Routledge Psychoanalysis from the Inside Out: Developing and Sustaining an Analytic Identity and Practice

In the face of considerable scepticism over the function and effectiveness of psychoanalysis, Lena Ehrlich demonstrates how analysis is unique in its potential to transform patients at an emotionally cellular level by helping them access and process long-standing conflicts and traumatic experiences. Using detailed clinical vignettes, the author illustrates that when analysts practice from the inside out, i.e. consider that external obstacles to initiating and deepening an analysis inevitably reflect analysts’ fears of their internal world and of intimacy, they become better able to speak to patients’ long-term suffering. This book, free from psychoanalytic jargon, stands out in its ability to help readers feel more effective, confident, and optimistic about practicing psychoanalysis by providing insights and recommendations about beginning and deepening analysis and sustaining oneself as an analyst over time. It will appeal to both beginners and experienced analysts, as well as supervisors, educators, and those interested in the workings of their minds and in building more intimate relationships. Review "Through her sensitive clinical practice, Lena Ehrlich shows how the psychoanalytic process begins and deepens in the analyst’s mind and explores our resistances to letting it come to life and grow. Her writing has strengthened my own identity and practice as psychoanalyst. It has also informed our research in the Working Party on Initiating Psychoanalysis of the European Psychoanalytic Federation; in turn, our findings have confirmed those from her fine clinical practice. Even on the difficult topic of teleanalysis she is well-informed, cogent and thought-provoking. It is a real treat to have her work collected in this book, which will be a must for all psychoanalysts." ―Bernard Reith, President of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society "In lucid prose, Lena Ehrlich conveys the multitudinous ways an analyst develops her capacities to face her own conflicts, resistances, and to tolerate her own affect and intense countertransference reactions. Simultaneously, she shows us her belief in her patients’ capacities to grow and change. These two developments within herself combine to create the conditions for the development of a deep, intimate analytic process to evolve. Her openness in facing her own struggle to form an analytic identity provides a model of self-scrutiny that should be inspiring to all clinicians and especially for young analysts." ―Judy L. Kantrowitz, Training and supervising analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute "Based on extensive experience and written with uncommon clarity, this timely book demonstrates convincingly that psychoanalysis, despite its troubled history and many current challenges, ‘has the potential to transform us at an emotionally cellular level, helping us be present and sturdy inside ourselves and better able to connect with and love others.’" ―Howard B. Levine, MD, Editor-in-Chief, The Routledge W. R. Bion Studies Series About the Author Lena Theodorou Ehrlich is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, and a Clinical Supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School. In addition to maintaining a lively practice of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and supervision for 30 years, she is widely recognized for her original contributions to the literature on beginning and deepening analysis and building and maintaining a psychoanalytic practice. Born and raised in Greece, she is a trilingual immigrant, a wife, mother, and avid traveler.