The identitiy of the psychoanalyst

Abstract

Kocourkovå J. The Identity of the Psychoanalyst. Int Forum Psychoanal 1997;6:137-140. Stockholm, ISSN 0803-706X.

The conditions are examined, in which the professional identity of the psychoanalyst is created and expressed. The personal analysis and an unambiguous identification with this process are considered to be a basic experience in the formation of the psychoanalyst's identity. Personal experience of supervision is of the same importance. The psychoanalytic process is complicated by unresolved narcissistic problems of the psychoanalyst. The Kleinian concept of envy, which can make the positive identification with the analyst impossible, is mentioned. However, the concept of envy should be understood not only as a projective mechanism, but also as unconscious connotations of giving and receiving in the analytical relationship. Identity problems of psychoanalytical societies are also discussed, including the Czech Psychoanalytical Society.     

The female psychoanalyst in the movies

The last five decades of the American cinema have produced a remarkably consistent stereotype of the female analyst. In films such as Spellbound (1945), Knock on Wood (1954), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), They Might be Giants (1971), and The Man Who Loved Women (1983), women analysts are swept away by countertransference love that leads them to become sexually or romantically involved with their male patients. In stark contrast to the data from studies of patient-therapist sexual involvement, there are more than twice as many films portraying unethical sexual behavior on the part of a female analyst as there are films depicting similar countertransference acting out by a male analyst. Moreover, a stable relationship with a man and a successful analytic practice never coexist for any woman analyst in the cinema. Neither does a female analyst ever successfully treat a male patient in the American cinema unless she falls in love with him. On the contrary, the male patient is more likely to cure his female analyst. Clinical reports from cross-gender analyses are useful in understanding these cinematic myths.     

Recognition without face identification

Recognition without identification is the finding that participants can recognize recognition test items as having been previously studied when the test items themselves are presented in such a way that their identification is hindered. The present study demonstrates this phenomenon in face recognition. Participants studied names of celebrities before receiving a recognition test containing pictures of celebrity faces. Half of the pictures were of celebrities whose names were studied; half were of celebrities whose names were not studied. Participants attempted to identify each face on the test and also rated the likelihood that each person's name was studied. Among the faces that went unidentified, ratings discriminated between celebrities whose names were studied and celebrities whose names were not studied. This recognition without face identification effect is dependent upon the sense of being in a tip-of-the-tongue state for a particular name. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

The questions and curiosity of the psychoanalyst

Questions the analyst asks of the patient are a powerful but neglected aspect of the theory of psychoanalytic technique. Their importance resides in their dynamic impact on the psychic equilibrium of the patient because of their ability to destabilize existing compromise formations. A clinical vignette illustrates the view that the linguistic shift from other modes of discourse to the spoken question heralds a less visible parallel shift in the psychic equilibrium of either the psychoanalyst or patient. There is no more and no less complexity to questions than to any other communication by either analyst or patient. For that reason there can be no systematic classification of questions in the clinical psychoanalytic situation, just as there can be no definitive taxonomy of psychoanalytic discourse. It makes no sense to reduce the enormous diversity and range of all the questions the analyst asks to the simple dichotomy of good or bad for the analysis. Questions are the emblem of the analyst's mode of inquiry; they can further the development of self-observation, which is such an important concomitant, cause, and consequence of structural change.     

Specificity of face processing without awareness

The recognition memory for inverted faces is especially difficult when compared with that for non-face stimuli. This face inversion effect has often been used as a marker of face-specific holistic processing. However, whether face processing without awareness is still specific remains unknown. The present study addressed this issue by examining the face inversion effect with the technique of binocular rivalry. Results showed that invisible upright faces could break suppression faster than invisible inverted faces. Nevertheless, no difference was found for invisible upright houses and invisible inverted houses. This suggested that face processing without awareness is still specific. Some face-specific information can be processed by high-level brain areas even when that information is invisible.