Analyzing the Patient's First Name in the Search for Identity. Issue 4 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yadin, Zvi Steve
• Is Part Of: Contemporary psychoanalysis. Volume 52:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 547
• Page End: 577
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: first name -- identity -- transference -- message -- transformation; 616.8917
• DOI: 10.1080/00107530.2016.1235461
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0010-7530

Abstract

Abstract: A first name captures indispensable information about its bearer, including aspects of the individual's inner world and approach to the environment, the aspirations and attributions of the name-givers for the individual, and the transferences and countertransferences involving the feelings that a first name evokes. A name is therefore a code waiting to be deciphered that, when explored, can reveal its significance to its bearer. A name can impart multiple meanings; the process of interpreting a name is akin to peeling an onion layered in infinite sequences. This article proposes that an examination of the analysand's first name can be a useful clinical tool in psychoanalytic therapy. An exploration into the origin and meaning of a patient's first name through detailed inquiry and association can serve as a rich source of insight regarding relationships between name and self-identity, and can quickly expand the analytic process.