Transference and countertransference are central concepts in psychoanalysis. These mechanisms (usually unconscious) provide a lens through which the therapeutic relationship can be understood and utilized for growth. They are essential tools for exploring unconscious processes and facilitating emotional transformation. Working through them is the way to go in therapy. Transference refers to the redirection of a […]
In psychoanalysis feelings are our weapons. Whereas in other fields of mental health (like in psychiatry) covering difficult and unbearable feelings is the optimum result, in psychoanalysis unravelling all those thoughts and feelings is the way to go; and the only way out of it, is through it. The handling of difficult feelings is central
Let’s face it, we are born and raised in materialism. And not only that, nothing seems powerful enough to stop this. My kids are not kids any more. The one is in adolescence and the other one is just about to enter. My wife and I have always tried to control the amount of material
The older I get, the wiser (I believe) I become. Along the way I’ve come to realise over and over again that humanity can be divided into two categories: To those who know how to talk the talk and to those who know how to walk the walk. The majority belong to the first group.
Most people visiting my office for an initial session seek an immediate relief of their emotional suffering. They see in the therapist the magician who would transform their pain once they see him, just like Dorothy and her friends in the Wizard of Oz expected all their problems to be resolved once they find the
Being able to stay with the feelings no matter how difficult they are and not act on them impulsively is a sign of emotional maturity. The easiest thing to do when emotionally burden is to act. And that most of the times proves destructive for everyone involved. It’s an infantile mechanism, that’s what babies do
When Dr. Phyllis Meadow, one of the founding members of Modern Psychoanalysis, was asked in an interview about who should try psychoanalysis her answer was, “Anyone who is willing to look inside.” It might be one of the biggest challenges a man can face, that is to look inside of himself and face whatever is
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. (Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot) The American poet T.S. Eliot expresses through poetry one of the targets of psychoanalysis. Usually the person who visits the office of
The story of Cain and Abel in the book of Genesis, of the children of Adam and Eve and of the first murder/fratricidal recorded in the human history, is a point of reference in the human nature. Cain was the first biblical murderer and at the same time a fratricidal, who killed his younger brother
The session started. The analysand, like it happens in the last months’ sessions, is in despair. The feeling of sadness fills the room. The psychoanalyst is the exclusive receiver of these feelings and he experiences them intensely. This is, anyway, one of his targets. The psychoanalyst doesn’t have as a primary target to ease the
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