Analytic Safety: Navigating the Shifting Sands—A Relational Perspective

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore the complex dialectics of safety and risk for both analyst and patient in the analytic setting. The dynamic and fluid quality of both safety and risk are considered in relation to the ongoing levels of conscious and unconscious communication that inhabit the analytic space. These dimensions of our clinical work are expanded and illustrated through the detailed account of a 10-year analysis of a young woman battling for her psychic and physical life.

Notes

¹ These are views articulated and explored by many relational analysts such as Aron, Bass, Benjamin, Black, Bromberg, Ehrenberg, Davies, Hoffman, Mitchell, M. Slavin, and D. B. Stern.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hazel Ipp

Hazel Ipp, Ph.D., is Joint Editor in Chief, Psychoanalytic Dialogues; Editorial Boards, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context and Contemporary Psychoanalysis; Board Director, Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; and Faculty, TICP, IASP, ISIPse, and PiNC.