DOING PSYCHOANALYSIS, BEING A PSYCHOANALYST

Doing psychoanalysis as opposed to being a psychoanalyst was for Luciana Bon de Matte a crucial distinction whose implications she revisited and developed on several occasions. The analytic function consists of an attentive and selfless listening that attends as much to the analysand's functioning aspects as to those that remain unexplored as a result of a lack of confirmation in the patient's environment. Reality comes into the consulting room in a very concrete way in that the analysand brings with him his knowledge of himself; but he must be accompanied if he is to open himself to his specific unmet needs that demand respect, and that have often been unrecognized or undervalued by those from whom he has not received a model of appropriate care.