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

235 Pages·2017·18.776 MB·English

by  Therese Rosenblatt (editor)

The Voice of the Analyst

The Voice of the Analyst contains personal narratives by 12 psychoanalysts, each tak-
ing the reader through his or her unique path toward developing a voice and iden-
tity 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 strik-
ing 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 motiva-
tions, 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.
Linda Hillman, PhD, practices as a psychologist and psychoanalyst in New York City
and Westchester County. She treats adults, adolescents, children, and couples. She is
a Clinical Supervisor for the City University of New York, and a member of the New
York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She has
published on the psychological implications of teaching writing as well as co-a uthored
several papers on group relations. She is also a published poet and has played lead-
ership roles in a number of volunteer community organizations focused on youth,
mental health, and education.
Therese Rosenblatt, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice
in New York City and Westchester County, New York. She treats adults, children,
adolescents, couples, and families. She leads parenting groups privately and at the
Early Childhood Development Center in New York City. She is on the faculty of the
Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She is Adjunct
Clinical Supervisor at Yeshiva University and Pace University in New York and an
active member of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis
and Psychotherapy.
Psychoanalysis in a New Key book series

Donnel Stern
Series editor
When music is played in a new key, the melody does not change, but the
notes that make up the composition do: change in the context of continu-
ity, continuity that perseveres through change. Psychoanalysis in a New Key
publishes books that share the aims psychoanalysts have always had, but
that approach them differently. The books in the series are not expected to
advance any particular theoretical agenda, although to this date most have
been written by analysts from the Interpersonal and Relational orientations.
The most important contribution of a psychoanalytic book is the communica-
tion of something that nudges the reader’s grasp of clinical theory and practice in
an unexpected direction. Psychoanalysis in a New Key creates a deliberate focus
on innovative and unsettling clinical thinking. Because that kind of thinking is
encouraged by exploration of the sometimes surprising contributions to psychoa-
nalysis of ideas and findings from other fields, Psychoanalysis in a New Key par-
ticularly encourages interdisciplinary studies. Books in the series have married
psychoanalysis with dissociation, trauma theory, sociology, and criminology. The
series is open to the consideration of studies examining the relationship between
psychoanalysis and any other field—f or instance, biology, literary and art criti-
cism, philosophy, systems theory, anthropology, and political theory.
But innovation also takes place within the boundaries of psychoanalysis, and
Psychoanalysis in a New Key therefore also presents work that reformulates
thought and practice without leaving the precincts of the field. Books in the
series focus, for example, on the significance of personal values in psychoanalytic
practice, on the complex interrelationship between the analyst’s clinical work and
personal life, on the consequences for the clinical situation when patient and ana-
lyst are from different cultures, and on the need for psychoanalysts to accept the
degree to which they knowingly satisfy their own wishes during treatment hours,
often to the patient’s detriment. A full list of all titles in this series is available at:
www.routledge.com/ series/ LEAPNKBS.
RECENT TITLES IN THIS SERIES:
Vol. 41 Understanding the Sexual Betrayal of Boys and Men: The Trauma of
Sexual Abuse Edited by Richard B. Gartner
Vol. 40 Healing Sexually Betrayed Men and Boys: Treatment for Sexual Abuse,
Assault, and Trauma Edited by Richard B. Gartner
Vol. 39 The Voice of the Analyst: Narratives on Developing a Psychoanalytic
Identity Edited by Linda Hillman and Therese Rosenblatt
Vol. 38 Interpersonal Psychoanalysis and the Enigma of Consciousness Edgar
A. Levenson and Edited by Alan Slomowitz
Vol. 37 The Organizational Life of Psychoanalysis: Conflicts, Dilemmas, and
the Future of the Profession Kenneth Eisold
The Voice of the Analyst

Narratives on Developing a
Psychoanalytic Identity
Edited by Linda Hillman and
Therese Rosenblatt
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Linda Hillman and Therese Rosenblatt;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Hillman, Linda Harbaugh, editor. | Rosenblatt, Therese, editor.
Title: The voice of the analyst : narratives on developing a psychoanalytic identity /
edited by Linda Hillman and Therese Rosenblatt.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Psychoanalysis in a new key book series ; 39 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017009056 (print) | LCCN 2017034313 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315681375 (Master) | ISBN 9781317399971 (Web PDF) |
ISBN 9781317399964 (ePub) | ISBN 9781317399957 (Mobipocket/Kindle) |
ISBN 9781138929135 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138929142 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysts–Biography. | Psychoanalysis–History.
Classification: LCC BF109.A1 (ebook) | LCC BF109.A1 V65 2017 (print) |
DDC 150.19/50922–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017009056
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 92913- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 92914- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 68137- 5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Out of House Publishing
For my husband Marshall and sons Zachary, Sam, and Jacob

from Therese with love and gratitude
For my husband Michael and children Jessica and Daniel
from Linda with appreciation and love

Contents

Acknowledgments xi
List of contributors xiv
1 Prelude 1
LINDA HILLMAN AND THERESE ROSENBLATT
PART I
Narratives 11

2 All origins are suspect: becoming a psychoanalyst 13
FRANCISCO J. GONZÁLEZ
3 From Ebbets Field to 82nd Street: finding my way 26
TED JACOBS
4 Psychoanalysis and me 37
LISSA WEINSTEIN
5 The voice endures 50
MITCHELL WILSON
6 Becoming myself: resuming a derailed adolescence 62
THERESE ROSENBLATT
7 Becoming a psychoanalyst 77
JACK DRESCHER
8 Hiding in plain sight 94
LINDA HILLMAN
9 Curiosity didn’t kill the cat: (or how I became a psychoanalyst) 109
CAROLYN ELLMAN