FAQs
What kinds of problems and conditions are treated using psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis deals with the whole range of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, phobias, psychosomatic conditions, obsessive-compulsive behaviours, eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, among others. Psychoanalytic therapy is useful in working through issues that arise in everyday life: difficulties with family; separation; conflict at work; the effects of retirement; anxiety about first-time parenthood; the effects of traumatic events; bereavement. No clinical practice claims to be able to cure conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and personality disorder, but psychoanalysis may help people with such conditions to manage everyday life and to achieve greater stability.
What kind of psychoanalysis do I practise?
How is psychoanalysis conducted?
Do I work with people of any age?
How often are the sessions?
Is it confidential?
What kind of psychoanalysis do I practise?
There are many different approaches to psychoanalysis: Lacanian, Kleinian, Jungian, Freudian, among them. These approaches all have in common the idea fundamental to psychoanalysis: that there is an unconscious, and that the effective treatment of psychical symptoms can only take place if therapeutic work takes the unconscious into account.
My psychoanalytic orientation is Lacanian: that is, my theoretical base and clinical practice is drawn from the work of French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan who, in his reworking of the work of Sigmund Freud, not only radically rewrote that work but in the process formulated a distinct and original way of thinking and working psychoanalytically.
I chose Lacanian psychoanalysis for several reasons:
- It is non-normative. In its fidelity to the principle of working with each analysand one-by-one, the analysand is invited to work through the unconscious foundations of her or his own suffering. The analyst does not offer, or presume to know, the right way for the analysand to live. Because it does not elevate the analyst to an ideal or a model for life, Lacanian psychoanalysis represents an ethical approach to treatment: it offers each analysand the opportunity to find, work on and transform his or her own position in life. Take this as an example: if a person comes to analysis with negative judgements about himself/herself (‘I am a bad person’), psychoanalysis does not offer an alternative model (‘here’s how you can be a good person and therefore like yourself more’), because for psychoanalysis this approach would simply put a benign face (the analyst’s) over the critical face (one’s own) of the internal judge, and it would do nothing to displace that internal judge. Instead, the psychoanalytic approach asks how it is that you came to see yourself as ‘bad’, and in answering that question the problem is worked through to its source and the problem of the internal judge is directly addressed.
- Because it is non-normative in the way I have described, Lacanian psychoanalysis does not interpret people and their symptoms against social ideals. Because it is non-normative, Lacanian analysis provides a theoretical and clinical framework for working ethically, constructively and non-judgementally with people who do not fit the normative categories. The analyst works for and with each analysand to discover and work through the analysand’s own difficulties.
- Because of its intellectual links with philosophy and literature both currently and historically, psychoanalytic inquiry is engaged in exploring important cultural and philosophical questions, particularly those concerning gender and sexuality. This means that as a clinical practice it is influenced by and open to ideas; it is not a closed system, but a constantly evolving and rigorous theoretical and clinical investigation of the relationships between people and the context in which they live.
How is psychoanalysis conducted?
There is one fundamental rule to psychoanalytic work, and it is quite simple. The analysand speaks whatever is on his or her mind. This is the rule of ‘free association’: what is thought is not censored, or edited, or eliminated, but is spoken and made available to the encounter between analyst and analysand in the clinical setting. Of course, free association is not all that easy: no-one can do it all the time, and sometimes censorship takes place before one even knows what one has thought. Nevertheless, free association is what is aimed at.
If the analysand is a child who is too young to speak or to speak a lot, the work takes place through play, drawing, building and other age-appropriate activities.
Do I work with people of any age?
I work with people of all ages, including children and infants. If you are bringing a child to psychoanalysis, initial sessions may be conducted with parent/s and child together. The aim of these sessions is to obtain a family history as well as to establish a relationship with the child. The eventual aim is to see the child on his or her own when appropriate and possible.
For anyone interested in seeing how psychoanalysis can profoundly influence outcomes for infants, see Rosine and Robert Lefort’s book, The Birth of the Other (Other Press, New York).
How often are the sessions?
The most effective way to work is to attend at least two sessions per week, but if this is not possible then once a week is the minimum. Psychoanalysis is usually a medium to long-term process, and attending twice a week ensures that it is not made any longer than necessary. If attending twice a week will cause financial hardship, then fees will be reduced by negotiation as necessary.
Is it confidential?
Identifying information about an analysand is never shared with any other person. It is conventional as a psychoanalyst to have ongoing professional supervision with another psychoanalyst, and to discuss cases. Any case discussions do not involve the use of names, and any information that may enable the analysand to be identified is changed or deleted.
If you have a question that isn’t answered here, you can email me at 
or phone 0439 561 799