Some people go through life believing they know what they want and yet discover a nagging sense of dissatisfaction when they get it. Others self-sabotage and repeat old patterns and find themselves keeping a safe distance from their conscious goals. Naturally, there are no quick fixes to challenges like these, but with time, hard work, and an unprejudiced space to speak, it is possible to discover new perspectives and new relationships, with oneself and with others.
Psychoanalysis has a long and complicated tradition. At certain moments in its history, psychoanalysis has been linked with racism, misogyny, and homophobia. The version of psychoanalysis that I practice is one that is committed to the uniqueness of each patient, one that aims for freedom, and one that refuses to be oriented by any concept of normal. To paraphrase Freud, it is, in fact, what we have come to see as normal that should be questioned!Â
The psychoanalytic tradition is now about 125 years old and continues to evolve, yet some methods remain the same. Dreams, slips of the tongue, and language in general, are prioritized as approaches to the unconscious (the part of ourselves that remains out of reach and unknowable). Providing a place for the unconscious to be heard allows for an investment in the full complexity of each individual without reducing anyone to a symptom or a diagnosis, and without coercing anyone towards being something they are not.