Summer 2025: BEGINNING THE TREATMENT

Freud and Lacan both stressed the importance of a preliminary period in which analyst and prospective analysand meet before commencing psychoanalytic treatment as such. Although some practitioners choose to put the patient on the couch immediately or encourage them to free associate in the very first meeting, psychoanalytic experience has shown the importance of prudence in these early encounters. This series of seminars will explore the Freudian and Lacanian parameters of these preliminary meetings: what is the clinician aiming to establish here? What details might they need to gather in order to assess suitability for treatment? And what indications might there be to signal that a treatment will be possible? The fact that someone presents themself for analysis is by no means a guarantee that an analysis will ensue. And hence the particular attention that we need to accord to the preliminary meetings. These seminars will not suppose any detailed knowledge of Freud or Lacan, although a general familiarity with psychoanalytic themes will be helpful.