From perceiving to interpreting: The inner work of the psychoanalyst

Journal/Book: Forum Psychoanal. 1998; 14: 175 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10010. Springer Verlag. 34-51.

Abstract: For more than fifty years the cognitive process of an analyst has aimed at decoding the unconscious of a patient by the use of external and internal perception. Since the 'talking cure' gets us into contact with our patients without looking at each other, just by the use of word presentations, the images of the internal objects, the thing presentations may easily sneak in. In the place of the 'Objective Analyst' using Freud's 'one-person-psychology', a psychoanalyst is emerging who, by enriching the transference-countertransference process with his own associations, becomes more and more involved as a subject (person), the more so, the less the patient is able to distinguish between word presentations and thing presentations. Intersubjective perception in Bion's sense makes use of the analyst's subjectivity in a two-person-relationship. His ability to share the patient's regressive movement in his own experience and at the same time to give an interpersonal meaning to it in the Here and Now, is a basic characteristic of his interpretative work. Since the interpretation aims at creating a shared perception of the interper sonal psychoanalytical process, it has to be developed tactfully and in due consideration of the heat of the transference.

Note: Article GilchGeberzahn G, Morikestr 16, D-73525 Schwabisch Gmund, GERMANY

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