Slips of the analyst.

Understanding the analyst's work and its vicissitudes has been a major focus of recent psychoanalytic writing. This study on slips of the analyst represents an attempt to advance our understanding of analytic work. The slips described support the view that slips reflect not simply contributions from instinctual life, but active work-related goals of the analyst in carrying out the analytic tasks. Countertransference is discussed as reflected in the disturbance of intentionality betrayed by the occurrence of a slip. The essential role of the analyst's understanding his or her own reactions is emphasized.     

Desire and the female analyst

The literature on erotic transference and countertransference between female analyst and male patient is reviewed and discussed. It is known that female analysts are less likely than their male colleagues to act out sexually with their patients. It has been claimed that a) male patients do not experience sustained erotic transferences, and b) female analysts do not experience erotic countertransferences with female or male patients. These views are challenged and it is argued that, if there is less sexual acting out by female analysts, it is not because of an absence of eros in the therapeutic relationship. The literature review covers material drawn from psychoanalysis, feminist psychotherapy, Jungian analysis, as well as some sociological and cultural sources. It is organized under the following headings: the gender of the analyst, sexual acting out, erotic transference, maternal and paternal transference, gender and power, counter-transference, incest taboo - mothers and sons and sexual themes in the transference.     

On destructiveness in the analyst

The paper describes the therapeutic relationship, specifically the countertransference enactments of the analyst whose own destructive impulses were inevitably mobilised in the treatment of a narcissistically disturbed patient. They are discussed in the light of other authors’ theoretical understanding of the described dynamics. The societal context of the analyst’s work is being discussed.     

Faith and the practising analyst

Abstract: In this brief essay, I reflect on three questions: What is ‘faith’ in a modern and post‐modern cultural context? Do I, a Jungian analyst, have ‘faith’ or do I not? Does having ‘faith’ or not make a difference in the practice of analysis? I make reference to Jung's understanding of ‘faith’ and his frequent disclaimers about making metaphysical claims. I conclude that a post‐credal ‘faith’ is possible for contemporary Jungian analysts, that I do have such a faith personally, and that in my experience this makes a significant difference in analytic practice at least with some patients. Traditional faith statements must be translated into depth psychological terms, however, in order for them to be applicable in post‐modern, multicultural contexts.     

Life-threatening illness in the analyst

The literature on practicing throughout a life-threatening illness is reviewed and important differences about attitudes toward self-disclosure are understood by noting a division between two perspectives on transference: "one-body" and "two-body" views. The analyst's use of self-disclosure is informed by the prominence given the interpretation of transference as against that given the patient's needs in the collaborative relatedness supporting the therapeutic alliance. Themes and illustrative clinical vignettes are presented from the author's own experience practicing during such an illness. Three phases of working during illness are delineated, each somewhat different regarding the analyst's state, and hence patients' needs and reactions. Recommendations are made regarding conditions that make it possible to work effectively during a life-threatening illness. The analyst needs help from his or her own analyst to make the clinically and sometimes ethically appropriate decisions about practice; while this is important in instances in which the analyst recovers, it is essential should the analyst become terminal and face more certain death.     

The incontinent analyst

The author describes a group of phenomena that can affect the analyst and become the motivating force that pushes the analyst to break confidentiality. He describes the inevitable dialectic of symmetry and asymmetry in the psychoanalytic dyad during the analytic process, and asserts that, every time the analyst is in symmetry with the emerging material of the analysand, identification will occur. This identification with the material offered by the analysand activates the system of ideals and produces a value judgment. The author explores the anxiety, the loneliness, the narcissistic deficiencies and the symptom of the analyst as phenomena that can force the analyst to rupture the promise of confidentiality given in good faith to the analysand at the beginning of the treatment.     

Alchemy in the image of the analyst

The author aims to demonstrate the activation in the transference relationship of a figure representing 'sameness' in a number of forms. In the first clinical vignette, she shows how a child projects his own difficulty symmetrically on to the analyst, with the aim of creating the conjunction of opposites which the psyche needs for its growth.
During the archetypal reworking which adolescence provides we again find this figure of 'sameness' in the foreground, in the phase of homosexual object choice. A second clinical vignette shows how this figure of 'sameness' can be represented in the fantasy or the desire of becoming an analyst.
The author puts forward the hypothesis that this fantasy represents an imago whose characteristics include being a tool for linking feeling and thinking in the inner world; it is constituted in the entre deux , the space between self and other, and, like Winnicott's transitional object, it facilitates the capacity to symbolize. Being 'off centre' with regard to infantile positions in relation to the parental imagos, this imago offers a vantage point for 'evaluation' ( sich auseinandersetzen ) and 'consideration' ( betrachten ). Finally this imago is transistory, because its destiny is to be deconstructed (as shown in the third clinical vignette which concerns an adult patient), in order to be integrated through the work of analysis.     

The mirroring function of the child analyst

This paper follows the progress of four years of twice-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a borderline girl aged 4 at the start of treatment. It describes how her early experience with her mother, who was ill, and her subsequent removal from her mother and placement with a foster-family led to her having severe difficulties in relating to others. Using the work of Ekstein as a framework, it follows the changes in the child’s behaviour in the therapy from acting out to playing with toys to role playing to the apparent development of her capacity to phantasize. It focuses on what the dolls’ house represented for her and how it came to be a transitional space where the inner world of the child could be represented. The play in and around the dolls’ house is described to show how she moved from playing on the outside of the dolls’ house to playing in part of the inside to using the whole house and how this seemed to parallel the development of her relationship with her therapist. Furthermore, it presents the views of a number of commentators on the use of the dolls’ house and what it represents for children in therapy and in our culture in general.     

The personal life of the behavior analyst

The human species faces crises of critical proportions. Excessive population, global warming, and the anticipated descent from peak fossil-fuel extraction promise to change our future in far-reaching ways. Operant conditioning prepares the individual for a world similar to the selecting past, but our world is changing more rapidly than our adaptation. As individuals, we cannot make substantial changes in the world at large because we do not control enough reinforcers, but we can turn to the sources of our personal behavior and manipulate them. We will need help. Better organized social networks and the self-management techniques they support can promote immediate changes in consumption at home, work, and moving about in our personal worlds. Surprisingly, consuming less can lead to more satisfying and happier lives, but a better understanding of reinforcement contingencies is necessary. We can recover the strengthening effects of personal daily accomplishments that are eroded when conditioned generalized reinforcers intervene. When we get our own personal lives in order we can reduce our carbon footprints, restore the connections between our behavior and its strengthening effects, and become models worthy of imitation.