Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Barbara Sanders, LCSW

Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: An interview by Barbara Sanders, LCSW

As a psychodynamic psychotherapist who works with individuals, couples and families, I would like to share with NPI some of my exposure to psychoanalysis. I have participated in a wide variety of therapies throughout life as a client and in much training as a professional, and my psychoanalytic education and analysis have been valuable to me personally and professionally. John Waide, PhD, LCSW, Marsha Robertson, LCSW, and Paul Morris, LCSW, share some of their experiences in this interview.

John, Marsha, Paul and I are all intrigued by the transformational nature and process of healing, and over 20 years ago, we joined the Nashville Psychoanalytic Study Group, now named the Nashville Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Some NPI members have participated in this group’s Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy program (APP), a 2-year post-graduate program for therapists which began in 2002. John, Marsha and Paul have each been Directors of APP, and John, Paul and I have been NPI Chairs. I want to invite NPI members and other therapists to attend this group’s monthly meetings for continuing education training, and I am posting its meetings on the NPI list serve.

Barbara: Why did you each become a psychoanalyst?

Marsha: I first became aware of psychoanalytic ideas when I was a teaching assistant working on my Master’s in English Lit. I discovered that I did not want to teach but that I was fascinated by analytic theory. It was as exciting and profound as anything I had come across. I went on to become a therapist and read many theories; none however had as much depth and complexity as psychoanalysis. Then, when I entered my own analysis, I knew becoming an analyst was the path for me. The self-understanding I gained was the most empowering experience of my life. The heart of psychoanalysis is and always has been self-understanding.

Paul: Barbara, thank you very much for asking. My education helped me to find my way, however, I think I made the decision to be a therapist and later an analyst based mainly on my own psychology. I tend to see people as finding psychotherapy careers for personal reasons although I am sure there are many other important reasons. I think the core values of learning to be honest with oneself and to develop good relationships are at the heart of the work, and are what psychoanalysis is supposed to be about.

John: I was first drawn to psychoanalysis in the 1970s when I read Freud, Fromm, and Erikson. While changing careers from philosophy professor to clinical social worker, I had a group of friends who were all becoming therapists. Our daily conversations about what we were learning, and reading were among the most stimulating experiences of my life. We read widely and voraciously about all sorts of therapy but psychoanalytic and psychodynamic readings in our omnivorous diet stood out. A friend began psychoanalysis and I watched the slow, beautiful transformations that followed. I had benefited enormously from long-term experiential group therapy and Jungian therapy, but those modalities weren’t touching some aspects of my own personality. I wanted/needed more. I finally sought out analytic treatment when my private practice was well enough established. The draw for me was the profound interaction/relationship (á la Winnicott’s work) to deepen my relationships with my wife, child, and friends. In 1997, I began analytic training to see what it might be like to operate on such a deep, intimate level with patients. I got what I wanted.

Marsha: While both deal with self-understanding, both intra-psychically and interpersonally, psychoanalysis is a more intense process, and unconscious patterns of relating emerge in the relationship with the analyst which reveal early reactions and adaptations to pain, loss, and fears of closeness and distance. The experience, which is a lengthy one, provides for a truly examined life and can lead to greater empathy for oneself and others. I think it is particularly important for mental health professionals who must learn to deal with their own anxiety in order sit with all kinds of mental suffering in a way that is non-reactive and empathic.

Paul: I think the fundamentals for both are 1) self-understanding; 2) self-honesty, and 3) developing good relationships. How is analysis different from dynamic therapy? I think psychoanalysis deals more intensely with the mixed positive and negative transferences that play out over lengthy periods of time in any long-term relationship. Importantly, I think in psychoanalysis the “pandora’s box” of the unconscious is opened over a longer time period so things that are unwanted and unexpected come to the surface. The frame of treatment aims to protect individuals during the process and promotes the goals of the treatment (insight into one’s own motivations and tendencies.) I think that certain people—mental health professionals or people dealing with complicated family issues especially—are bound to find a good analysis helpful. Again, I see the aims as self-understanding, being able to “straight talk” with oneself, and getting along with people in one’s life.

John: Frequency makes a huge difference. I wish I knew how to convey the experience (as analyst or patient) of meeting 4 or 5 times per week in a setting where the analyst mainly listens for deeper resonances beneath the surface of what the patient says, and where patients learn to listen to themselves on a deeper level, honoring the feelings, connections, and relationships that are mainly expressed indirectly. The power and intimacy of such sessions can be at once beautiful, terrifying, and healing. Analysis isn’t primarily cerebral but a whole-body experience—of past trauma, grief, or present anxiety. As patient and analyst together learn to notice the subtle, automatic, unconscious defenses against disturbing primal perils of life—e.g., losing loved ones, losing their love, mutilation, or at the deepest core, a disintegration of self—it is possible to develop the capacity to connect more deeply with others, remaining emotionally close even through storms of longing, rage, love, and hate. It isn’t easy, but it is deeply satisfying— mostly.

Barbara: Thank you, Marsha, Paul and John! If the monthly meetings or APP intrigue you, please view the website at www.Nashville-Psychoanalytic.org