Finding Words: How the Process and Products of Psychoanalytic Writing Can Channel the Therapeutic Action of the Very Treatment It Sets Out to Describe

Abstract

This paper explores the idea that psychoanalytic writing is more than the conveyance and elaboration of theoretical principles and presentation of clinical vignettes. It proposes that a reciprocal process occurs in psychoanalytic writing wherein facets of the treatment described can infiltrate and influence the author’s experience of writing; and in turn, the analyst’s idea and act of writing about a patient can infuse a treatment, or at least the understanding of a treatment. It develops further the idea that the dimensions of an analysis that break through to the awareness of the analyst as she or he writes are ones that are not apparent during treatment and are pressing for expression. This paper also explores the aesthetic overlap between fiction and analytic writing, with an emphasis on how characters (writer and subject) meld and exchange in both mediums. Last, the idea of “parsing words,” an exercise in analyzing clinical process word by word with depth and specificity, is encouraged and explored. An illustrative case is presented in which writing (and paper-writing in particular) is a problematic theme for both patient and analyst.

• consent
• creativity
• enactment
• fiction
• language
• presenting problem
• psychoanalytic writing
• therapeutic action
• words
• writing

Notes

¹ A required component of the training curriculum at NIP is a final project—a comprehensive paper focusing on a clinical experience that candidates use to demonstrate their knowledge of theory and their ability to integrate theoretical ideas and practice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Altstein

Rachel Altstein, JD, LP, is a 2013 graduate of NIP’s License Qualifying Program. Before entering the psychoanalytic field, she worked as an attorney specializing in prisoners’ rights, criminal defense, and anti–death penalty litigation. She is an associate editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives and a member of Beatrice Beebe’s Infant Research Board. A version of this paper received the NIP TI’s Educator’s Award and Fall Colloquium Prize. She has a private practice in New York City.