ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the authentic therapist because authenticity is not a term that appears with much frequency in psychoanalytic writing. The main purpose of the training analysis is to reduce the self of the therapist, both in the conscious and the unconscious, to something usable technically. To highlight the marks of the authentic therapist, some description must be given of the other two ways of being, the instrumental and the transpersonal. Where the therapist is in the instrumental position, the client is usually regarded as someone who has problems, which problems need to be put right. The therapist, of whatever modality, concentrates on delivering the technique that he or she has learnt, and has not adapted to a more personalized way of working. The word “authentic” appears to mean a style of being as a therapist which involves openness to the “real” self, and may even include at times being more active.
