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Possible unconscious significance of the positions of the analysand and analyst in psychoanalysis.

When Freud chose to have his patients lie on a couch and seated himself at their head out of sight, none of these procedures were without precedents in the medical culture of his day. The recumbent position was standard for the examination of the abdomen and for many surgical procedures. Sitting at the patient's head was routine for the anesthetist. Being out of the patient's sight was necessary for the examination of the lungs and spine (not to mention the Roman Catholic confession box). Yet, the combination of these three factors was unique and was quickly recognized as a hallmark of psychoanalysis. It is remarkable that relatively little has been written concerning the symbolic meaning of the positions of the analysand and analyst considering that this is a daily feature of every analyst's work and that lying on the couch has become a vernacular equivalent for the psychoanalytic process itself. This paper is an attempt to examine some unconscious symbolic meanings of these positions, which may have been involved even before Freud's choice made them standard.