will analysis work for me?

The analytical process certainly has a therapeutic effect, but it goes deeper than simply giving the impression of improvement. It is not uncommon for patients to want to interrupt sessions at the first signs of what mobilised them to seek analysis subsiding. And that’s the word really: interruption. It’s like treating an infection that eliminates a symptom, but whose agent hasn’t been completely removed.

That said, one element that will determine the success of the process is the extent to which the analysand is involved in it, supported by the relationship with the analyst. Each person’s psychic dynamics are unique, so that only the analysand themselves is capable of giving meaning to what happened in their life. It is not up to the analyst to say what the analysand should or should not do in certain situations, only to help them see their blind spots.