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There are many ways that analysts have of coming to grips with their profession, called an 'impossible' one by Freud himself. One way is for analysts to write about their work, either in the various journals or by publishing books. This is the way that Stephen Kurtz has chosen, though his book, The Art of Unknowing, subtitled, 'Dimensions of Openness in Analytic Therapy', is far from a conventional text on psychoanalytic technique.
In the opening chapter, he states that an analyst's task 'goes far beyond the need to comprehend' (p. 4). Rather, the task is 'closer to that of a good mother who, in attuning herself to her developing child, manifests her love' (p. 4). Furthermore, we are informed that, 'for the most part, the truths achieved through psychoanalysis will fail to meet scientific criteria' (p. 6).
Grunbaum notwithstanding, this statement might give many analysts pause, and I include myself here; it does not distress Kurtz. For him, given that each analytic dyad is unique, 'the generalizing truths of science are trivial; poetry is the only source of important truth…if…psychoanalysis has value, it is not for employing a scientific method but for being inspired' (p. 6).
Kurtz goes on to describe his therapy with a patient A.N., a poet, a therapy which was conducted almost entirely by correspondence, with the occasional session by telephone. By Kurtz's account, his experience with this patient, and that with another of his patients, Lydia, whose therapy is described in detail later in the book, radically changed his way of working with patients.
Apparently, these experiences led him to abandon the use of interpretation, which he feels is based on the analyst's need to know. This need to know on the analyst's part is both 'alienating' and 'unproductive'. Instead of trying to 'decode' his patients an analyst should 'respond in kind', which allows the formation of an empathic bond between analyst and patient. With his patient A.N., Kurtz was confronted with h