The analytic attitude

337 Pages·1993·37.207 MB·English

by  Schafer, Roy

ROY SCHAFER

THE ANALYTIC

ATTITUDE

THE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

KARNAC BOOKS

T H E A N A L Y T I C

ATTITUDE

ROY SCHAFER
LONDON
KARNAC BOOKS
AND THE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
1993
First published in 1983 by
The Hogarth Press Ltd
and reprinted with their permission by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd, 1993.
118 Finchley Road,
London NW3 5HT
*
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of
the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 85575 029 6
Copyright © 1983 by Basic Books Inc
Printed in Great Britain by
BPCC Wheatons Ltd., Exeter
To Helen

Contents
Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1. The Analytic Attitude: A n Introduction 3

2. The Atmosphere of Safety: Freud's "Papers on

Technique" (1911-1915) 14

3. The Psychoanalyst's Empathic Activity 34

4. Appreciation in the Analytic Attitude 58

5. Resisting and Empathizing 66

6. Conflict as Paradoxical Actions 82

7. Danger Situations 96

8. The Interpretation of Transference and the Conditions

for Loving 113

9. The Analysis of Character 134

10. The Analysis of Resisting 162

11. Psychoanalytic Interpretation 183

12. Psychoanalytic Reconstruction 193

13. The Construction of Multiple Histories 204

14. Narration in the Psychoanalytic Dialogue 212

15. Action and Narration in Psychoanalysis 240

16. The Imprisoned Analysand 257

17. On Becoming a Psychoanalyst of One Persuasion or

Another 281

References 297

Index 303

vii

Preface

It is my aim in this book to clarify the intellectual and emotional atti­
tude adopted by the analyst at work. I take up neutrality, discipline,
empathy, authenticity, fidelity to a system of psychoanalytic thought
and practice, and the tensions inherent in the analyst's professional
development and daily work. I also look as deeply as I now can into
the nature of psychoanalytic interpretation. I focus not so much on the
content of interpretation of the sort one finds in textbooks that deal
narrowly with technique or with specific theories of psychical devel­
opment or psychopathology; much more, I focus on the presupposi­
tions of making any interpretation at all, the structure and logical jus­
tification of interpretation, the ways in which interpretation is a form
of narration through creating life histories and treatment histories,
and the ways in which it is circular and self-confirming but not on
that account foolish, false, or unhelpful. Much neglected by analytic
theorists and teachers of technique, the theory of interpretation makes
clear just what kind of work one does in doing analysis. So long as the
theory of interpretation continues to be neglected, our understanding
of the major cognitive aspect of the analytic attitude will remain in a
primitive state, and the further result will be the needless controversy,
dogmatism, and self-misunderstanding that, in my view, characterize a
good deal of psychoanalytic discussion.
In order to arrive at an understanding of the analytic attitude, how­
ever, one must consider it in relation to the ways in which analysands
continuously and necessarily challenge it. Analysands mount these
challenges in the form of their transferences, their resistances, and
their rigid adherence to disruptive character traits owing to their un­
consciously maintaining certain infantile fantasies, theories, and con­
victions about themselves and others. Upon being analyzed rather
than responded to in their own terms, all of these challenges are
shown to be ways in which analysands provide the essential material
for their analyses; thereby they also establish a basis for significant
ix