful-not to be dismantled so much as explored and understood, including in its transference manifestations (Wille 2008). This conundrum is present whether the analyst herself prescribes or not.…”
The value of medication for some patients in psychoanalysis serves to highlight the potential challenges of the medical analyst and invites exploration into possible motivations for assuming the prescribing role. Prescribing medication is one way in which the medical analyst integrates the dual identities of physician and analyst while dealing with significant cultural influences and intrapsychic tensions. Technical challenges posed by assuming the prescribing role are explored, as are the potential benefits of split treatment. The educational implications of this argument are discussed in relation to identity formation for candidates who are physicians.
“…It is generally accepted that doing analytic work as well as remaining immersed in an ongoing study of psychoanalysis supports the development of a psychoanalyst. Several authors stress the importance of teaching, participating in study groups, and peer consultation (Fogel and Glick, ; Gabbard and Ogden, ; Grinberg and Grinberg, ; Wille, ). Schafer () makes the point that one is always becoming an analyst; that graduating from an analytic institute is only a weigh station on a life‐style journey, and that being an analyst entails continuous development and change.…”
This exploratory study explored the training and post-training experience of graduates of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. All living graduates of the past six decades were invited to complete a survey that addressed their training analysis, classroom work, supervision and other training experiences as well as their degree of post-graduation involvement in teaching, supervising, study groups and other professional endeavors. They were also asked to rate their sense of themselves as psychoanalysts and their satisfaction with their analytic career. Further, they were encouraged to provide spontaneous narrative data. Our findings contribute to the current understanding of the careers of psychoanalysts--including that there is a difference in generational cohorts regarding professional satisfaction, identification as an analyst, and experience of training. We also found that there are no real differences between analysts who do and do not have analytic patients on some important variables: supporting analysis as a treatment method, identifying oneself professionally with psychoanalysis, and disillusionment with psychoanalysis--which is consistent with other studies. Also discovered were differences between male and female analysts' perception of certain aspects of their training.
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