Beginning Analysis: On the Processes of Initiating Psychoanalysis

How does a psychoanalysis begin? What goes on when analyst and prospective analysand meet for the first time, and what processes are activated to make the project for an analysis possible?

This unique contribution to the surprisingly sparse literature on this most essential aspect of the psychoanalytical practitioner’s work, is the clinical companion to Initiating Psychoanalysis: Perspectives, also part of the ‘Teaching’ Series of the New Library of Psychoanalysis. Replete with clinical illustrations, this book is based on the findings of an ambitious research project on first interviews carried out from 2004 to 2016 by an international group of psychoanalysts, the Working Party on Initiating Psychoanalysis (WPIP) of the European Psychoanalytic Federation. The authors, all members of the Investigative Team, are senior psychoanalysts from member societies of the European Psychoanalytic Federation, all with extensive experience in the practice and teaching of psychoanalytic consultation.

Psychoanalysts and analytic therapists, in particular those in training or setting up their practice, will find Beginning Analysis to be essential reading in deepening their understanding of how analysand and analyst arrive at the decision to begin analysis.

Bernard Reith is a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Geneva, a Training Analyst and Chair of the Committee for Research in Psychoanalysis of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society, Co-Chair for Europe, IPA Working Parties’ Committee and a Board member of the Analyst at Work Section of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Mette Møller is a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Copenhagen, a Training Analyst and former Chair of the Consultation Service of the Danish Psychoanalytic Society.

John Boots is a Child and Family Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst in private practice in Sydney, a Training and Supervising Analyst and past President of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society.

Penelope Crick is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Clinical Director and Head of Adult Services, Institute of Psychoanalysis Clinical Services at the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis and a Psychoanalyst in private practice in London.

Alain Gibeault is a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Paris, a Training Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and past Director of the E & J Kestemberg Centre for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, past President of the European Psychoanalytical Federation and past Secretary General of the International Psychoanalytical Association.

Ronny Jaffè is a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Milan, a Training Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society, President of the Milanese Centre for Psychoanalysis, a Co-Chair of the Committee on Ethics of the International Psychoanalytical Association and former Vice-President of the European Psychoanalytical Federation.

Sven Lagerlöf is a Psychoanalyst in private practice in Stockholm, a Training Analyst of the Swedish Psychoanalytical Association and former Chair of the Clinic of the Swedish Psychoanalytical Society.

Rudi Vermote is Head of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Unit for Personality Disorders, University Psychiatric Centre of the University of Leuven, Campus Kortenberg and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Psychology, University of Leuven and a Psychoanalyst and Training Analyst and past President of the Belgian Society of Psychoanalysis.