Who Do the Words Come From: A Psychoanalytical Tale

My first experience in analysis with a classically trained analyst left an unexpected but profound imprint on me. After enduring that kind of one-person analysis for eleven years, I was not left with a favorable impression of the method. Originally trained as a classical psychoanalyst, I have since chosen to work intersubjectively and interactively, and I am shifting more deliberately and with more conviction toward an assimilative integrative psychotherapy approach. In this paper I tell the story of my personal analysis and outline the conclusions I have drawn from it that created a seismic shift in my way of thinking and working as a psychoanalyst.