Posted by Pfinstegg on September 2, 2004, at 0:20:35
In reply to Re: Does your Therapist understand how important they, posted by lucy stone on September 1, 2004, at 23:16:40
What you said is interesting, Lucy. There are so many different ways to get better.Your analyst is working in a standard, traditional way, and you have made some great changes (from reading your previous posts). When I was 20, I also went to a traditional analyst for three years; he worked just the way yours does, and I got SO much better. I did a lot of grieving over the abuse and lack of love and support in my childhood, but we mainly concentrated on growth of my adult self. He did not want regressions, which my present analyst does want.
I really stayed quite well, through marriage, the birth of my son and a good career life. I had the wonderful feeling that I was meeting challenges successfully and growing personally all during this time; I always remembered my wonderful first analyst, and kept in touch with him- he was a very important, internalized part of me. However, when my mother and father died, I quite suddenly developed a very severe depression, with suicidal thoughts; for the first time in my life, I really needed anti-depressants. That's why I'm in analysis again; I've been doing very different things with this analyst, as you probably know! But different as this experience is, it's also tremendously valuable; I probably needed to do both at different times in my life- this one almost seems like something one has the privilege of doing when older.
The first analysis seemed to move smoothly towards growth, independence and increased personal fulfilment. This one is more all over the place- sometimes I think, what am I DOING? It's not so great for one's adult life to keep regressing! But, in a year and a half, I've overcome the depression almost completely (I take just 37.5 mg. of Wellbutrin now). In my adult life, things are changing in subtle ways- more confidence in my career abilities than I have ever had, more spontaneity and joy in day-to-day things, better acceptance and liking of myself.
My analyst told me that doing an analysis that includes exploring dissociative states is probably the most thorough kind that one can do. I guess he thought it was the correct thing to do, because I had *done* the standard analysis, and never lost any of it's benefits. He personally thinks that everyone has dissociated states, but that most people do not need to explore them. He doesn't look for them in every patient, though I guess he feels they are there!
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:385420
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040828/msgs/385523.html