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The analyst feels not only the patient, but also himself in seeking to discover his own humanity in the other, in experiencing the universal human in himself and in the other.
Experiencing the universally human is a potential source of joy in analysis. It is available to both participants. My response to Biancoli's essay is to explore the nature of this, and other sources of joy that I believe are at the heart of the analytic encounter.
Focusing on our common humanity can promote the sense that we can transcend our particular idiosyncrasies and circumstances and that can bring us joy. But there is a second fundamental source of joy in analysis, in the process of defining and affirming our unique individuality. Biancoli writes of analysis as “a dialogue between analyst and analysand aimed at clarifying who the latter is and why he is the way he is, that is to say, at unsticking his process of individuation.” (p. 609). Biancoli goes on to describe how “the analyst's own process of individuation is also activated.”
Thus I am differentiating two fundamental opportunities for joy in the treatment process. These two joys, the joy of affirming uniqueness and the joy of transcending it, can hearten both analyst and patient. Both, I believe, fortify the relationship, allowing it to weather its inevitable challenges. Despite difficulties, a treatment can survive and its participants thrive if there is sufficient joy.
I begin by exploring the nature of joy. First, I compare Fromm's and Schachtel's conceptions of joy with concepts drawn from emotion theory and the poetry of Wordsworth. Then, moving to the analytic encounter, I explore some of its potential joys. In a final section I reframe these sources of joy, in a further effort to clarify just what each celebrates.