The Empty Chair—A Cautionary Tale for the Young Analyst

Abstract

This paper is based on our experience as psychoanalysts and the observation of our colleagues and our patients. We describe our view of the trajectory of the young psychoanalyst through the lens of our own experience and in the light of the concepts of desire and want or lack. We compare these concepts in Freud, Jung, and Lacan and describe how they accompany and influence the young therapist in his journey. In particular, we also analyze the meaning and the effects of the lack or absence of the analysand, both in the individual analysis, when the patient “misses” a session, and in group analysis, when one or more group members are absent during one session, leaving one or more empty chairs. We analyze these absences in terms of resistance but also as a possible “expression” of the group’s psychical apparatus. We conclude with a vision of the relation analyst-analysand inspired by the work of the analyst Charles Baudouin, who has developed a synthesis between Jung and Freud.