In the therapy room

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All In The Mind 29 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 4 days ago

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What does Susie Orbach say about the purpose of modern psychoanalysis?

Lynn Malcolm 0:03

Hi, it's All in the Mind on RN. I'm Lynn Malcolm. Today, a peek behind the closed door of a therapist's consulting room.

Natasha Mitchell 0:15

Hello. Hi,

Susie Orbach 0:16

Sarriot. Thank

Unknown 0:18

you.

Susie Orbach 0:20

Today I'm seeing Harriet. We've been meeting for six months. She's recently separated from her long term partner and has moved out of their shared home.

Unknown 0:33

Hi. I feel as if I don't know why I'm here today. Mm. Oh hello, She's John.

Susie Orbach 0:44

John's in his sixties, he was a union official. His second wife left him. He Was in despair. I've been seeing him for eighteen months.

Unknown 0:59

I always find it difficult to have to start speaking. Um Well you know that I'll When I first came here it wasn't It wasn't me. It just didn't feel right, you know. But um

Susie Orbach 1:14

Helen is a woman in her late twenties. She's been coming to see me for eighteen months. She's outwardly extremely confident, but insecure inside. Of late she's been interested in discovering a bit more about her inner life and what makes her tick.

Unknown 1:35

How do ever um It's just a bit of a weird weekend really. Uh I was at this thing and um I end up I just um like slept with this man. Mm-hmm. like emotionally, morally it's not okay, but I just did it in the moment. I just did it. I don't know why. I don't really know Would you want to discover why? Yeah, I guess, but I'd

Lynn Malcolm 2:05

Excerpts from the BBC radio series In Therapy, in which psychotherapist Susie Orbach uses dramatized sessions with clients to reveal the processes of therapy. Susie Orback is a psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and social critic. Her first book, Fat is a Feminist Issue, was published in 1978, and she's since written prolifically on related issues. Worldwide, increasing numbers of people are seeing therapists on a regular basis. And unless you've experienced therapy yourself, you may be curious and perhaps sceptical about the type of talking cure brought to prominence by Sigmund Freud in the early twentieth century. Susie Orback explains the nature of psychoanalysis today.

Susie Orbach 2:57

I think that a modern psychoanalyst is really Interested in understanding what gets in the way of the person expressing and doing for themselves. What what trips them up? How can we enable them to get curious about their behaviours and their feelings so that They can more fully occupy themselves, if you like, that they can be the person they imagine themselves to be. How can they make some peace with ideas in their mind about them being unworthy or helpless or needing to be in control or scared or fearful all the time. I think we all have a lot of And this is everybody, this is not just the people who come to the consulting room. We all have hesitations in our lives. But sometimes they're disabling and when they're disabling it's worth trying to understand where they come from and how to change them.

How are projection, transference, and counter‑transference explained in therapy?

Lynn Malcolm 3:50

In the radio series In Therapy, Susie Orbach and the producers wanted to show the intimacy of the consulting room without breaching confidentiality. They used actors who improvised as characters, and Susie Orbach could relate to them as if they were clients in therapy. In one of the sessions, Susie Orbach sees Richard and Louise. Louise is about to have a baby, and the marriage has become quite shaky. They came in very distressed.

Unknown 4:23

Yeah, so right. I just see. Okay.

Susie Orbach 4:37

Sorry.

Unknown 4:38

No, I just keep telling her to relax, you know. She's just always I just feel like, you know, I'm constantly under attack. Okay. I think this is one of the essential problems. I feel like I'm really uh, aware of the fact that I'm eight months pregnant and about to have a baby. In one week's time I will be full term. So the baby could be born then. А не You haven't been to a nursery shop with me? You haven't bought anything.

Susie Orbach 5:07

Would it help if you said Louise? I feel instead of you do. Maybe Richard could hear it a little more easily.

Unknown 5:17

I feel like you're leaving everything to me. I feel Quite lonely when I'm walking around. Well you never walk, sir. I don't know what you're talking about. You never walk, do you? That's a ridiculous thing to say. Yeah, 'cause mum helps you out, pick up pick up all the stuff, doesn't she? Mum's always there to help you out.