ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shares his experiences as psychoanalyst. He worked at the Tavistock as a senior staff member in the Adult Department from 1978 to 1985. He had for two years prior to 1978 given a series of lectures to social workers. So he worked at the Tavistock for a period of nine years in total. During that time he acquired a very unfortunate reputation: that he was believed to be good at public speaking. On the basis of that reputation the author was asked to give a series of thirty lectures on "Psychoanalytic theory" to mental health professionals from the three departments of the Tavistock. His credentials at the time were minimal and his acceptance of the offer can be put down mainly to ambition and grandiosity. He claims that leaving the Tavistock was an impetus to this inner change.
