Listening for the Unconscious

“Couples therapy”—the words alone are enough to send many people running. But Orna Guralnik, the clinical psychologist and star of Showtime’s documentary series Couples Therapy, has people running to her office. She has become a household name as well as a watchful guide for couples as they navigate intimate and sometimes agonizing discussions, and for viewers as they watch these couples bare their souls—or refuse to do so. With her beloved dog, Nico, on her lap, Guralnik explained how she practices listening for the unconscious, the limits and the possibilities of televised therapy, and whether the psychoanalytic interview can teach even the most adversarial pairs, like warring nations, how to make peace.Merve Emre: The psychoanalytic interview is a genre unto itself. I thought we could start by hearing you speak about it.Orna Guralnik: The psychoanalytic interview is a very particular genre of interview. To start with this question of dehumanization and rehumanization, one of the things that happens in the beginning of a psychoanalytic interview is that the interviewee, the patient, starts off expecting to be less than human. They begin with a transference toward the clinician, a...