{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T01:52:01Z","timestamp":1777427521701,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2010,4,1]],"date-time":"2010-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1270080000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Am Psychoanal Assoc"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2010,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The current emphasis on understanding in psychoanalysis\u2014on the analysand\u2019s part as well as on the analyst\u2019s\u2014is excessive if we assume that the most essential aim of psychoanalytic treatment is change. Situated within the Lacanian register or dimension of the imaginary, the process of understanding can be seen to reduce the unfamiliar to the familiar, to transform the radically other into the same, and to render the analyst hard of hearing. Our ability as analysts to detect the unconscious via slips of the tongue, slurred words, mixed metaphors, and the like is compromised by our emphasis on understanding and can be rectified only by taking as our fundamental premise that we do not understand what our analysands are saying. The emphasis on understanding can also do a disservice to analysands, who learn to observe themselves and to explain their feelings and behaviors to themselves and others in sophisticated terms without necessarily changing. But change can perfectly well occur in the absence of understanding, which in fact often impedes change.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0003065110369349","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2010,6,9]],"date-time":"2010-06-09T23:50:13Z","timestamp":1276127413000},"page":"259-285","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Against Understanding: Why Understanding Should Not Be Viewed as an Essential Aim of Psychoanalytic Treatment"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"58","author":[{"given":"Bruce","family":"Fink","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Duquesne University"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2010,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","volume-title":"A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique","author":"Fink, B.","year":"1997"},{"key":"atypb2","volume-title":"Lacan to the Letter: Reading \u00c9crits Closely","author":"Fink, B.","year":"2004"},{"key":"atypb3","volume-title":"Fundamentals of Psychoanalytic Technique: A Lacanian Approach for Practitioners","author":"Fink, B.","year":"2007"},{"key":"atypb4","volume-title":"The interpretation of dreams","author":"Freud, S.","year":"1900","edition":"4"},{"key":"atypb5","first-page":"155","volume":"10","author":"Freud, S.","year":"1909","journal-title":"Standard Edition"},{"key":"atypb6","volume-title":"Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis","author":"Freud, S.","year":"1916","edition":"15"},{"key":"atypb7","first-page":"159","volume":"19","author":"Freud, S.","year":"1924","journal-title":"Standard Edition"},{"key":"atypb8","volume-title":"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions","author":"Kuhn, T.S.","year":"1962"},{"key":"atypb9","volume-title":"The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book 1: Freud\u2019s Papers on Technique","author":"Lacan, J.","year":"1953"},{"key":"atypb10","volume-title":"The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book 3: The Psychoses","author":"Lacan, J.","year":"1955"},{"key":"atypb11","volume-title":"The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis","author":"Lacan, J.","year":"1964"},{"key":"atypb12","volume-title":"\u00c9crits: The First Complete Edition in English, transl. 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