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Originally Posted by feileacan
As someone in psychoanalysis, I just had to respond to this. I think there are two quite separate aspects put together in this paragraph. 1) Why psychoanalysis takes so long and 2) why should someone continue or discontinue with a certain therapist/analyst.
I see great value in long-term psychoanalytic treatment. I agree that it might not be necessary for some, and perhaps even in most, cases. If the problems come from present day reality and the person just needs to learn to cope with them then I believe that many short-term goal-specific approaches are in order. However, when the present day problems actually come from a traumatic childhood, and not even from one or two specific traumatic events, but the whole situation was just inherently traumatic then I think it just takes time to get to the roots.
For me it has for instance taken more than 3.5 years 4 times a week and only now I'm starting to approach the traumatic emotions that have been completely split off of me. These emotions are not related to any specific memories, they just come like floating from somewhere. I just know that they come from a very early age because I just have no words describe what is happening to me when they come. And they all surface in the transference. I don't think they would be surfacing without transference, transference is the agent or catalyst that enables me to get to those feelings at all. And it has taken a long time. I don't think I would have gotten there without the long psychoanalytic work I have been doing with my T.
The second aspect is whether to continue with a certain therapist or not. Being a psychoanalyst doesn't necessarily mean that the therapist is good or suitable for a particular patient. Also, there are crappy psychoanalysts out there and if you're seeing one then it is definitely better to leave as soon as possible. I think that a very good test for any therapist/analyst is to test the defensiveness. If the therapist becomes defensive of anything you say then I would question the ability of that therapist to do deep work with patients. Also, not everyone fits with everyone. I believe there must be some basic, intuitive trust that this therapist can help me, even if I'm not really able to trust him yet.
I hope I did not sound too harsh but to my mind to say that the psychoanalytic model is outdated shows just misunderstanding what psychoanalysis is really about. I'm sorry though that the analyst you saw was rigid in his methods and views. This is the problem of a particular person and not the therapeutic model per se.
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I just wanted to echo what you said about psychoanalysts. I think it's a myth that it's outdated because their is so much reference to Freud. But all therapies started from Freud, and the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking is similar to the evolution of any other construct.
However, I think having a 'bad' one can be more damaging then having a bad therapist of other orientations because of the intensity.
Most of us don't go as intense as you, wish more of us could. I wonder if that would be too intense for me. Those split-off, pre-verbal feelings surfacing quickly for me.
Thanks for posting on this thread.
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Originally Posted by here today
For what it's worth, maybe nothing, ignore if it's less-than-nothing -- this reminds me of what happened with my last therapist -- we came to an impasse and a rupture without repair which for me was a reenactment of a situation in my family of origin and for her was -- well, I'm pretty sure there was some transference/reenactment on her part because of some things that she has told me about herself.
That's been 5 months ago. I went through agony processing it on my own -- PC has definitely helped with that because I basically feel accepted here even with my flaws. Which was what hadn't happened in the family of origin.
Accepting/realizing that without there being someplace where I was OK was not possibly, not tolerable emotionally. I could never be OK to my last T, because of her stuff, which I didn't really see when I was caught up in mine.
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I'm really sorry her stuff intruded on your therapy. It sounds horrible.
I find PC really supportive too. Glad you feel accepted. I'm certainly glad you are here.
I think the whole set up can be a re-enactment of sorts. The key is for the therapist to react differently, not the same/similar, as those whose behaviors led to the problems we find ourselves sorting through today.
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Originally Posted by here today
Another thought, take it or leave it. I was really drawn to Kohut's ideas and tried to use them within myself even though my therapist hadn't been trained and didn't seem to get it when I mentioned them.
From that perspective, what stands out to me in your post -- and it was definitely something that I needed -- is the "twinship" or "alter ego" function. It's like grandiosity + idealization + twinship draws me out of myself into the (human/tribe) community at large. Then, it didn't happen for me b/c of a trauma at 13, peer relationships during adolescence. Then -- healthy ego functioning in a community with others!
I can kind of feel when my Kohut self functions are "on" and the peer relationships for me are just starting. But I can tell I'm doing better even though some days are still just awful.
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I like Kohut too, but I don't understand the equation you wrote above as I"m not that familiar with the technical jargon. I do know the containment in therapy acts to regulate, it's sort of supposed to help glue the ego together. I am split into different parts, so I have many 'alter-ego's' i think.
I found not that many follow self-psychology in practice. Although most seem to be a mix, I think Object Relations dominates psychoanalytic practice. Therapists who incorporate Kohut seem more supportive, yet there is criticism that it isn't really psychoanalytic therapy. Not that this was the point of your post, just adding to the discussion here.