On Freud's "The Question of Lay Analysis"

The questions of what psychoanalysis is, and does, and who can and should practice it, remains key within the modern profession. Has the invaluable material packed into Freud’s The Question of Lay Analysis (1926) been underestimated by contemporary psychoanalysis? This book explores how the issues raised in this paper can continue to impact contemporary Freudian theory and practice. The chapters examine why the arguably litigious nature of the paper might be contributing to its neglect and underestimation.

The editors of this book put forth a hypothesis: is there an underlying, still unrecognized, but heartrending factor underlying the century-old quarrel between "lay analysts" and what might be described as medically or psychiatrically trained analysts? They then brought together a selection of major contemporary psychoanalytic thinkers from around the world to attempt to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable gap between medical and non-medical analysis, using The Question of Lay Analysis as a central pivot. The work of the key figure, in social and historic terms, on this issue, Theodor Reik, is also duly honoured.

On Freud’s "The Question of Lay Analysis" will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Paulo Cesar Sandler, MD, MSci, is a training analyst at Sociedade Brasileira de Psicanalise de São Paulo; and a psychiatrist at the Institute of Medicine of Rehabilitation of the Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. He is Honorary Associate of Academia Lancisiana, Rome; former Director of the Mental Health Center at Faculdade de Saude Publica da Universidade de São Paulo; former Editor of Revista Brasileira de Psicanalise and former Director of the Publishing Department of SBPSP.

Gley Pacheco Costa, MD, is a founding member and training analyst of the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of Porto Alegre, Brazil, and Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Mário Martins University Foundation, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.