This post could be of interest to some of the analysts who also follow another professional blog in one of the countries that show interest in my blog. The comment in this published note is my opinion regarding the possibility of a law- in that country -that requires the psychotherapist to give the patients- beforehand -a tentative estimate of the process of his psychotherapy (time-duration-cost,etc.). I am posting it in my blog because it did not have a place in the other professional blog.

In the old times (fifty or sixty years ago) when psychoanalysis was still starting and forming it was not possible to have a decent idea of how long psychoanalytic therapy could take. We did have a way to foresee the patient’s resistance and his potential benefit from our work. After seeing so many patients (thousands amongst us) and gaining deeper knowledge of both psychopathology and the therapeutic process I think we could assess both the difficulties, the potentials, and the acceptable level of change and have a decent idea of how long and how many sessions needed, to change. That clinical skill is difficult to transmit to a candidate in training!?

Therefore, a law that requires an “effort” to be made to assess our responsibility in the therapeutic process is particularly good for us, the patient, let alone the process of therapy itself.