Volume 28, Issue 5
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2019.1130
THE USE OF VARIABLE LENGTH SESSIONS. QUALITATIVE STUDY FROM LACANIAN PSYCHOANALYSTS PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Introduced by Lacan as a technical variant of psychoanalytic practice, the Variable Length Session (VLS) has not been without controversy. This article explores the conditions, modalities and evaluation of the VLS by Lacanian analysts. To this purpose, a descriptive-exploratory qualitative study was carried out in an intentional sample of 14 specialists from Chile, Argentina and Belgium. The information was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire, the results of which are examined quantitatively from descriptive statistics and qualitatively through Grounded Theory. The analyses show a consensus on the application setting, as well as on the logics and conditions of use. The "pivotal" position of the VLS is highlighted, since it would mobilize both expected and unexpected effects, at the level of transfer, free association, acting-out and anguish. Its pertinence for cases of perversion or psychosis, among other clinical situations, is also discussed.
Keywords
Setting, Lacanian psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic intervention, Variable Length Sessions.