Lay analyst

Freudian Dictionary

Analytical training certainly intersects the circle of medical training, but it does not comprise it nor is it comprised within it.

The preparation for analytical practice is no simple and easy matter; the work is hard and the responsibility heavy. But, anyone who has undergone such a discipline, has been analyzed, has grasped the psychology of the unconscious as it is known today, has become versed in the scientific aspects of sexuality, and has learned the delicate technique of psychoanalysis, the art of interpretation, the way to combat resistances, and to manage the transference - that person is no longer a layman in the field at psychoanalysis.

So far as the patient is concerned, it does not matter whether the analyst is a doctor or not, so long as the danger of a mistake as to his case is secured against by the prescribed medical opinion before the analysis begins, and, if required, during its course. For him, it is incomparably more important that the analyst should possess such personal qualities as will command his confidence, and that he should have acquired the knowledge and insight, and the experience, which alone can fit him for his task.

Lay analysts, as they are found practicing today, are not chance-comers, recruited and trained without discrimination, but persons of academic standing.