Professional
Technical
IVT
analytic stance
The analyst's professional positioning characterized by curiosity, abstinence, and technical neutrality during sessions.
Full Definition
The analytic stance refers to the specific professional attitude and positioning that psychoanalysts maintain during treatment. This encompasses maintaining appropriate boundaries, practicing abstinence from gratifying the patient's wishes directly, and sustaining curiosity about unconscious material while avoiding premature closure or advice-giving. The stance is fundamental to creating conditions for transference to develop and be analyzed.
Usage
Usage note: Distinct from 'analytic attitude' which is broader; stance refers specifically to technical positioning.
In Context
- "The therapist's departure from analytic stance by offering practical advice disrupted the transference development." — Case supervision notes
- "Maintaining analytic stance requires ongoing self-reflection and attention to countertransference responses." — Training manual
Also known as
analytic position
therapeutic stance
Contrasted with
supportive stance
directive approach
Don't confuse with
analytic attitude
neutrality