ABSTRACT
Freud’s personal method of remembering implies an understanding of memory. The listening he describes in that personal context is of a different kind, specific to the one-to-one relationships between a therapist and a patient. In his striving to teach his listening method to future therapists, Freud thus relied on an educational philosophy that was not equipped to train therapists to listen in a different state of mind. As his reference to surgery makes clear, he assumed that the training of a therapist’s autonoetic awareness and episodic memory could be done the same way that training in medicine typically is conducted: as a codification of specific, repeatable procedures. In some instances, Freud also appears to have abandoned his own listening method and instead relied on his rule-determined recommendations. Three tools dominate in the training of therapists: personal therapy, or training analysis, supervision by a senior therapist, and instruction in clinical assessments and psychopathology.
