Dr. Coleman Noctor

There'd be quite a lot of that.

I worked in St.

Patrick's Mental Health Services for a number of years and there was, I think there was something like 40 therapists of one which was a psychoanalyst, which was me.

So I suppose the thing about psychoanalysis is it probably doesn't have a lot of outcome measure.

It's like some of the other ones, they'll say, 12 sessions, you will reduce your symptoms from this to this.

Whereas psychoanalysts, it's like come to me twice a week for nine years and we'll see what happens.

Well, I suppose psychoanalysts in its purest form is to deal with the unconscious.

So a lot of it is looking at patterns and patterns.

know patterns throughout your life so say for example if you have a series of relationships that seem to break down at a certain point and you're able to go so far it's really delving into those maybe early childhood experiences and what might be going on outside of consciousness that might be creating that and

And so it's a very intense form of therapy.

Now, obviously I work with children and adolescents, so it's a very watered down version of that.

It's not prescriptive.

Like it wouldn't, like one of the frustrating things about analysis is that you're not told what to do next.

And some people come to therapy wanting guidance and direction and analysis is much more waiting for you to come to that yourself.

I suppose.

Yeah, and look, again, you adopt it to be able to offer some degree of guidance and support for parents who maybe are struggling with some... Like, say, for example, the relationships with their daughter or with their son.

They're at a crossroads of, do I get into sanctioning and discipline or do I allow it and...

And so you can kind of talk about what might be going on for that young person unconsciously and give them some bit of a steer about how to manage that or how best to understand it.

I suppose my thing has always been the best prognosis for any child is

is the parental understanding of the condition or of that young person's struggle.