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For a psychotherapy or psychoanalysis to be successful, its framework must, I believe, partake of a new reality which derives from, is based on, and reflects a genuine relationship between patient and therapist or analyst. This relationship should probably take precedence over the clinician's relationship to any particular theory or theoretician.
As students and practitioners of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, we can rely on numerous theoretical frameworks for our work. During the actual conduct of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, if our patients and we are to be able to communicate, we must together rely on some shared framework including a shared language. What is that shared framework? Does it, or should it, derive from a particular metapsychology? As we, you the reader and I, consider that question together, for my presentation and for our communication to be meaningful we, in turn, must rely on a shared language and frame of reference. The words and ideas that we will share need to touch meaningfully on lived experiences and be, for each of us, real within our own personal reality; but in addition, they need to be real within a shared language and a shared framework. Toward that end, let us begin by considering the work that we do and the words that we use to describe it: psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. Both words include the Greek word psyche or, in English, soul. The implication must be that our work, through therapy or analysis (interesting words themselves), is meant to affect or impact on our patient's psyche, hopefully in a beneficial manner. But what is this psyche, and what are its essential elements or character that our work is intended to benefit?
It is important to acknowledge that the word psyche, inseparable though it may be from our professional work or professional identity (we are, after all, many of us, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, or psychologists) has become somewhat suspect. The English word soul in particular, fraught with religious c