What Is the Analyst Thinking?

Anyone considering seeing an analyst today can easily find plenty of information about what psychoanalysis actually is, read up on the specialist they’re considering, find their social media, learn how sessions usually go, and so on.

Which means an analysand typically arrives at analysis fairly well-informed. And naturally, they already have some picture of how the first meeting will go, and how therapy itself will unfold.

But it’s worth wondering: what does the analyst themselves think and feel, seeing a new message land, or picking up a call from a prospective analysand?

At first, it might be curiosity, enthusiasm, anxiety, or unease. Because every analysand is a journey into an unknown world… No two people are ever alike, even when they share a great deal, or come with similar complaints and symptoms. The analyst might find themselves wondering: who is this person? Why did they reach out at this particular moment — what brought them here? How did they decide this was the “right” specialist? What does this person look like, what does their inner world hold? Is this their first experience of psychoanalysis, or have they already sought help elsewhere? How will this relationship develop — will a therapeutic alliance be possible? What is their symptom saying? How will their unconscious make itself known?

Finding the answers to all these questions takes real time, and there’s no way to predict in advance what will unfold over the course of the sessions to come. It will be a unique experience — not only for the analysand, but for the analyst too, as together they walk the unmapped paths of the unconscious, moving through free associations, resistances, misunderstandings, interpretations, and moments of insight.