The Analyst’s Subjectivity: On the Impact of Inadvertent, Deliberate, and Silent Disclosure

Abstract

In this essay, I explore areas of overlap and difference between analyst subjectivity and self-disclosure, especially with regard to deliberate rather than inadvertent disclosure. I discuss critiques from within and outside of Relational psychoanalysis that the perspective overemphasizes these concepts, and I introduce “silent-disclosure” to describe one form that the clinician’s mostly internal process of exploring his or her subjectivity can take. A clinical vignette is offered as a way of illustrating this new concept.

Keywords:

• analyst subjectivity
• contemporary psychoanalysis
• relational psychoanalysis
• self-disclosure
• silent-disclosure

Acknowledgments

With great appreciation to Galit Atlas, Sharyn Leff, and Rachel Sopher for their careful reading and thoughtful suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Kuchuck

Steven Kuchuck, DSW, is Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Perspectives; Co-Editor, Routledge Relational Perspectives Book Series; President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; and Board Member, supervisor, faculty, Co-Director of Curriculum for the psychoanalytic training program at National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP); and Faculty/Supervisor at the NIP National Training Program, Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center, the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia, and other institutes. Dr. Kuchuck’s teaching and writing focus primarily on the clinical impact of the therapist’s subjectivity. In 2015 and 2016 he won the Gradiva Award for best psychoanalytic book: Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst’s Life Experience: When the Personal Becomes Professional and The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor (co-edited with Adrienne Harris).