Letter To A Psychoanalyst

Letter to a Psychoanalyst
Author(s): MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL

Source: Salmagundi, No. 144/145 (FALL 2004 -WINTER 2005), pp. 174-187
Published by: Skidmore College
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40549662
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Letter to a Psychoanalyst
BY MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL
Dear Doctor
It has been three year

walkway beside your ho
waiting room, shook you
become my "transition
would- four times week
words for my life.
I made, at that time, a
ing my many doubts an
so potentially painful an
to it for three years, in th
and failure of relationsh
life might find, if not a
first night, as you may
prophetic dream: I open
of an Egyptian-style pyr
and tranquil figure at th
Now, three years and
who have so long attemp
your couch - to find wh
considering embarking on
so I like to think) not u
Letter to a Psychoanalyst 1 75
them are nothing less than the partial recti

better understanding of the passages and tr
rehabilitation of zest and hope, and the prepa
individual's life history makes it possible an
of life and kinship with one's fellow man
describes as generativity.
I would like, in this letter to you, to d
analytic process and the theory of personalit
come to see it, both during these three years
and thinking on the subject, and to share
implicated in that process, some of my own
weaknesses. Because I believe that the subje
psychology in general, are nothing less tha
whatever I do say about theory will always
viewpoint that the only purpose of theory
is to pay what Yeats called "a ceaseless obe
which all theory must serve in the end.
I must say in all candor, as I begin this le
three years of my more or less willing su
efficacy of the work you and I have toget
reluctant conclusion that, for myself at leas
has not been a fruitful one. And at least part
you here are my own theories - gleaned p
vicissitudes of my experience - as to why t
My motives in writing this letter to y
confess, are mixed. In part, I wish to do so no
an opportunity of "thinking out loud" about
a crucial, and I think decisive, juncture of
Secondly, I am doing so in order to fulfill - w
the better part of my "true" (as opposed t
requirements of the course of study I have
I feel is consonant with the truer, more creat
ity. I hope, then, in this letter to somehow w
critique and confession, a certain degree of
objectivity with the inescapable subjectivity t
destiny.
1 76 MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL
As cogently and briefly as I can, I

be the theoretical basis of the work w
character of Freudian theory, as I see
formation and of potential changes in
might, through the collaborative work o
It fuses, in this sense, both a highly d
mistic) view of the human psyche wi
intractable view of the potentialities f
sustained re-experiencing of the traum
childhood and infancy. To facilitate th
rative relationship between analyst an
partially, at what Robert Frost has called
lost." However, for an analy sand as oppo
such a recognition is, in fact, always "g
that it has been truly "lost" - merely, F
service of some defensive position wh
ego's survival and adaptation... but,
increasingly painful cost.
With the support of the analyst's s
and through the process known as fr
patient will be able to re-member (a h
re-experience those early memorie
not-yet-fully-intact ego, he was forced
literally at times, to survive. Implicit in
and reparation is the belief that it is onl
safe confines of the analyst's sitting r
patient can be spared the greater traum
It is Freud's articulation of what he
sion - his dramatic and painful insight i
which unconsciously seeks to repeat all
rather than merely the pleasant ones - w
of his greatest theoretical contribution
the work of the great dramatists from
anthropological sense of man as an
subconsciously concerned with repetiti
ritual than with comfort, also provides t
Letter to a Psychoanalyst ill
relationship between patient and analy

order for the transference relationsh
necessity for the process he called pro
The theory of projection, as I see i
simple: it postulates that, given the pres
and (insofar as such mythology is poss
personality (or even, for that matter,
that figure the same essential qualities
formulated the patient's worldview. In
childhood, surrounded by parenting figu
and who essentially exploited him for
patient's tendency will be to "project"
or otherwise) the same presence of ult
one who has been frequently betraye
project onto the analyst (howsoever u
dangers of betrayal he once justifiably
we have frequently discussed during m
may lead to a sort of "pre-emptive strik
the neurotically defended ego from aba
producing the very situation it is aime
a self-fulfilling prophecy. The hoped-
however, is that, by seeing, time and tim
betrayed or abandoned by the analyst,
neurotic defenses and establish a pattern
nature of his projections to accord more
In the Freudian view of personality
able case with each of the post-Freud
trauma in the patient's life always ha
Winnicottian terms, is a failure in th
infancy and early childhood. Somethin
the early life of the patient, before an in
neurotically) defended ego could be fo
frequently during the patient's later ch
sub-structure of neurotic defenses (high
patient's early survival) is built up an
structure... ho we ver always, sooner or l
life of the individual, becomes counter
And so, as we both know all too well

away at birth by my biological parents
woman unable to provide either the ph
logical security of "good enough" m
constant threat of loss by death or illn
stepmother who neither loved nor wan
would - a system of defenses against i
though it served me well as a survival
adulthood, clearly revealed itself as pai
early 30s and during my brief and pain
it inevitably must, to the Freudian and
lence, and to that basic constituent of
which it is the hope and ambition of th
It is a clear tenet of personality theor
healthy and resilient ego to develop, t
(from infancy until at least the 4th or 5t
provided with an atmosphere in which
tionally and unquestioningly present
emotions - namely, love, hate, anger, b
tion, zest, fatigue, curiosity, destruction
the withdrawal of parental love. This,
by-now-droning details of my own pas
I was raised in an atmosphere in whic
provocation or misbehavior on my part
be taken ill or die, a belief deeply a
conscious and unconscious life from m
The implications of this from a th
the child, all personality theorists agre
fear of consequences, to use his enviro
order to safely express and act out the fu
is, at the most basic level, necessary f
psychological strength and intactness
must be capable of providing relativel
nurturance in the face of thefiill range
negative. "Home," as Robert Frost so p
where, when you need to go there, they
Letter to a Psychoanalyst 179
more accurate to say, in terms of well-f

they want you there as well.
It might be helpful for me to explain
I believe to be the primary - indeed, the
and psychotherapy, and therefore the end
practice must be, single-mindedly, devo
that the major critique I have often hea
pursuit is that it is a "soft" science -
observable, objectively verifiable fact, an
termed a science at all.
With this criticism, if one wishes to call it that, I wholeheartedly
agree - but it is for me, rather than a condemnation, a compliment of the
highest order. It lies, in fact, at the very basis of my joint interest in the
psychological and the literary. For I would maintain that this "softness" of
psychology as a science is the very softness, the mystery, the inscrutabil-
ity - and, ultimately, the sanctity - of the spirit itself. For psychology, if
it is to live at all, must live in the interstices between science, religion and
literature- that sacred and profane place in which the inalterably human
lives and affirms itself. It is "soft", if it is so, only insofar as the human
heart - its dreams, its aspirations, its capacity for reparation and re-
newal - is soft. And its core, both scientific and humanistic at once, lies
in the deepest recesses and uniquenesses, as well as the most pervasive
commonalities, of that unique enterprise we refer to as the human.
The task, then, of this softest of sciences - the one objective to
which all theory and practice must pay that "ceaseless obeisance" - is, as
I see it, primarily that of reparation. For our clients, as practicing or
prospective psychologists, are none other than those (all too many in our
unique and often dehumanized culture) who have been wounded, mis-
treated, abandoned, deprived, betrayed, mis-nurtured... and who have
come to us with a single, unifying wish: the wish to be healed. That
reparative task, however, is in stark contrast to Anna Freud's definition of
psychoanalytic purpose, namely "to acquire the fullest possible knowledge
of the three institutions of which we believe the psychic personality to be
constituted and to learn what are their relations to one another and to the
outside world." (italics mine) This definition, you may notice, is not only
phrased entirely in terms of knowledge and learning (rather, say, than
action and/or health), but it is centered

the analyst's knowledge and learning, ra
needs: a different mode of acting and
This, it seems to me, entirely miss
are we here for?"), and focuses the anal
(namely, analysts) can learn rather tha
do. Instead, keeping in mind William
realistic dictum that those who wish to
"minute particulars", the therapist's, o
ought to be: "What are those minute p
individual who now sits (or, as the case m
differently: "How can I best provide
unique history, with that which he has
questions and definitions in this mann
where it ought to be - on the analyst, n
so humanely suggested: "Where patien
area in their past history, the treatment
This issue, of course, is a monume
must take into account the painful yet un
a blank slate (who is?) , but rather anoth
to nurture, vanities to attend to, privac
"agenda" of his own, hopefully (though
the patient's healing and well-being. He
be - without the desires, ambitions, ne
always unique blend of the neurotic an
being humble and truthful enough to n
species.
And yet, perhaps above all his other personal qualities, the
analyst has come to his profession because he presumably possesses that
single, unique and rare virtue which attunes him to his calling: the ability
to clearly see another human being. His duty - a duty almost God-like in
its generosity and presumed detachment from personal interests - is to ask
not "Who am I?" (i.e. an analyst, a behaviorist, a Jungian, a Reichian, a
gestaltist, a Kohutian) but, much more demandingly: "Who is this being
who now sits before me?" The analyst, then, must be able, as completely
as any mere human being can, to lose himself and his array of preconcep-
Letter to a Psychoanalyst 181
tions and identities to the person who has

guidance and care, in order to assist him in
what Jung called "the normally disillusion
How, then - given the already well-fo
personality structure of the typical analysan
analytic setting, given the increasing intran
personality as it moves over the life cycle
plish this difficult, if not impossible, task? I
and foremost, he can do so by uncondition
manifestation of the patient's personality
uted to the patient's health, however imp
nomenclature of analytic practice, howeve
implication of such terms as projection, re
to have the contrary effect, calling into que
the patient's personality which ought, rath
Hartmann has astutely pointed out, "ther
ones and not mere unsuccessful attempts -
sion," a whole, neglected (by analysts, that
achievements by healthy, passionate individ
what he calls "a detour through regression."
it a shortcoming of analysis that it could no
their passions, this "conflict-free ego sphe
and adaptive regression are given full reig
ject - and certainly not the joy - of the ana
(and, I believe is) the hidden hope of analy
than being employed in the zestful servic
Bertrand Russell suggested - be, as best as
lying this, I believe, is the naive equation o
of zest (especially in the exaggerated sc
thanatos, rather than with eros.
Take, for example, the question of re

original Latin origins clearly imply a wish
than to repudiate a gift as analytic theory in
as I understand and have observed it, it is
question and, in effect, to undermine thes
relationship, for they are interpreted as

of intimacy and dependency and, ther
ment. And there is, no doubt, some tr
Fairbairn put it: "Dependence versus
conflict. The person one turns to beco
from."
This, however, seems to me to be on

and it seems to me the larger, truth is
it to the actual threat of dependency of
metaphorical dependence and helpl
warrior) at the analyst's feet - is a ma
health, of his intact ego crying out to b
this is a cry which the analysis, even at
honor and reinforce. And while it may c
Sophocles' Philoctetes, must first suff
before he can rise and enter the Troy
ambitions, this will to Troy, this longin
self-sufficiency, is the single most e
patient's intact self, which the analyst
to lose sight of... nor dishonor by mer
So, too, with the matter of the
patient, say, (to move for a moment
formulation) has come from a cold, form
(or, perhaps, an over-mothered one).
tively, is formally dressed, physically
best), verbally proper (always address
facially sombre. Though, clearly, it ma
what may be merely professional deme
ing) qualities he may have lacked in c
patient sees something as well.. .and w
with what he feels (accurately or inacc
or less objective perceptions aside, howe
Freudian theory as it is now practiced,
resistances, transferences, etc.) to re-ex
deprivation- but this time, the analyst c
analyst - though he, too, is not "good-
is, at the very least, there... accepting, suppo

constant. But it is exactly this - this mirrorin
ing of what the patient has already felt - tha
to you, does not need. What he or she needs,
And love, I mean, in the Frostian sense:
Some morning from the boulder-broken be

He would cry out on life, that what it want
Is not its own love back in copy speech,
But counter-love, original response.
It is this "counter-love, original response" th

has always needed. For the patient - perha
forties - is not the child of the malleable,
questing ego, not a fluid, protoplasmic, easi
(to use the Freudian metaphor) more like a cr
reveals the fissures of its seemingly solidified
saw clearly: "The right time for the treatmen
is at the time of its inception. " But now,
individual who has come for help, it is past th
opaque reflection, "professional" demeanor
"good enough" then, and they are certainly
patient is further along in the life cycle than t
experiences, and the psychoanalytic illusion
original trauma with a more benign (as if b
somehow ever be "benign") outcome he wi
more than that: an illusion. As one of the tr
time, Henry Miller, put it: "The psychoan
back to the womb, but to what avail? In the li
we are given permission, as I see it, to step fr
If we believe this it is true, but whether w
unmitigated hell." (Though, as that writer als
of hell that salvation looms.")
Given a reasonable doubt as to the exist
patient - who has already, no doubt, wasted
in counterproductive defensive operations
waste little more. What the theory of

misses is the fact that the patient's p
is no longer the virtual tabula rasa of
except, perhaps, for the uniquely fort
William James's definition of the "tw
melted down and re-built, but must
needs, he deserves, he asks to be g
directly as the analyst/therapist's hum
modate - that which he once lacked. H
lost when I came to you, the essent
ability to look forward, to hope.
In order to help him do this, the a
it, "a whole real human being. . .and
the patient' s psychic life." He must
psychoanalysts (including yourself) fa
unchangeable, but the future is wide
put it, the psychologist must find a
movements inward (to the unconscio
and downward (into instinctual tende
moves outward (to mutuality and lo
present and future) and upward (fro
And he must realize, I think, that a s
to alter patterns of action, not merely
There is, I believe, much to be lear
cognitive psychologists in this regar
out, the psychoanalytic assumption t
with through layers of the past igno
structures which are, in fact, where the
really counts: the present. To put it m
titioners behave somewhat like build
repair a faulty, second-story door -
entire underlying structure because of
of it, though what is required is merel
Before ending this somewhat dra
dwell for a few moments on the inhe
and the method of practice which you ha

seemingly arrogant - on your narcissism
disservice both to me and to yourself. Wh
ourselves, chooses to spend the better p
weeks in the year, seated in a chair in a da
behind (rather than facing) another huma
does not lie) on a couch mumbling his rel
What sort of human being, we might furt
of his life's work to interpret virtually e
those who come to him in terms ofthat str
illusorily intimate relationship to himself
yet, what sort of image of the lives of ord
of attitude towards action rather than refl
have, and how does it color his very attit
him?
I will rephrase these rather rhetorica

own answer, as three years as your analytic
I believe, from no theoretical basis aside
alters personality in later life is action,
Winnicott and the object-relationists, tha
formed when, amidst the inescapable pas
childhood, there is an absence of "good-e
systems to allow the ego to become suff
empowered in later life. I believe that th
situation in later life is through a revived
ness and supportedness, and not through fu
cable past. And I believe that it is inheren
theory and of the practice of analysis itself
case.
Let me say, lastly, that, while I do believe that our work t

over the past three years has not been successful (or, more sig
helpful), I am quite aware that this failure has been one of
intention. I remain neither cynical nor bitter nor (thank God)
oriented enough to think that your intentions toward me and ou
not been largely decent, honorable and generous. But I also b
this, perhaps, may be a lesson that / can offer you) that your
practice, because it is so steeped in

individual, because it is based more on
patient's needs leads (and, in our case, ha
one thing which, more significantly th
therapist needs to do: see. As a friend on
"Take a Marxist to the Ufizzi and what
masses'!"
"Joy," Teilhard de Chardin wrote, "is the ultimate testimony of

the presence of God." It is a presence which I once felt, and wish to testify
to again. It is a presence which - looking up to see osprey and woodpecker,
screech owl and sky, the face of a woman I felt passion for - I will call, for
lack of a better phrase, a sense of the Divine. And that sense - for reasons,
no doubt, both independent of and intertwined with our relationship over
the past three years - has evaporated from my life as I lay on your sofa and
looked up at the white cinder blocks of the corner of the room and the
reluctant half-light of your basement window . . . and at my own reverberant
emptiness. And can no longer live without it.
"Interest in oneself," wrote Bertrand Russell, "leads to no activity
of a progressive kind. It may lead to the keeping of a diary, to getting
psychoanalyzed, or perhaps to becoming a monk. But the monk will not be
happy bntil the routine of the monastery has made him forget his own
soul." I have looked, these three years, relentlessly, into my own soul, to
find only a being alone and isolated, stranded like Philoctetes on what I see
only as the barren and unrequited Lemnos of your analytic couch. And I
feel, not without some sadness (but mostly, I must confess, with a sense of
liberation), that I have been patient enough, trusting enough, submissive
enough, committed enough during the past three years, and that it is now
time for me to look elsewhere (perhaps nowhere) for what I need. Our
souls, in the end, are only ours to save... or to lose. For myself, having had
one "father" whose ideology was ill-suited to me, I am too far along on the
cycle of this life to endure yet another.
I remain grateful to you for your patience, generosity and concern
over these three years. I know that, insofar as you too have a human life to
lead, a past to endure, a future to hope for, you have done the best you
humanly could, which is all we can ask of any man or woman. And I have
learned a great deal from you - not only about myself, but about how I
would wish to be, or not to be, a therapist m

trust, that you too have learned something fr
my presence in your office may have taught
and the benefit of your present and future pat
from your couch we go now, separately, to se
yet hold out to us, from whatever windows
Gratefully yours,
Michael Blumenthal

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Letter to a Psychoanalyst

Author(s): MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL

It has been three year

them are nothing less than the partial recti

As cogently and briefly as I can, I

relationship between patient and analy

And so, as we both know all too well

more accurate to say, in terms of well-f

action and/or health), but it is centered

tions and identities to the person who has

Take, for example, the question of re

relationship, for they are interpreted as

This, however, seems to me to be on

is, at the very least, there... accepting, suppo

Some morning from the boulder-broken be

It is this "counter-love, original response" th

waste little more. What the theory of

and the method of practice which you ha

I will rephrase these rather rhetorica

Let me say, lastly, that, while I do believe that our work t

practice, because it is so steeped in

"Joy," Teilhard de Chardin wrote, "is the ultimate testimony of

would wish to be, or not to be, a therapist m

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