The Analyst at Work: A Psychoanalytic Exchange for Sharing our Experience and Learning from our Differences

When the Editors-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis invited me to join their team as editor of ‘The Analyst at Work’ section, I did not take long to answer affirmatively. Having already participated in one of the clinical exchanges published under this heading, and having read most of the other contributions, I knew what an interesting experience it provided to practising analysts. But then, I wondered if I was thereby relinquishing one of my customary stances. I am talking of the response elicited in me when clinical vignettes are brought to the fore as ‘proof’ of any psychoanalytic theory. In line with what my teachers in psychoanalysis have taught me, I try to never lose sight of the fact … that there is no pure fact in psychoanalysis, and that what we bring up as ‘fact’ is, consciously or not, selected for its correspondence with the theory we hold true. On the other hand, we all know how much our clinical and theoretical views are resistant to competing points of view and how, after a debate, analysts usually adhere to their original ideas, for reasons that do not all pertain to the field of epistemology. I therefore had to ask myself if editing ‘The Analyst at Work’ had any chance of revealing itself a rather impossible mission. In view of what I have just mentioned, could I believe that a clinical exchange/ is possible?

Upon reflection, it dawned on me that these two factors - that vignettes are no proof and that we cling to our personal views anyway - do not apply to ‘The Analyst at Work’ in the way they do in theoretical debate. To begin with, this section of the journal is not intended to be ‘proof’ of anything, nor to convince readers of one's point of view. Its aim is to provide a space where differences and commonalities are brought to the fore for the benefit of learning from another analyst's experience. Such learning can happen regardless of agreement or disagreement about the theoretical underpinnings of one's communication or of