L'éthique du psychanalyste

Abstract

This article is based on an exploration of the inherent conflict between two differing conceptions of the analytical cure - the cure whose aim is truth and the therapeutic cure. Each conception has its own specific, and opposing, ethical and technical positions. Freud, we should remember, was highly reticent with regard to the therapeutic and ethical dimensions of the cure. This leads us to examine the question of 'profane analysis' in the light of the increasing medicalisation of psychoanalysis, and then to the question of the therapeutic primacy of the cure as set forward by Ferenczi. This lies at the root of techniques which put the emphasis on 'empathy' and 'inter-subjectivism' and raises the burning question of the status of psychoanalysts in our society and of their training. © L'Esprit du Temps.