Whose responsibility, anyway?

The task of the analyst is to help the patient learn about himself (discover the many facets of himself, if you will), not to impose on the patient the necessity to prove the analyst’s pre-learned theories about human behavior. The analyst, then, has no corner on ‘truth’ and cannot privilege her perspective over that of the patient’s psychic reality. Instead, both analyst and patient struggle to negotiate a working relationship toward discovery. Faltering, fumbling, rupturing, both then strive to upright and repair what has been lost in the relationship. No matter how both analyst and analysand are implicated in the co-creation of the transference, countertransference, or resistance, whatever the patient does is always in the service of trying to heal himself. The patient tests the analyst for trustworthiness, commitment, and circumspection. Make no mistake, that whatever the outcome—whether impasse, acquiescence, failure to improve, getting worse, or stopping treatment – it is always the analyst’s responsibility. The analyst  welcomes in, then must contain what has been welcomed. The analyst’s failure to monitor interactions between patient and analyst, to recognize and correct misattunements, can have dire consequences. While both take responsibility for the discourse, any failure lies on the shoulders of the analyst alone.