Comments on: Like Waltzing Around in Underpants: Living the Dream of Analytic Candidacy

By: Tricia Brock

Tricia Brock — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 05:35:50 +0000

Thank you, Constance. I appreciate your appreciation!

By: Constance Morrill

Constance Morrill — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 06:02:11 +0000

I am late to read this, but I appreciate everything about this lifting of the veil on our fears of the all-too-certain self-exposure. Wonderful tone, cadence, style and reverie!

By: Tricia Brock

Tricia Brock — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 15:21:27 +0000

Steve–Thank you for asking. I think the device of the dream was an effort to conjure the pains of candidacy in a way that would hopefully resonate for most of us: that familiar trope of showing up to life unprepared in whatever way would horrify us most. I sat down to consider an aspect of candidacy less openly deliberated, training anxiety, and entered a kind of reverie, probably a coping mechanism, and my real lived experience began to show up in the form of playful images and symbols, which I followed to the end to find out what would happen. I didn\’t know there would be a waltz or any kind of empowered feeling or happy ending, but I found myself winding up on a high note of community and togetherness, which I experience with candidacy, and cherish. I feel like that process also speaks to the experience of analytic work. You don\’t know how it will unfold, as patient and as analyst, but find yourself in the end making sense of what you have discovered.

By: Tricia M Brock

Tricia M Brock — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 14:22:50 +0000

Roberto, I love the dimension you add about giving and sharing a “piece of us.” How many pieces could we possibly have to give away? Do they come back? Do we grow new pieces? Thanks for commenting and for sharing in my anxiety.

By: Steve Kirschner

Steve Kirschner — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:32:01 +0000

Tricia this is a lovely account of the challenges of being a candidate, the exposure, anxiety, vulnerability and uncertainty of the whole process. I wondered as I read it if it was based on a dream or was conscious creative writing, or both? Whatever the case, I’m glad you shared it with us.

By: Roberto Colangeli

Roberto Colangeli — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 20:52:43 +0000

Tricia a wonderful blog! I enjoyed reading it and be moved from a glamorous party to the consultation room, to the feelings and doubts about being a candidate. Personally, it is tough to trust my feelings and react genuinely in the consultation room. It is not only about making a mistake or not knowing what I am doing (which is a big part) but also to be fearful of giving and sharing with our patients a “piece of us.”