What Do Patients Want?

What do patients want? provides readers with an insight into patients' psychoanalytic experiences "from the couch". Outcome studies have usually privileged the practitioner or researcher's voice, whilst underutilizing the rich published accounts of patients own stories. Thus very little is understood or valued as to what actually takes place between patient and analyst, from the patient's perspective. This book sets out to tell the stories of 18 ex-patients who, in interviews, reflected upon their experiences and described the factors which they believed were helpful, or not, in their analytic treatment. Free associating to an open question from me about how they understood and gave meaning to their personal journeys, these patients provided very vivid accounts of their analyses, demonstrated with clinical material. Their stories generally indicate a sophisticated understanding of the analytic process. Significant findings are discussed in each chapter, and then key conceptual issues are brought together at the end. The book is written in a journey format with each chapter related to a specific theme. The patients describe how the whole process began, and then bring up issues linked with working through the transference/ counter-transference relationship in its multi faceted aspects, and finally reflect upon the termination period and its aftermath. This is one of few published books which presents psychoanalysis from the patients' experiences. According to one of the examiners of my Doctoral thesis, Bob Hinshelwood, himself a noted UK analyst and writer, this study has far-reaching implications for both theory and clinical practice in psychoanalysis.