Psychoanalysis - Hated by Musk, Loved by Huberman
Psychoanalysis has been declared dead, outdated, fake, a sham, pseudo-religion, disease, and other ugly names 100 times.
And it has been revived, enjoyed, declared to have saved one's life 101 times.
The truth? Probably somewhere inbetween with a field as broad as this.
Andrew Huberman has made the rounds opening up about being in a three-times a week analysis for the past 32 years:
"And, I will confess, I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly, but I found a way either through insurance or through my own income, I’ve continued therapy with that same individual now for 32 years. And so I do, I confess, I do three sessions a week of psychoanalysis. Remote or in person. And I know people have a lot of, they do the other kind of eye-roll (...) when you say psychoanalysis. I think an exploration of the mind is extremely powerful. It has to be done with the right person." - On the Tim Ferriss Podcast.
A lot of "confessing", if you ask me. But it's rare for psychoanalysis to enjoy such a (tentative) public display of affection.
Some psychoanalysts have made it very hard to enjoy psychoanalysis. Covered in orthodoxy, living out the stereotype of the blank-screen - they were not helping.
How can something that deals so much with sexuality become so unsexy and stiff at times? Sometimes, psychoanalysts have been the worst thing for psychoanalysis.
Elon Musk shared his deep distaste for psychoanalysts in this tweet last week:
Sometimes psychoanalysis offers itself as the best opportunity to project.
And, as is the nature of psychoanalytic/psychodynamic thinking, the resistance against it has been thoroughly analyzed.
You hate psychoanalysis? Daddy issues 😂
Freud has polarized people since the beginning. And that's ok. Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic thinking are not for everyone, it doesn't help everyone - especially if you were unlucky to catch a bad psychoanalyst.
I say all this, of course, with a great fondness in my heart because I'm in the camp of reviving, enjoying, diving deeply into psychoanalysis.
It's the most interesting thing I ever came across. I love this field and hope to contribute to dusting off those old books & theories, and share them to the best of my abilities.
Best wishes,
Alina