"Classically-trained Freudian analysts were taught to be "abstinent" in the presence of their analysands (patients) as regards any sharing of personal information with them or, more generally, doing anything that would potentially distract or detract from or devitalize the therapy process. The idea was--and for some, still is--to provide a relatively blank screen or ambiguous Rorschach card for the patient to project their neuroses upon so as to be better able to observe and address such material in the analysis."
"Central to what was to be projected is the phenomenon of transference: unconsciously projecting the patients unresolved or conflicted feelings toward their parents onto the person of the analyst or therapist. For Freud, the analysis of this transference phenomenon is key to the success of the therapy. As is the maintenance of objectivity and detachment, not unlike the attitude that allows surgeons to do what they must do."
Psychotherapist self-disclosure has origins in the early psychoanalytic emphasis on therapist abstinence and neutrality. Classically trained Freudian analysts maintained an "abstinent" stance to avoid sharing personal information and to provide a blank screen for patient projections. Transference involves patients unconsciously projecting unresolved parental feelings onto the analyst, and analysis of transference was central to Freudian therapy success. Freud emphasized objectivity and detachment, sometimes seen as excessive. Humanistic and existential approaches, exemplified by Irv Yalom and Carl Rogers, prioritize the interpersonal patient-therapist relationship and use relational transparency as a corrective to psychoanalytic imbalance.
#psychotherapist-self-disclosure #psychoanalytic-abstinence #transference #humanistic-and-existential-therapy
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