The Analyst’s Trust in Psychoanalysis and The Communication of That Trust in Initial Interviews

Abstract

Aspects of the analyst’s person may facilitate or, conversely, inhibit the establishment of analytic contact. The author argues that the analyst’s trust in psychoanalysis as a method, which is a component of analytic identity, is a crucial element in the analyst’s functioning during the initial interviews. Trust is here distinguished from belief. After a historical outline of the transition from indication to the initiation of psychoanalyses as an interactive process, trust as an analytic concept is discussed, both in general terms and with specific reference to the initial interviews. An extended clinical vignette is provided for illustration.

• Trust
• trust in psychoanalysis
• initial interviews
• initiation of analysis
• analytic identity