Psychoanalysis
is predicated on two main ideas: that the brain-mind has
unconscious/non-conscious functioning and that relationship hugely influences
brain-mind. Traditionally in psychoanalysis the unconscious –with its contents
of repressed material, relegated to unawareness by conflict between our wishes
and what society demands— was emphasized, and called for the technique of
making conscious what was heretofore unconscious through the use of
interpretation. This technique privileges left brain: language, free
association, understanding, insight. Neuroscience now tells us how
non-conscious implicit cues, especially right brain procedural and automatic
organizing of experience, actually play a greater part in communication than the
explicit use of words. What we do and feel is encoded in the brain based on salience
and grouped by like affect and experience. Both intrapsychic conflict and interpersonal
experience contribute but salience is, in part, greatly determined by the context of relationship.
Because we now understand the brain to be plastic— that
is, constantly changing with its dendritic connections branching anew and being
pruned— and that its neuronal pathways are influenced by experience,
psychoanalysis offers an immersion experience of a deep and protracted
relationship in which brain change can occur, a relationship of implicit acceptance
and welcome, as well as cognitive understanding made explicit. New experience
in the context of such a psychoanalytic relationship helps override, if you
will, the brain’s default position of fear, self-loathing, depression, and
other self states that vitiate a creative and enriched life.
Training in
psychoanalysis fosters an analytic attitude that strengthens the clinician’s capacity
to think about relationship and conflict, to survive the vicissitudes of
intimacy, to be with the other, and to maintain a growth promoting experience
for both analysand and analyst. This strengthening of understanding and
relationship promotes a commitment in both parties to the work. Practitioners find
their attrition rate decreases and satisfaction in work and outcome increases.
The better one becomes at helping, the more people will seek your help.
Psychoanalysts also report a very high rate of job satisfaction and stay in practice
longer than the average mental health professional. It's a win-win.
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