You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Analysis Analysed is one of the most clinically and intellectually stimulating books I have read in recent years. Plaut takes on the formidable task of addressing ‘analysts of all “schools” of depth psychology’ in his sustained interrogation of the underlying assumptions of analytical psychology and psychoanalysis. The author is eminently qualified to do this. He first trained as a Jungian analyst, then later in life underwent a Freudian analysis and actively participated in the SAP experiment at combining the theories of Jung and Melanie Klein.
The book is a prolonged examination of the basic assumptions and goals of analysis in an attempt to clarify the nature of our clinical practice. Part I of the book examines the basic tenets and ‘aims’ of analysis — preferring truth to illusions, tolerating the conflict of opposites, striving towards wholeness, accepting conscious suffering and sacrifices, the reconstruction of childhood memories, etc. — with particular focus on how these contrast with the actual results of analysis. ‘Faith in Analysis’, chapter I, presents a very useful discussion of the experiences of faith, trust and doubt as manifest in the analytic experience, the history of psychoanalytic theory and the development of the infant's personality. Plaut, always sceptical of hidden idealisms and unanalysed assumptions, returns the reader again and again to concrete instances as a means of grounding the point he is trying to make. For example, in discussing the role of trust and faith in analytic theory and practice, he returns the reader to a poignant moment in childhood to illustrate his point: ‘… I would suggest that games which parents play with young children, such as “fly away Peter, fly away Paul” and later versions of “hide-and-seek” can be seen as exercises in losing-finding-doubting-trusting. So is the letting oneself fall backward, the body rigid, into reliable arms. The thrill that accompanies the game every time it is repeated suggests that trust,