[August 1975] [3]. Cogitations

Psychoanalysis tells you nothing; it is an instrument, like the blind man's stick, that extends the power to gather information. The analyst uses it to gather a selected kind of information: the analysand uses it to gather material that he can use (1) for purposes of imitation, (2) to learn the analyst's philosophy, (3) to learn how to conduct his life in a socially acceptable manner, and (4) to become acquainted with his Self.

Although it is true that it is not his intention to satisfy (1), (2) and (3), or any desire other than (4), it is impossible to make any statement that gratifies only (4) because of the lack of precision of spontaneous English speech. The analyst can try not to pollute his interpretation on the one hand, or to speak as if he were a living computer, stranger to human heartedness, or the life that the rest of our human companions are familiar with as members of our universe.

Certain words and phrases appear to be necessary for the communication of ‘happenings’ recurring in that part of human experience with which I am most familiar, and which happens also to be that part of my life that is my profession – what, for lack of power to describe adequately, I call ‘mental suffering’. This touches on happenings about which the analyst can do nothing, and the thoughts and feelings that the patient has about them. The distinction is important, but it is one that cannot easily be delimited and isolated for examination without the inclusion of thoughts that are properly subject to discussion in their own right.

We have to use words and phrases, combinations of words, for the purpose of communication between the Origin and the Receptor (observer, psychoanalyst). We may assume that what the psychoanalyst says about the analysand is likely to be true of the psychoanalyst himself. But for purposes of psychoanalysis it is simpler to write this as an exposition from the point of view (vertex) of the observer.