Analytical listening and its vicissitudes

Abstract

We try to demonstrate that analytical listening is constructed from two unconscious beings – that of the analyst and the patient – thereby producing a psychic field where the qualities of the different connections between this analytical duo are highlighted and shown. The analytical process itself amplifies the various qualities of listening, which allows for access to a non-verbal communication of the relation. In that way, the analyst can hold inside, certain destructive aspects of the patient’s mind, through projective identification, especially with difficult patients. Under these circumstances, analytical listening becomes poor and hard to comprehend. Through the presentation of some clinical material, we highlight how the patient’s destructiveness can be projected inside the analyst. Accordingly, clinical experience shows us that the analysis of counter-transference can be presented with two different facets: one, as an obstacle that needs to be analysed and another, as an instrument that may make the development of the analytical dynamic process easier.