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This is a book that seeks to hand-hold the budding analyst through the universe of psychoanalysis. It attempts to tackle the numerous awkward but pressing questions that arise in the mind of anyone with an emerging interest in psychoanalysis, questions that are seldom asked for fear of sounding naive and uninitiated. The material is presented in the form of a free ranging conversation between Luca Nicoli, a young Italian psychoanalyst and his teacher, Antonino Ferro, a renowned Training and Supervising Analyst from the Italian Psychoanalytical Society known for his work on the Analytic Field (Ferro and Basile, 2009). This exchange is translated from Italian by Adriano Bompani. Nicoli already has three books under his belt and his ease with the subject is evident (Nicoli, 2009, 2014; Nicoli and Bolognini, 2012).
As unscripted conversations go, this book has a rambling sense to it jumping from one topic to another with interesting anecdotes and literary references thrown in for good measure. The problems addressed for the new analyst range from matters relating to the setting such as deciding on the frequency and duration of the analysis and seeking payment for missed sessions to more technical problems such as managing silences and whether or not to use your own metaphors. The authors then go on to explore newer theoretical directions that beginners would find fascinating. These discussions are straight forward and direct where needed but offer a more nuanced examination in other places.
The conversation begins with fairly uncontroversial ideas regarding the setting. On being asked about patients skipping sessions, Ferro talks about the necessity of the analysis to also be lively and fun, making the patient want to arrive ten minutes early because he “cannot wait to begin” (p. 14). They also address concerns about the fear of dependence on the analyst, common to both potential patients and their referrers (p. 17). In this same section, Ferro makes the case for Psychoan