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Dear Sirs,
Many thanks for offering me the opportunity to respond to Louw & Pitman. These authors have written an entire article devoted almost exclusively to criticism of my work. Of course, I am flattered to be the object of so much attention, and I appreciate the authors’ efforts. Also, I take a measure of satisfaction in having stirred up intellectual controversy, which must, I suppose, be regarded on general principles as healthy for our field. Nonetheless, a problem is posed for me because Louw & Pitman spend much of their time misrepresenting my views and then arguing with their misrepresentations. The exercise of setting the record straight in detail would be tedious, nor can I imagine that it would bring much enlightenment to the Journal's readership. Therefore, I'll confine myself to addressing just one fundamental error.
I have repeatedly made clear that by ‘the analyst's irreducible subjectivity’ I refer to the recognition that it is impossible for an analyst, acting alone within the clinical situation as a participant-observer, to evaluate the extent to which unconscious factors are determining his/her analytic activity. My purpose in emphasising this self-evident condition has been to dispute the familiar claim that an analyst can, through rigorous self-analysis and consultation with colleagues, monitor the appearance of his/her subjectivity within the clinical encounter and reduce its shaping influence. I have suggested that it is just when an analyst is least aware of any particular personal involvement that the analyst is most in danger of underestimating his/her unconscious personal involvement and its effects.
I have never, as Louw & Pitman inaccurately represent, said that the influence of the analyst's subjectivity upon the clinical situation cannot be reduced. What I have asserted is that the analyst him/herself cannot achieve the reduction. In fact, the whole purpose of my various suggestions concerning how we might empower our patients within th