Diver, Nancy Grimes, Oil on Linen, 15"x12"
Psychoanalysis is a long-term, intensive mode of psychotherapeutic engagement that usually takes place at a frequency of four or five sessions per week, where the patient lies down on a couch and the analyst is out of sight. Within this setting, an unprecedented and unparalleled journey into the unknown takes place. This process often involves an uncovering of a past that was barely comprehensible or even tolerable before psychoanalysis. This process can also involve a reconfiguration of aspects of self that have been known all along yet somehow unavailable for thoughtful change. Although this journey can be frightening, the potential rewards are enormous. The analyst accompanies and witnesses the patient’s journey into the unknown while helping them to come to terms with the wonders that emerge.
Psychoanalysis is a major investment of time and money. People enter into psychoanalysis because they have the strong sense that life has so much more to offer, and they are tired of losing out. People stay in psychoanalysis and see it through because the gains are, both during and after, profound.