What are the Necessary Conditions for an Analysis ?

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I.

Given the complexity of the phenomena inherent to the analytic process, the intensity of the emotional experiences set in motion by the transference, the precise conditions which award truthfulness and power to the interpretations, an analysis must take place in a defined and intangible setting.

1. Given the breadth of such an undertaking, the treatment will require several years. It is impossible to predict its duration at the outset, as its unfolding depends principally on the analysand. The temporality implied in such an open ended process is adapted to the movement of the psyche.
2. The ideal setting is one wherein three or four sessions per week are scheduled at regular times, and are of a fixed length of time. It is essential for the interpretive elaboration of the transference, that nothing said by the patient, who must be protected by the fundamental rule, pushes the analyst to respond by an action, such as abruptly ending the session or otherwise modifying the setting.
3. Not only the payment, but the means by which the payment is effectuated are part of the setting. The simple fact of the frequency and the duration of the sessions is the reason why analysis is expensive. This fact should not be mistaken with clinical experience which has proven that paying the analyst directly, without third party interference is optimal for the dynamic process. Complementary experience, certainly legitimate, of analyses undertaken in institutions, or paid for by insurance companies, have shown certain inevitable limitations to the process. Paying in cash is part of the analytic tradition and aims to make this dimension of the exchange more concrete and present. The increased general tendency towards other modes of payment, (checks, credit cards), which justify this request, may unfortunately also lend itself to the idea of fiscal fraud. The customary agreement is that sessions missed by the patient while the analyst is present and working, are due, whatever the cause of the absence. The immediate justification of this agreement is that the session time is absolutely reserved for the patient and that he may use it at his will, without causing financial loss to the analyst. While a particular patient may encounter forces outside his control, no other solution would be fair and clearly applicable; the fact of taking on all financial responsibility, even when he is absent, favors the greatest possible freedom in expressing psychic movement. What emerges is often surprising. The establishment of a strict agreement, rigorously respected by the analyst and patient, allows the setting to ensure a constant space-time where the principles particular to the analytic investigation are in place.

II.

It is fitting to add that the classical arrangement: the patient lying on the couch, analyst sitting behind him, out of his view, aims to facilitate in both protagonists the unfolding of a regressive psychic activity, propitious to investigating the unconscious.

This setting and process fulfill the optimal conditions enabling the patient to apprehend the task set before him, which the fundamental rule summarizes: pay attention to what is happening inside himself, to what comes to his mind, and to say it, even if it appears futile, absurd or unpleasant for himself or the person listening to him. One might well imagine what internal obstacles are incurred in this exercise, but it is thus that the conflicts are organized and will include the person to whom the remarks are addressed. The repression which functioned in the past will also be revealed, and it is that which the analysis aims to examine. What is essential for the analysand, is the experience in the treatment setting, of linking powerfully invested situations from the past, to the interpretive integration which appear through becoming conscious.

III.

But this experience can happen only if the analyst fully assumes his responsibility:

1. First of all, a complete respect for his patient, preserving the confidentiality of the treatment, and respecting the limits of the setting, as the analysand confides what is most intimate and vulnerable of himself.
2. But the analyst’s function includes certain technical expectations:
   • The evenly-suspended attention with which the analyst accepts the patient’s discourse, regardless of its tone: this implies that the patient can give himself over to the fundamental rule, and thus not exclude from his remarks the movements which might seem likely to provoke rejection, seduction, etc.
   • More importantly, the caution and the reserve of the often silent analyst, separates him from the ordinary roles of guide or scholar, and contributes to the emergence of a specific relational field wherein the transference process can develop.
   • Finally, the analyst’s attitude sends him back to the internal position ordained by the fundamental rule: an evenly-suspended listening, pushing beyond ordinary signification and references present in the patient’s discourse. This listening is accompanied by a psychic elaboration which is largely unconscious, where the significant lines of force, born from the encounter itself, are outlined.
   • This is the condition necessary so that constructions or interpretations can emerge in a timely and singular manner.

The analyst’s function then, emerges from a complex discipline, he is guardian of an ethical analytic situation, centered on the welcoming of and elaboration of the transference.

Exercising this function presupposes a certain capacity to perceive unconscious psychic movement, his own as well as those of the other, and, a specialized training, long and arduous.