The first interview: Anxieties and research on initiating psychoanalysis.

Area of Science:

• Psychoanalysis
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychodynamic Research

Background:

• Initial psychoanalytic interviews involve potent unconscious dynamics.
• These dynamics generate significant anxiety and defenses in both patients and analysts.
• Group dynamics within workshops and research teams also reflect these anxieties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the unconscious dynamics present in the first interviews of psychoanalysis.
• To understand how anxieties and defenses are transmitted within clinical research groups.
• To examine the role of methodology in managing and elaborating reactions in psychoanalytic research.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative clinical study involving preliminary interviews.
• Observation of group dynamics in clinical workshops and research teams.
• Analysis of 'session residues' and their impact on group anxiety and defenses.

Main Results:

• Unconscious dynamics in initial interviews are exceptionally powerful, eliciting deep anxieties and defenses.
• Anxieties and defenses are communicated to groups via unelaborated 'session residues'.
• These residues provoke further anxiety and defense mechanisms within the groups.

Conclusions:

• Findings enhance understanding of first interviews in psychoanalysis.
• The study raises questions about managing the unknown in psychoanalytic research.
• Clinical research methods can serve to contain and facilitate elaboration of group reactions, rather than merely avoiding anxiety.