Up: [[Analysis]] Created: 2025-03-25 The analytic relationship is different from any other kind of relationship because it’s not ever for its own sake. It’s intended to help me establish a relationship between my ego and the unconscious. The paradox is that I want to become conscious, but the raw forces of nature in my unconscious don’t want to become conscious. The paradox is that my unconscious is both saviour and devil; both divinity and trickster. For Jungians, the analysis of the unconscious centres around the interpretation of dreams. For Freudians, it centres around interpretation of the [[transference]]. This is why the very different seating arrangements in the two therapies. In Jungian psychology it’s like a conversation with a friend — face to face in armchairs. In Freudian analysis, it’s the opposite of normal conversation. The analysand lies on a couch and has to free associate. The analyst sits behind and out of sight. No eye contact, no fellow feeling so transference is easier for the Freudian analyst to detect, whereas for Jungians, the focus on the dreams can blind the analyst to observing the analysand’s immediate experience and also the analyst’s own feelings. The analyst’s own feelings refers to countertransference, which is an inevitability because the analyst has an unconscious too and projecting is what the unconscious does. But that doesn’t always mean that countertransference is negative. It can help the analyst understand the analysand.