I think Freud initially came up with the idea of the couch because he got tired of being stared at. He had oral cancer and this was not a pleasant thing to be looked at, so I think that was part of it. He discovered that a different part of the brain is accessed when […]
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What types of patients do you see in your practice?
In terms of people I work with, my practice right now is kids between 8 and my oldest patient right now is 83. I work with children, I work with adolescents, I work with adults, I work with geriatrics, and everything in between. I think it’s a technique that can be applied to anybody. People […]
Where do dreams come from?
I have patients come in and say they don’t believe in the unconscious. I ask, “Well, where do dreams come from?” There is a silence when I ask that question. Psychoanalysis originated with Freud interpreting his own dreams. People are fascinated with dream interpretation. I have patients come in, they tell me a dream and […]
What Is The Compulsion to Repeat?
Another interesting thing about the Id is something that Freud developed which is the compulsion to repeat or the repetition compulsion. He felt that we tend to replay bad decisions over and over. What’s fascinating about it is the way he first came upon this idea. He saw a little child in a crib throw […]
Negative Transference
Some analysts as part of the analysis suggest, that you do not discuss all your thoughts and feelings with your friends. I don’t do that. The problem occurs, not so much as you say things to your friends, but when your friends start giving you advice. That’s where you can run into problems. I wear […]
What is “The Presenting Problem?”
People come into therapy because they have what I call “the presenting problem.” Before I talk about what those might be, people will come in because they need to feel better. They need the antibiotic. You know, “make me feel better.” What’s interesting about this profession is some people will solve that presenting problem, and […]
When Should an Analyst Talk?
When I went in to see Dr. Spotnitz the first time he said, “Tell me your life story, minute by minute, moment by moment” and he didn’t say a word for two years. When I asked him a question he would say, “Keep talking.” Those were the most frustrating years of my life. I don’t […]
What Kind of Training Do You Have?
One interesting thing about psychoanalysis is that the training is enormously complicated and long. I went to ACAP: Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis in Livingston, New Jersey. It’s almost like when you go to French, total immersion in French class or any language, the first class you take and you’re thinking “what are they […]
What does “Say Everything” mean?
The idea is, in modern psychoanalysis, that you come in and you talk. The quote is, “say everything.” It sounds so simple to come in and just say everything. It’s very difficult. The term for the difficulty, what gets in the way, is called a resistance: resistance to saying everything, telling your life story, and […]
How Do You Resist Leading Patients?
Everyone has their own truth. You and I could witness something and you go in a room and explain what you saw, and I can go in a room and explain what I saw, and it may be two very different versions. This woman did a TED Talk and they showed a tape of somebody […]