40 anos de primeiras entrevistas no Instituto de Psicanálise

Abstract

40 years of first interviews in the Psychoanalytic Institute

The Psychoanalytic Institute has been doing first interviews since 1977. Like similar Institutes, it has been observed a decrease in requests and referrals for psychoanalysis and an increase in referrals for psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Often people who seek relief for their suffering don’t present momentary internal or external conditions to engage in a psychoanalytic process. However, some cases referred for psychotherapy evolve towards psychoanalysis, due to the development made possible from this experience.This study begins with the assumption that the first interview raises anxieties in both participants and an “emotional storm” (Bion, 1979) is created by the encounter between two strangers who contact very intimate aspects of each other. Indications for psychoanalysis and the criteria of analysability have already been at the centre of this reflection. Recently issues such as “the transformation of the first interview into an analytic experience” (Crick, 2014) and the “creation of the analytic patient” (Levine, 2010) have been brought up to discussion. The authors address the processes involved in first interviews and present a historical synthesis of this activity in the 40 years of the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Finally, they reflect after their 6 years’ experience of conducting first interviews and suggest some future challenges.