Psychoanaliza » On the subjective struggles that I have had the opportunity to get to know in my previous practice Answering the question "what is psychoanalysis?

We live in an age of information overload. Answers can be found for everything and everywhere, from specialists in every possible discipline. When faced with a problem, we can almost always find an answer. There is one answer that we cannot find outside ourselves – our own answer.

By asking a question, we create a space where an answer can emerge. Nowadays, our own answer seems to be of little importance in the face of Answers. Our own answer has not undergone standardisation or statistical testing. Its nature is not supported by meta-analyses, but only by our own voice. Our own answer is not applicable to others, so isn't it selfish? What if our own answer is incompatible with the order of the world?

Why look for your own answer? Let's be clear: it is a more difficult answer to find, requiring time, struggling with yourself, discomfort, facing ignorance about yourself. It is not a certified answer, guaranteeing that it is the only one. It is not evaluative because it is incomparable. Psychoanalytically speaking, it is not supported by the Other.

What if we already know, but the suffering continues? Can the knowledge we have about ourselves differ from the truth of our symptoms? What if, at a time when we are so stuffed with knowledge that we can no longer not know, the answer comes to every question, but weighs more heavily than it brings movement into our subjective lives?

Do we suffer more or less than people did in the past? Is suffering real if nothing like that happens in life? How can we say that satisfaction begins to cause discomfort? Do symptoms have a right to exist if no definition, diagnosis or description fits the experience? Can nightmares speak? And if so, how can we understand their language?

I do not think it is inaccurate to say that knowledge is not equal to knowledge. It is a particularly painful experience when learning, experience and self-knowledge behave like a sandcastle resisting the waves that counteract one's efforts to achieve even a minimum degree of stability. Even more painful is the realisation that the body seems to be independent of what we think, what we believe about ourselves, what we consider ourselves to be. The hand trembles when the mind is calm. Words disappear when something needs to be said. Forgetfulness appears unexpectedly, thoroughly sabotaging the will. Memories return when for years there was certainty that they had no power. All this despite preparation, attempts, reflection, practice and exercise.

What if the subject keeps encountering the same thing? The same man, the same woman. The same boss. The same mood. The same fall. The same mistake.
It is impossible, after all, it is not the same, it happens at a different time, sometimes years later, but it seems to happen from the same place, as if something had stopped, remained unchanged.

Breaking out of this frozen state is like allowing part of yourself to experience time. Psychoanalysis offers the introduction of the dimension of time into something that, from an early age, exists as if outside of time, remaining unchanged. One can go through life without noticing this stagnation, still experiencing a sense of change without experiencing the unbearable, which ultimately, when encountered, often leads the subject to seek help.

This initial stagnation can be something fruitful and beneficial for the subject, although psychoanalysts can only attest to this on the basis of those who have lost this benefit. The movement introduced as a result of some change, words, situation, something that simply comes out of nowhere, unexpectedly, often fundamentally undermining the knowledge on which the subject built their identity, cannot, by definition, be an easy, gentle experience.

Those who come to the office are often those who have begun to doubt the randomness of what they encounter time and time again. Doubt is already a step towards questioning, but the experience of doubt that does not cease is well known. What if there is no anchor point? A point from which to begin verifying the truth of what one has come to doubt? Without an anchor, it is easy to drift away with other people's answers. The subject seeks certainty and sometimes finds refuge in what belongs to others. To be precise, it is easier to accept an answer that is not subject-oriented. And how can one stop doubting forever without being at the mercy of others?

Psychoanalysis is a process of empowering truth. Being a psychoanalyst gives you a special privilege, the opportunity to hear the voice of contemporary discomforts, sufferings, discomforts and madness. Empowering these experiences allows you to change your position towards them – psychoanalysis allows you to leave on your own terms (or, if that is how things turn out, on your own terms). This ‘your own’ may be surprising, so surprising that at first you may feel uncomfortable in its presence. What if someone does not want to leave? Psychoanalysis gives you the chance to be, but in a different way.

It is not easy to talk about being in a way that is comprehensible, but drawing directly from experience, one can say that in order to be, one must get rid of something. Get out of the rut. Become sensitive to your own language, acquire knowledge about it. Because your own language, as psychoanalysis refers to it, is unconscious, and knowledge about the unconscious comes at a price. Ignorance also has a cost. We learn about our own ignorance when it becomes impossible to justify our own situation.

My thinking about psychoanalysis is based on something quite simple: psychoanalysis is a practice based on talking. The bond that is created in psychoanalytic discourse is fundamentally different from other bonds. It is not supported by mastery and prestige. It is not a practice that everyone will find suitable. If something in this text has moved you, perhaps prompted questions, please write to me or contact me by telephone. I read both text messages and emails. I would be happy to hear your perspectives and will try to respond to them.

On the subjective struggles that I have had the opportunity to get to know in my previous practice Answering the question "what is psychoanalysis?

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