Affective Self-Disclosure By The Analyst

Three speakers had originally been invited to address this panel: Rivka Bifermann, Jorge Olagaray and Owen Renik. The first two panellists were unable to attend through illness and did not forward papers. Owen Renik was thus the only panellist present. The Moderator, Stefano Bolognini, opened the panel discussion by commenting that affective self-disclosure by the analyst and its use in treatment is a hot issue widely debated today and a focus of theoretical and methodological controversies. He raised several questions about self-disclosure, such as: is it a useful, real analytic tool? Is it, in certain cases, unleashed, uncontrolled expression or a form of perverse satisfaction for the analyst? Could it be a new ‘plague’ in the deeply ironic Freudian sense that is returning to Europe from America? Bolognini highlighted both the dangers and the positive aspects of affective self-disclosure by the analyst.

For the analyst, the dangers are those of satisfying the exhibitionistic needs and tendencies of a narcissistic analyst and of highlighting the incapacity for self-control in an analyst's incompletely structured personality. For the patient, the analyst's attitude constitutes a danger when the analyst incorrectly believes the patient can tolerate the separateness of the analyst when, in fact, this is not the case; when the analyst does not realise that the patient may be envious of the analyst's ability to maintain good contact with his/her own life. These (and perhaps other) factors can produce—in the absolute—mistakes, or at least be subject to wrong timing when the analyst communicates with the patient about his feelings or about personal matters without considering the impact of this action and the effects on the internal organisation of the other, inasmuch as the unelaborated communication of the analyst can make the patient feel a loss of containment.

On the other hand, Bolognini quoted some positive factors, when the analyst is free of perversion: confirming t