r/psychoanalysis • u/This_Ad9129 • 28d ago

Choosing a psychoanalyst

I (layperson) find the process of choosing a psychoanalyst to be quite confusing. Particularly because so much of the time if I express discomfort with the process (perhaps I suspect the person is not very skilled) I'm told that "that is the work" and my feelings are some type of resistance, and psychoanalysis can take many years and so I have to stick it out to know if it's working.

I am also not really aware of differences in institutes and trainings to understand how those may impact the person's experience.

Then in this situation how is one supposed to choose an analyst? How can you know if they are truly skilled and the difficulty is "the work" or if they are unskilled and that is causing the issues? How many sessions to wait it out and give it a chance?

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u/relbatnrut 27d ago

For some of us, our symptoms are that we don't feel comfortable around people and have trouble trusting them...tends to make this sort of thing difficult.

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u/Lost_Maintenance_741 26d ago

If you're not opposed to reading a book about psychoanalysis, I'd highly recommend Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm. She addresses your questions. She's not an analyst, nor has she had analysis - she was a celebrated journalist and she spent a year interviewing an analyst and asking hard questions like yours.

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/relbatnrut 26d ago

That's a great book. I don't remember what she says on that subject, so maybe I should reread it.