Uncovering, Covering, Discovering Analytic Truth: Personal and Professional Sources of Omission in Psychoanalytic Writing and Their Effects on Psychoanalytic Thinking and Practice

Writing on the topic of this issue, “how analytic work shapes the analyst,” presents a problem that is at the heart of all analytic writing. The issue is an invitation to analysts to write about their work and personal experiences. We are not free to fully report on our patients, nor do we feel free or willing to report fully on ourselves. My purpose herein is to examine some implications of these limitations in public self-reporting, taking as an example an instance of omission in my own writing regarding my self-analysis, and describing how the eventual inclusion of the omitted aspect in the present paper interelates with my work with patients. Some more general ramifications of the prevalent exclusion of self-analysis from public discourse—with the exception of countertransference—are discussed with regard to the biases such partial reporting may introduce in our psychoanalytic thinking and practice.

Matters laboriously uncovered in our analytic and self-analytic engagements in search of truth are often covered up in our writing. The decision as to what to reveal and what to omit or disguise and