Talk:Analysand

analysand psychoanalysand (analysant or psychanalysant)

Early psychoanalysis emphasized the active role of the psychoanalyst, who intervened, interpreted, "analyzed," and the patient was, at least in theory, the person on whom some form of therapeutic activity was practiced.

The patient was the "analysand" of a psychoanalyst, who possessed the necessary theoretical knowledge from having first "undergone" the initiatory experience of psychoanalysis himself.

The term 'analysand' refers to the patient in analysis.

As psychoanalysis developed and spread, and as increasing emphasis was placed on the transference and counter-transference in the dynamics of therapy, the patient turned out to be at least as, and sometimes more, active than the analyst.

Before 1967, Lacan refers to the one who is 'in' psychoanalytic treatment as the 'patient' or the 'subject'.

In 1967 Lacan introduces the term psychanalysant, based on the English term 'psychoanalysand'.

Lacan prefers this term because, being derived from the gerund, it indicates that the one who lies on the couch is the one who does most of the work.

active participation in the analytic process

In Lacan's view, the analysand is not 'analysed' by the analyst; it is the analysand who analyses, and the task of the analyst is to help him to analyse well.

See also

• treatment