so where is psychoanalysis now?

freud having made the maps and given the medics an idea of 'how to' then proceeded to rigidly disqualify from practise or even recognition as 'psychoanalysts' anybody who did not adopt a servile tone in his presence, who had ideas of their own whether successful or not. a 'real' analyst was one who stuck to freuds plan, who adopted him as their 'father' and consented to be treated as rebellious oedipals for the entirety of their working and personal lives. now that is not just sick. it is actually a good way to destroy the thing. cut it off [geddit?] from new or better theory/evidence/practise. and EVERY form of psych. ever since they regard as rubbish. as the later practitioners pretty much regard them.

Now i will tell you a couple of anecdotes. known as obs in the nursing world.

1. i met a girl in cassel, donkeys years ago. tall, beautiful. masses of red hair. a white immobile face. as far as i know all she had was mild depression. she told me her IQ was 154. i wonder what happened to it. because she also told me she'd been seeing our psychoanalyst for FIVE years. she'd be about 25? and she reacted with anger to my suggestion that a. she had more symptoms now than she did when it started and b, maybe she should go to another therapist?
she thought she could not live ithout this therapy, that therapist. and in fact most psychoanalysis goes on for as long as the pts love affair with themselves/their therapist/the money keeps going. anywhere in fact except out bloody door into something called a life? i have heard of cases where the progressive infantilism of the thing winds up with a 56 year old pt having tantrums, unable to work, the baby of his children...still on therapy after 30 years? its not therapy at all then, this is the exact opposite of health. this is addiction. its very bad for you?
nevertheless it IS the methods and dynamics and skills of psychoanalysis which are the right tools for treating the damaged mind. the only stipulation i'd demand is that they get it straight. the whole idea is to get in pt's head, fix it, and get out, leave pt with a better, nicer life. psychoanalysis then should aim firstly at those who really need it. the sick. then it should aim to leave the pt stronger. it should own up both to its addictive effects, its power to do terrible damage if used incorrectly, and that most practitioners to date are money-grubbing little creeps who can't hold down a real job themselves. finally insist on a cut off point. and that should be about three years. and no going back, you done, you finished. that in itself would make the thing focussed.

2. when i went to university [i majored in freudian psychoanalysis/cognitive physiology], i saw something odd. us freshers were all chattering in the big lecture well theatre? they still had all that even in 1990. anyhow so all our tutors introduced themselves. they were a chatty gaggle. i could see at once they were immensely competent, nice, some eccentrics, all highly intelligent. we warmed to them. and then the lecturer in psychoanalysis walked in. everyone just shutup. a respectful silence. ppl nervous. steve held the floor and no-one was acting. this was like a sheriff or a headmaster? yet steve was only a p/t lecturer. last i heard he was opening up a whole new institute of psychoanalysis. well he's the wrong man to do it! he's rigid, stuck fast in the weird belief you have to copy freud. do as you're told. when what it needs is a grenade up its bum, and thats that. but you see how the students reacted? that is the naive acknowledgement of the very real power hidden, mangled, almost useless; but still there in psychoanalysis. we have to bring it back to life. make it work according to what we find without personal bias in the uncs...and then for gods sake help the sick. stop pandering to the rich?