On its own, listening is not enough

Smith writes: “Psychoanalysis may, in my view, be scientific junk, but an hour a day three days a week of being listened to will cure many. ‘Uh huh,’ is all the psychoanalysts need to say for their £80 an hour.”1Smith misses the point of therapeutic attentiveness, which is to allow oneself to be emotionally affected not only by what the patient tells you but also by their very presence in the room. Patients are helped when they feel understood by the therapist’s observations in ways that might come as a surprise. This is not always welcome but offers to make better sense of otherwise mystifying or disturbing experiences.There is good science in support of psychoanalysis, yet many doctors confidently and shamelessly assert there is none. The 15 year Tavistock Adult Depression Study, for example, was the first randomised controlled trial of longer term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.2 It followed patients with chronic,…
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