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 patient’s pain. This will be achieved in the process of the therapy, it takes time. Even though it can be a stressful procedure, in the long run, this procedure could become redemptive for the analysand.
The psychoanalyst remains silent most of the time while the analysand unfolds her thoughts and feelings. Through the psychoanalyst’s silence, the analysand will develop feelings for her therapist. These feelings don’t reflect reality since they originate from the analysand’s past through her experience with other people, usually her parents. This is the definition of transference and it is an unconscious process. The desperate analysand will probably feel betrayed, abandoned, and neglected from the analyst.
This could be the most crucial point of the therapy. When the past is re-enacted in the present, through the therapy with a qualified psychoanalyst, radical changes can happen. The analysand will start seeing her life, internally and externally, differently.
This is the magic of psychoanalysis.