The knowledge that disturbs

There is a particular kind of ignorance that keeps us safe, that allows us to function under the illusion that everything is in its place. It's the not-knowing that lets us sleep peacefully, that allows us to keep our certainties and defenses intact. But psychoanalysis is not interested in preserving this artificial peace. On the contrary, it comes to disturb it, to shake the foundations of our comfortable explanations about who we are.

What analysis offers is not reassuring knowledge that can be packaged in self-help manuals. It is a knowledge that destabilizes, that confronts us with the truths we prefer to keep buried. It promises neither harmony nor balance, but rather a turbulent encounter with our own desire, that stranger who dwells within us and whom we never fully know.

This uncomfortable knowledge comes at a price: the loss of our most cherished illusions about ourselves. But it is precisely in this loss where the possibility of a more authentic encounter with who we are resides. Psychoanalysis invites us on this disturbing journey, not to find definitive answers, but to learn to inhabit our own questions.

True strength

In a culture that idolizes a distorted version of strength, where being strong means denying the need for others and maintaining a facade of perpetual invulnerability, psychoanalysis proposes a radically different perspective. It invites us to recognize that true strength lies not in the denial of our vulnerabilities, but in the courage to accept and explore them. This view challenges the dominant narrative that equates emotional hardness with strength of character.

Constant competition and lack of compassion, far from being signs of power, reveal a deeply defensive fragility. The subject who cannot recognize their dependence on others, who cannot admit moments of weakness or need, finds themselves trapped in a prison of false self-sufficiency. This denial not only consumes an enormous amount of psychic energy but also prevents the possibility of authentic connections and meaningful relationships.

The psychoanalytic process offers a space where we can discover that our vulnerability, far from being a weakness to be eliminated, is the very foundation of our humanity and the basis of our capacity to connect with others. True strength emerges when we can hold the tension between our need for independence and our inevitable requirement of others, when we can be both strong and vulnerable, autonomous and dependent.

Beyond emotional judgment

In our contemporary landscape, we find ourselves surrounded by self-appointed emotional judges, ever-ready to pass sentence on the validity of our feelings. These ubiquitous arbiters of affect dispense their verdicts freely: "Don't be so sensitive," "You're overreacting," "Just get over it." Through their dismissive pronouncements, they create a culture where authentic emotional expression becomes increasingly difficult, where certain feelings are deemed illegitimate before they can even be fully experienced.

The psychoanalytic stance offers a radical alternative to this culture of emotional policing. In the analytic space, feelings aren't subjected to judgment or measured against some arbitrary standard of appropriateness. Instead, each emotion, no matter how seemingly irrational or socially unacceptable, is welcomed as a meaningful communication from the psyche. The analyst's role isn't to validate or invalidate, but to help unfold the complex meanings embedded within each emotional experience.

This embrace of the full spectrum of human emotion opens up possibilities for genuine understanding and transformation. When feelings are no longer treated as defendants in a courtroom but as messengers carrying crucial information about our inner world, they can begin to reveal their deeper significance. The analyst's interpretative work doesn't aim to judge these emotional communications but to decode them, helping the analysand discover the hidden truths their feelings have been trying to convey all along.