tedavinin ötesi: analitik süreç ve kendini dert edinme*

Does psychoanalysis cure? This question refers to a net of notably wide and enigmatic questions and discussions that mediate from both inside and outside psychoanalysis. This happens so, due to the fact that even though the notion of treatment overspreads the whole of Freud's works, the notion of therapeutic act has never been a direct component of Freudian metapsychology. The main answer (that is sought) to this question for psychoanalysts is the problematization of the internal, direct, conceptual and positional relationship of psychoanalysis with the issue of treatment. Then it is necessary to start with some basic questions: What is meant by treatment above all? What is the scope of treatment? Where and how is psychoanalysis positioned in this relation of its with meaning and scope? Freud also started from a similar point; initially progressing by squaring accounts with various psychological and psychiatric treatments through hypnosis and suggestion. The problematic of the relationship between psychoanalysis and the issue of treatment was formed by distinguishing itself from its connection to these aforementioned treatments.

In this course, psychoanalysis has turned towards an increasingly tense relationship with the issue of treatment. If psychoanalysis distances itself from a therapeutic relationship and the treating tradition in this tension, that is, if it is not a usual form of therapy, then what is psychoanalysis as a clinical practice? If psychoanalysis does not want to be drowned in an illusion of being self-born, associating with no roots, and an absolute originality, then how does it position itself as a human relational practice in the cultural field, and in relation to what kind of a cultural tradition?

At this point, we will touch upon an Ancient Greek concept -Epimeleia heautou (self-concern, self-care, care of the self)- that was expressed by Foucault and can be explanatory about what kind of practices beyond the treating tradition might psychoanalysis be associated in the context of the history of the field of cultural practices and that can also make the relationship between psychoanalysis and the issue of treatment more transparent; as well as trying to relate and discuss this concept in the context of psychoanalysis.