Being an Analyst: A Journey of Outsidership, Topology, and Time. Issue 2 (17th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Watson, Eve
• Is Part Of: Psychoanalytic inquiry. Volume 40:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 120
• Page End: 130
• Publication Date: 2020-02-17
• Subjects: Psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; Psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; Psychanalyse -- Périodiques; 616.8917
• DOI: 10.1080/07351690.2020.1702441
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0735-1690

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article explores psychoanalytic work via a trio of themes – outsidership, topology, and time – in the context of psychoanalytic practice and organization in Ireland. Focusing on the centrality of speech and language in approaching subjectivity via the work of Freud and Lacan, this article contemplates what being an analyst means, how psychoanalysis works, and how it is distinguished from other therapeutic approaches. The article takes up Freud's emphasis on the importance of exile or outsidership in informing the analyst's orientation to the unconscious. The notions of topology and time are helpful in exploring the psyche, unconscious formations, and instances of subjective significance in terms of their symbolic determination and the limitations of their representability.