BION: In psychoanalysis, when approaching the unconscious— that is, what we do not know— we, patient and analyst alike, are certain to be disturbed. In every consulting-room, there ought to be two rather frightened people: the patient and the psychoanalyst. If they are not both frightened, one wonders why they are bothering to find out what everyone knows.
Bion, Wilfred R. (2005-06-09). The Tavistock Seminars (Kindle Locations 1706-1708). Karnac Books. Kindle Edition.
It is truly dreadful the way in which psychoanalytic theory can become so learned, so prestigious, that I would certainly hate to try to understand it myself; in fact, I don’t waste my time trying to. I do occasionally get bombarded with it: while trying to say something to me, the patient is constantly interrupted by his own high-powered psychoanalytic knowledge. There is the same difficulty at the other pole, where there appears to be an inability to understand or to appreciate the reality of analysis.
Bion, Wilfred R. (2005-06-09). The Tavistock Seminars (Kindle Locations 1497-1501). Karnac Books. Kindle Edition.
But the truth is independent of us. Psychoanalysis is an attempt to know what it is that interrupts us, or makes it impossible to think clearly or to have any respect for the facts that are available to us ; it is an attempt to investigate what it is in ourselves that causes so much trouble, not because we cause the trouble but because it is the only thing about which we can say anything at all.
Bion, Wilfred R. (2005-06-09). The Tavistock Seminars (Kindle Locations 1481-1483). Karnac Books. Kindle Edition.
authentic analysis 