Email from an anonymous patient:

I don’t know what Freud would think, but here are some thoughts of my own: 

As a patient who was in a classical analysis for 12 years, (and miserable) and now working with a relational thinker (and happier), i can say that i am beginning to thrive in the “patient-centered” environment my analyst co-creates. Like yourself, his theoretic approach is grounded in Freudian theory, having been “raised” as a Freud “baby” as it were, but then maturing over time into a more spontaneous, flexible and playful partner. Since i am well read in the psa literature and interested too, we talk about analytic education (Kirsner’s Unfree Associations stirred some of my own), the direction of the field in the present, and how to go about exploring ways to secure the future of psa as a valued (and treasured) community resource – in other words, how to “get the word out” that indeed, it is! This “playing” in the field acts as a portal to my deepening (with much toe-in-the-water trepidation) the treatment. (I much enjoyed your eponymous book!)

Just wanted to say that i also enjoyed your paper, and was especially happy to see the comments on how factionalism (with its energy-saping skirmishes) can be turned into the generative embrace of pluralism, where ideas and discoveries can be shared and sampled for the benefit of one and all. It seems that analysts, whose goal is to help the patient better understand and then integrate conflicting feelings, can better integrate conflicting clashes on their own theoretical turf. A forward-thinking paper like yours helps to stir new thoughts, which i find in my treatment, is the precursor of change.

Freud, as we know, was greatly resistant to the type of change you advocate: evolution from a one-person to a two-person psychology. Ferenczi and Adler come to mind as two whose “defection” had them portrayed as mentally defective! (Perhaps this fear to “stray” is still somewhat embedded in the collective transference of the field?) But Freud was also at heart, a caring and human being. Working in the arts, i cotton to your analogy of musical forms to formats of psa. With regards to Freud followers of all stripes, i associated to some of the lyrics of a song from the rock opera Jesus Christ Super Star…  I Don’t Know How To Love Him. Perhaps when that issue becomes curious to the field, pluralism and all that surrounds such an opened up psychoanalytic perspective, will encourage others to work with an analytic attitude like yours: one that is grounded in classical roots, but free to improvise in an informed and respectful manner within the analytic dyad; one that is perceived as a way forward on the royal road to emerging, mutual growth. 

So, what would Freud think about this back then? Not sure, but we are ready to reflect on what both analysts and patient’s think about it right now!