ABSTRACT

Without a minotaur in sight, there is no way to tell if we have run out of thread anywhere near the center of the psychoanalytic labyrinth. However, as I mentally retrace the steps we have taken in considering how the experience of existential uncertainty is systemically transformed, it strikes me that as a relational system in its own right, psychoanalysis is exquisitely suited for such transformation. Perhaps all theories that provide explanations about human experience in the form of general principles are likely to reduce uncertainty among its adherents. None more so than classical Freudian theory. With its emphasis on universality and its insistence on a uniform clinical technique, it must have been a godsend for early analysts picking their way over newly broken ground. In contrast, contemporary relational theories that celebrate the uniqueness of each psychoanalytic dyad and call for greater spontaneity, play, and mutuality in the analytic relationship seem to court uncertainty. How brave we explorers have become!