What do we hope our patients have developed at the end of a “good enough” psychoanalysis? Our basic theory suggests that the more unconscious elements we can bring into awareness, the less likely the pull of their manifestations in action will occur. There is, of course, a great deal of merit in this perspective. However, there is another perspective to be considered, which is the process of knowing is as important as what is known. What is accomplished in a relatively successful psychoanalysis is a way of knowing and not simply knowing. In this paper I suggest that analyzing with heightened awareness to process knowledge is crucial for the patients’ capacity for self-analysis, and differs from helping patients primarily gain knowledge of their unconscious fantasies and conflicts as the primary curative factor in psychoanalysis.
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