There`s no need to couch this development: After decades of declining favor, psychoanalysis is back. And in this incarnation, the Freudian therapeutic method is far more female-friendly.
”Women who go for therapy now will meet somebody who has many fewer assumptions,” says Jonathan Slavin, Ph.D., a Boston therapist and president of the psychology division of the American Psychological Association.
That means that most analysts no longer embrace the traditional Freudian perspective of development that holds that women are flawed men, says Slavin. Plus, they`re recognizing the importance of relational issues in mental well- being.
The reason for the reform?
More analysts are coming to pschoanalysis from the psychological rather than the medical realm, says Slavin.
”It`s more infused with critical thinking,” says Slavin. ”Not just with providing a (medical) service.”
But one of the most influential components fueling the reform has been feminism. Increasing numbers of female practitioners and prevailing societal attitudes have combined to produce an overhaul of the discipline.
”The ideal of the autonomous male person” as the mental health ideal has waned, Slavin observes.
And rather than adopting the posture of a rigid expert, new analysts are open to ”learning from the patient about what`s at stake in their lives,” he says.
More changes probably are on the horizon. While they`re still outnumbered in professional practice, women now are more than 50 percent of those in training as analysts.