Abstract

Drawing from my work as an analyst, in this paper I explore the vicissitudes that accompany human beings on the path to their self-affirmation/subjectivation. A comparison is established between psychoanalytic experience and the results of some anthropological and sociological studies in order to delve deeper into these issues and measure them against those of secrecy and secret societies. More particularly, I attempt a comparison and a differentiation between the inspiration driving analytic work – grounded on Freud’s fundamental rule of free association – and the nature of the analyst/patient contract and its impact on the psyche. Drawing from Ginzburg’s evidential paradigm, I argue for the importance of elaborating an evidential knowledge as a guide to one’s development and relationship with the other.