Der Raum in der Psychoanalyse

Until now psychoanalytic literature has paid little attention to
the psychoanalytic consulting room or the arrangement of couch and
armchair and their likely effect on the psychoanalytic process. In
this qualitative study, the answers of 20 former analysands
reporting about their analyses in a guided interview were
interpreted. It was found that room and psychoanalytic process
interact very closely with one another. In the course of the
analysis analysands define room implicitly in five different ways
unaware of their doing so. Room is defined as 1 the complete room
in which the couch and armchair stand (The Outer Room).
Subjectively, the analysand is in the analyst’s room and is
assigned a place on the couch for his own use. Analysis consists
mainly on the analysand’s adapting to the analytic procedure. 2 the
couch setting (The Interactive or Symbiosis Room). Subjectively,
the analysand is in his own room. Psychoanalysis consists mainly of
regressive dyadic interactions between analysand and analyst. The
analysand idealizes the room and is unaware of any irritating
element. 3 the couch (The Individual Room). Subjectively, the
analysand is in his own room, concentrating on the confrontation
with himself during the analytic work. The analyst accompanies the
process mainly protectively by having the consulting room ready. 4
the complete room with all its details as the basis of the
analysand’s own concept of a room (The Separate Room). The
analysand has an increasingly critical view of the consulting room,
the analyst and all the details of the analytic process. He now
becomes fully aware of all the elements belonging to room and
process. He conceptualises his own idea of the perfect room. His
often vehement criticism of all the elements of the room is central
to the analytic work at this stage. 5 the complete consulting room
including the couch setting (The Foreign Room). After the end of
his analysis, the analysand returns to his old consulting room and
discovers, mainly unconsciously (e.g. by smell, acoustic
phenomena), that his former consulting room has become foreign to
him. He is no longer in his own room and soberly looks at an
unattractive room in which he once experienced all the decisive
periods of his life. The analysand goes through these five phases
(“rooms”) respectively. The process is not reversible. On account
of the interaction stated between room perception and
psychoanalytic process this room theory can serve as a means of
efficacy research in order to evaluate the depth of the
psychoanalytic process and the qualitative personality changes
within it.