What's in a name: what analyst and patient call each other.
Awkward moments often arise between patient and analyst involving the question, "What do we call each other?" The manner in which the dyad address each other contains material central to the patient's inner life. Names, like dreams, deserve a privileged status as providing a royal road into the paradoxical analytic relationship and the unconscious conflicts that feed it. Whether an analyst addresses the patient formally, informally, or not at all, awareness of the issues surrounding names is important.
Barron
Grace Caroline
GC
Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA. gcbarron@msn.com
D006801:Humans; D009275:Names; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy