Report on the panel on confidentiality as a container - clinical and theoretical issues

• Published in: International journal of psychoanalysis Vol. 100; no. 5; pp. 1021 - 1024
• Main Author: Micu, Gianina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 01.10.2019; Institute of Psychoanalysis (British); Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Confidentiality; Patients; Psychoanalysis
• ISSN: 0020-7578; 1745-8315
• DOI: 10.1080/00207578.2019.1681754

During the session, after a moment of silence, the patient - in full-Oedipal conflict - began by saying, "It was a difficult weekend for me"; she displayed ambivalence between the joy of reunion and vexation at discovering that her own dream had been published in her analyst's new book, an ambivalence that dominated the session. In her intervention, Allannah Furlong asked: "Does the analyst's theoretical orientation make a difference to the patient's reaction to the presentation of their clinic material?" The intrapsychic is important for psychoanalysis, since the unconscious is its main domain. The conclusions reached from this case study presentation were: (1) There is no universal solution that is guaranteed to reduce the stress that a patient might find themself in when they discover their analyst has published their clinical material. [...]there are two levels of defence that can arise from lack of confidentiality: (1) disavowal - not to see, not to be seen (see S. Freud); (2) "syncretic participation" - depending on something you have not even seen (see J. Bleger).