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Whichever way one approaches the study of the psychoanalytic process, it appears to me that, to achieve it, one must take into account certain aspects of the analyst at work. Fundamentally, the analyst does not differ from anybody else; it is in his work, in his daily activity, that he reveals a certain way of being which represents more than the acquisition of a mere technique. Its study could, I believe, clarify the notion of the psychoanalytic process.
The various meanings attributed to Freud's statement 'Where id was there ego shall be' emphasize the fact that much has been condensed into this statement. So far as the analyst is concerned, I would like to stress the importance of 'there ego shall be' as an aspiration, an aim which has always to be in the process of being reached. It is perhaps in paraphrasing this statement that I find the most condensed answer to the question of an analyst's characteristics, i.e. 'where the analyst is, there ego should be'.
To my mind the psychoanalyst has always to verify the authenticity of his emerging ego in relation to his internal substructures. His ego has to adjust itself continually in the face of internal conflicts awakened by the analysis in order to reach an equilibrium between impulses and defences, and also in order to transcend them.
On the other hand the analyst has continually to concern himself with what he feels towards and says to his patient to make sure that his attitude is free of manifestations of defensive reactions.
Thus caught between himself versus the patient and his ego versus his internal substructures, the analyst has to accomplish a very difficult task. It is neither a conciliatory synthesis between inner conflictual parties nor a leap towards something new and non-conflictual between himself and his patient. It is nevertheless a bit of both.
Can the psychoanalyst accept someone in treatment solely on the basis of his knowledge and clinical experience? If an analyst is aware that he will choo