The case history has become a standard method of transmitting psychoanalytical knowledge. Freud wrote a number of now famous case histories and his successors modelled themselves upon him, as if to emphasize that their theories were rooted in experience. At one time the International Journal of Psychoanalysis separated out articles lacking clinical material which were published in a separate journal, termed the Review, although the two have now been combined again. But the case history, written by the analyst, is only one side of the story. Where is the voice of the patient?
Accounts of the experience and treatment of madness written by the madmen exist, (one of the most famous perhaps being the Schreber case), but are not common. It is also rare for analysands to publish accounts of their analyses.
Without having to consider which version is more ‘true’ (nothing passed through the human mind is completely free from error), it remains instructive to see the experience of treatment from two different points of view. A kind of binocular vision.
This is the thinking behind THERIP's creation of a section of the website devoted to collecting people's accounts, past and present, of analysis and/or psychotherapy, which we have called FROM THE COUCH. We include also accounts from relatives.
THERIP members wishing to contribute to the project can do so, using the 'add article' function; non-members are most welcome to participate by sending contributions to