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Psychoanalytic Inquiry has published a timely and informative appraisal of the growing trend to embrace the mutual approach to analysis that Jung advocated some eighty years ago. Although Jung is never mentioned in this issue, Jungians are sure to benefit from a group of cautious Freudians who are discovering that analysis is a human relationship in which the analyst is fully involved. All the contributors agree that no a priori rules regarding self-disclosure are adequate. The process with each analysand must be evaluated on its own terms.
The editor of this issue, Michael J. Miletic, in a ‘prologue’, says, ‘the analyst is now seen as an … observing participant, who co-creates the conditions of the analysis with the patient’ (p. 515). In an ‘epilogue’ he summarizes the conclusions of his authors in six points. Self-disclosure can be useful when done in the interests of the patient, especially when dealing with difficult resistances; but it is always important to evaluate and discuss such moves. Miletic's own article is the most outspoken. In making the distinction all contributors insist upon - self-revelation versus self-disclosure - he says we inadvertently reveal ‘the essence of our selves’ to our patients in being who we are - as in any ‘emotional relationship’ (p. 594). Self-disclosure, on the other hand, is always a deliberate and conscious activity of making personal feelings and thoughts explicit to the patient. Because ‘blank screen neutrality’ fails ‘to take account of the way learning actually takes place in analysis’,
I am advocating for an attitude of active willingness … to accompany a patient and to at times initiate actions, verbally or non-verbally, to enter into the emotional world of the patient, as defined by the patient, … a willingness to openly and candidly discuss the entire landscape of any of the areas where we go together.
In his work with the withholding Mrs A, Miletic spent years attempting to draw her into discussing her feelings,