A Note on Notes: Note Taking and Containment

Psychoanalysts often record detailed process notes during sessions. While this is a common practice, it runs counter to the traditional advice of many, who, beginning with Freud (1912), have counseled against making transcripts during the psychoanalytic hour. Freud argued that a focus on remembering details is apt to produce “expectations” of what will be found and “inclinations” as to what one should listen for, and that neither of these is helpful to the analytic task. If the analyst follows his expectations, Freud noted, “he is in danger of never finding anything but what he already knows; and if he follows his inclinations he will certainly falsify what he may perceive” (1912, p. 112).

In advising analysts against taking notes during sessions, Freud made clear that he was describing what worked best for him. He left open the possibility that the minds of other analysts might function in ways that were different from his. Also, these recommendations were made in the context of the topographic theory, based upon Freud's 1900 model of dream interpretation. He could not then have known that his metapsychology would undergo significant changes, as would our views of mental functioning. Mental states characterized by failures of representation (e.g., Botella and Botella 2005; Green 1975) in fragmented minds would take their place as the agents of psychopathology, alongside repressed mental