First thing that I would like to say is that although I am a fully trained psycho-analyst, I do not need to look to traditional psychoanalytic theories to decide what say and how I practice in the clinical setting. My last supervisor in the United States, Dr. Eric Kulick clearly stated that there is only one rule in psychoanalysis, which is “to be ethical whatever you do”. This statement no matter how it sounds simple, put us in a deep dilemma: what if for some patients psychoanalysis is not the choice of treatment modality, ethically speaking?
I consider that this potentially
self-sacrificing attitude as an analyst is still most valuable and most needed
in this era of multiplicity, as it means that we are constantly reflecting on ourselves
and see if we are critical about whether we are using analytic method when
needed and not when not needed. As some of my supervisors stated that knowing psychoanalysis
is to know when not to use it. I consider that this attitude is still
psychoanalytic on the meta-level. The only thing that reveals that we are
psychoanalytic is that we are speaking psychoanalytic language no matter what. We
can still use terms such as transference, resistance, interpretation,
suggestion….most of which were originated by
Freud himself, without necessarily abiding by the principle rules in psychoanalysis
as Freud demonstrated.
