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Dr. Faimberg provides us with a most rich and thought-provoking contribution to the psychoanalytic literature. Her ideas capture, I believe, something of the heart of psychoanalysis—an attunement to the unconscious and the recognition of psychic reality.
In this brief discussion, I shall first highlight what I understand as the main clinical and theoretical ideas Dr. Faimberg brings forth in this fascinating and necessarily condensed paper. I will then offer some reflections on the importance and relevance of her work as it relates to other ideas circulating within our analytic culture.
I can't help but begin by pointing out that we now have an opportunity to listen to how we listened to this morning's paper—potentially how we as listeners transformed and understood its meanings. No doubt this will reveal much about our own psychoanalytic culture and, perhaps, our misunderstandings and unconscious identifications as well.
Let us consider the quotation with which she opens her paper: “Many persons feel that their analysis would make great progress if they could get rid of their analyst. Conversely, some colleagues think they would be great analysts if they managed to get rid of their patient' (, as cited in Faimberg, 2008).
What to make of this? What do we hear? Immediately we are confronted with the problem of “otherness” and how tempting it may be to cling to a narcissistic position (i.e., all that is not me is bad and to be ejected). In