When the Personal Encounters the Professional: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

Abstract

It has been noted how the interaction between the personal and the professional within such settings sets the stage for the psychoanalytic phenomena of transference, countertransference and defence mechanisms. Subsequently, these phenomena were considered in the context of the rejection of professional knowledge in favour of practice and therefore highlighted the need to consider wider social contexts and how the associated knowledge and practices emerge. Particularly by considering, (1) how unconscious process may defend against social structures, (2) the process by which humans construct a social and cultural world as well considering, (3) the role that recognition has on developing identity. The specific focus concentrates on how individuals and societies or groups interact to create both a meaningful self-identity and a shared objective reality.