This paper aims to explore aspects of psychoanalytic psychotherapy training, with particular reference to the pressures and uncertainties experienced following graduation. The prestige of the professional position places expectations ‘to know’, so there is an ambivalence in remaining open to analytic knowledge as supposition. The effect of unconscious processes is examined alongside the influence of role responsiveness. The concept of ‘embodied knowledge’ is proposed as a possible synthesis of the experiential and learning processes, whilst still leaving us with an open rather than restricted perspective.