Learning and Unlearning through the Clinical Encounter

This book examines the learning process involved in becoming a psychoanalytic practitioner and presents training experiences at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust through the lens of both teachers and trainees.

The book describes the relevant history at the Tavistock and how psychoanalytic knowledge is acquired through a process of learning from experience and the fostering of a culture of enquiry. The contributors also present their interpretations of what is meant by analytic learning and how this is acquired for a psychoanalytic attitude to become possible. The book includes a mix of chapters by more experienced clinicians setting out what can be useful in training, balanced by other chapters from more recent trainees who reflect on their development and experience of that training. Other important sections focus on the experience and importance of supervision and on how to respond to clinical challenges in training and practice, specifically public-sector-based trainings.

With rich clinical vignettes and personal reflections on training experiences, this book is key reading for all psychoanalysts and psychotherapists involved or interested in training.

Francesca Hume worked for over 25 years at the Tavistock, where, for 14 years, she ran the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training (M1). She first trained as a clinical psychologist and is now a Training Analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society. She supervises and teaches in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Helen Barker is a psychoanalyst, now in full time private practice, with a background in psychiatry. She worked in the Adult Department of the Tavistock Clinic as a clinician and supervisor for 18 years.