The Voice of the Analyst: Narratives on Developing a Psychoanalytic Identity

Description

The Voice of the Analyst contains personal narratives by twelve psychoanalysts, each taking the reader through his or her unique path toward developing a voice and identity as an analyst. All come from different backgrounds, theoretical orientations and stages of their careers. The narratives are courageous and uncommonly revealing in a profession that demands so much reserve and anonymity from its practitioners. This book demonstrates that the analyst's work is a product of their characters as well as training and theory.? The narrative form in this book offers a refreshing and necessary companion to the theoretical and clinical writing that dominates the field. The editors show the importance of developing a unique voice and identity if one is to function well as an analyst. This endeavor cannot be accomplished solely through technical training, especially with the isolation that characterizes clinical practice. There are pressures that analysts experience alone in their practice, from patients and themselves as well as other professionals, forces that render technical training and theory alone inadequate in facilitating the development of one's analytic voice and identity. Enter the form of the personal narrative presented in this book.? This fascinating compilation of narratives shows how the contributors bear striking similarities and differences to one another. Despite their different backgrounds, they display commonality in their sensitivity towards mental and emotional states and their wish to heal suffering. However, they also exemplify wide differences in motivations, interests and what makes them tick as psychoanalysts. The Voice of the Analyst will be a great companion book for established psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists and those in training, as well as mental health professionals keen to understand what it takes to become a psychoanalyst and to enhance their personal and professional development. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Acknowledgments Contributors Chapter 1 Prelude Voice Identity Narrative: what is the story that wants to be told? References Part I Narratives Chapter 2 All origins are suspect: Becoming a psychoanalyst Notes References Chapter 3 From Ebbets Field to 82nd Street: Finding my way Reference Chapter 4 Psychoanalysis and me Beginnings Secrets (profound and trivial) Silence and noise The ineffable middle Schoolings Personal analyses Five scenes from the analytic life One Two Three Four Five Writing and, of course, life The end, or more accurately, the conclusion (circa 2016) References Chapter 5 The voice endures Notes References Chapter 6 Becoming myself: Resuming a derailed adolescence Background Formal training Teachers Analyses Clinical experiences Postcript References Chapter 7 Becoming a psychoanalyst The family matrix Medical school Psychiatric training Historical interlude Psychoanalytic training Post-analytic training Concluding reflections References Chapter 8 Hiding in plain sight Up river Career choices Imaginative play and a masters degree Training Poetry, listening, and voice Port in a storm Parents, teachers, and mentors Therapy: third time the charm Parenting Fierce souls and love Freedom and constraint Ending Note References Chapter 9 Curiosity didn’t kill the cat: (or how I became a psychoanalyst) References Chapter 10 Developmental struggles in psychoanalytic training: Developing a psychoanalytic identity The experience of growing up an analyst’s child Experience and response Joining the psychoanalytic subculture Dynamic organizers Notes References Chapter 11 The dice popper: how we describe what we remember Listening to memory The necessity of relationship The reassembling function of trauma Notes References Chapter 12 My psychoanalytic self: Discovery, embrace, and ongoing formation Psychoanalytic precursors in early family life Stirring the pot: the impact of early exposure to psychoanalytic thinking My first full embrace of psychoanalytic perspectives Psychoanalysis proper, here I come The value and vicissitude of psychoanalytic training Ongoing formation: continuing to grow my psychoanalytic self A final appeal for analysts to make more use of our radical discipline to heal the “isms” Note Chapter 13 Untranslatables Where the blue really begins On style, clinical and otherwise Quantum entanglements: language and memory Who’s Freud? Who’s Marx? On seductions and thrills Immigrants and Priests Sundays Mikis and me Ereikousa Coda Notes References Part II Reflections Chapter 14 Themes and variations Suffering and the wounded parent Otherness, immigration, and the Holocaust Success below the radar From intellect to a flourishing mind Analytic love as an agent of change Nurturing independence and courage in the soil of orthodoxy The evolving role of social and cultural factors in the consulting room How art nourishes professional practice and life Transformative moments Reading texts and minds Training as a foundation for lifelong development Note References Chapter 15 Rethinking psychoanalytic training and beyond Post-graduation professional and clinical development Note References Chapter 16 Coda Index