Whose agenda?

In her most recent book, The Mystery of Analytical Work, Barbara Stevens Sullivan brings together Jung and Bion. In my own practice I have tried for many years to hew to Bion's dictum to approach each patient, each hour without memory, desire or understanding. Sullivan does a lovely job of explicating what this means in practice. I find  eschewing desire to be especially important. This means setting aside any agenda for the patient, any wish that I have about the patient. To quote her: "A desire to help the patient is similar: is the patient inducing in me a subjective sense of helplessness or weakness? Is he bringing up a savior complex or sadistically rubbing my nose in the “helplessness” I feel when faced with his “extraordinary” pain? In wanting to help, am I unconsciously striving to exclude some level of suffering that is trying to enter the room? The desire to help the patient will mean something slightly different every time it comes up, even with the same patient, let alone with different people. But whatever its precipitant, the desire blinds the analyst to the ways the patient needs to be seen and accepted in his wounded condition, as is, before he can begin to let it go (Sullivan, 1989). This desire to help is a particularly seductive one. Our patients want us to help them and most therapists entered the field out of a conscious wish to help people. But it is important to let go of the wish because, as far as we can tell, it is...
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs