Session Frequency and the Definition of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis as a field is suffering in part because we remain locked into a definition of psychoanalysis based on what Gill (1984) called its "extrinsic" criteria-especially session frequency. I argue that organized psychoanalysis needs to redefine what it means to practice psychoanalysis. Such a redefinition is dictated not only by current realities of the marketplace but also by contemporary theory, which emphasizes the co-created, nonlinear nature of the analytic relationship. Some implications of this redefinition (a) for the distinction between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy, and (b) for analytic training, are briefly considered.