Interactive relationships between psychoanalytic theory and the mind of the analyst

This dissertation explores intersections between psychoanalytic theory as a body of technical and scientific knowledge, and the analyst's mind. Psychoanalytic theories are public, professionally shared systems of ideas and practices that also interact with and represent personal systems of meaning and belief. This study aims to understand these interactions between theory and mind by using personal interviews with practicing psychoanalysts as first person accounts. These narratives are examined with reference to the existing literature.;Theory is found to be significant, though often non-conscious, in the mental processes of the working analyst. This study demonstrates that theoretical belief is linked to personal factors, and that learning theory impacts the analyst personally.;Social and cultural phenomena including group dynamics, training, and institutional and local climates are shown to impact theoretical belief Analysts appropriate ideas idiosyncratically, but sometimes feel uncomfortable voicing unique viewpoints. It is found that formal training is often but not always a primary cite for the development of theoretical belief Relationship to theory can be influenced by the experience of psychoanalytic training even when explicit theoretical beliefs are not. Many analysts experience theories as impacting social structure and professional relationships, though significantly less so today than in the past.;Identifications with supervisors, analysts, literary figures and other mentors are shown to impact theoretical belief, to be both conscious and non-ideational, to have dynamic meaning, and to entail two phenomena: being-similar-to and taking ideas in as ones own.;This study employs a qualitative method informed by thematic analysis and person-centered ethnography. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with psychoanalysts in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Denmark and Southern Sweden. The data is categorized into seven themes encompassing the questions raised in the study.;The data show that learning psychoanalytic theory involves development of the analyst's psychological capacities for containment. Links between theory, fantasy and personal belief are in evidence and found to support the idea that psychoanalytic theory represents a particular realm of alpha-function linked to the analyst's emotional experience. Analysis of the data also suggests that theoretical knowledge necessitates the mourning of inaccurate beliefs.