Abstract

Psychoanalysis does not heal, it changes. Pontalis (1978) says that the idea of healing is incurable. The cure is a medical term and presupposes a passive patient, whereas analysis presupposes an active patient who tries to overcome resistance and associate freely. The author discusses the concept of change in psychoanalysis, relating it to reparation, intellectualization and insight, transformative dream work, and contextualizing it in the analytic and non-therapeutic milieu. Finally, the idealization of structural change and the fear of change are considered