2026 0926 Boundary violations in the consulting room

I am sending out this blog in advance of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Now 2026 Conference because of a statement they make in the opening blurb about it:

In this conference, we will explore how and why such violations happen, and what can be done to prevent them. This conference aims to address the ‘noticeable scarcity of publications and events on this topic,’  opening a dialogue to think about the unthinkable in our profession. [my italics]

I have a model for understanding the vital difference between the nature of psychoanalysis as a profession and other people related professions. The BPC and other registering and membership bodies have chosen an ethics and complaints procedure designed for dentists which is the preferred system of the Health and Care Professions Council, the regulator of health and care professions in the UK. My argument is that this is deeply flawed because it entirely rejects a vital element of psychoanalytic work; the unconscious.

You can find on my website three papers describing my model, one is a summary, the other two are fuller accounts (go to: https://philipstokoe.org.uk/professional-papers/ and scroll down to the ‘Professional papers’ written in 2023)

My first published paper on this was:

Stokoe, P 2015: Ethics and Complaints Procedures for Psychoanalytic Organisations: Some Thoughts About Principles. In: Couple & Family Psychoanalysis 5(2) 188–204.

The next iteration was in my book:

Stokoe, P; 2020c; The Curiosity Drive: Our Need for Inquisitive Thinking, Bicester, Phoenix Publishing House

This led to an invitation to participate in a podcast run by Harvey Schwartz on behalf of the International Psychanalytic Association and subsequently released as:

IPA Off the Couch podcast, Episode 81: Psychoanalytic Curiosity and Boundaries with Philip Stokoe (London) March 21, 2021 00:46:13; https://ipaoffthecouch.org/?s=Stokoe

In the blurb for this podcast Dr Schwartz quotes me as saying, “What kind of home [institute] have you got to live in? If you design a home, not as a refuge but where there is a place to be able to think, it’s a slightly different concept. I’m not going to hide you in this secondary container, but I am going to help you to think in this secondary container. Then it feels easier to turn to colleagues and be open to them and get help. Whereas if you think that colleagues are going to be making judgments about you in this more paranoid-schizoid way, then it is not a safe place to go. And then you become stuck doing things that otherwise you would not have done.”

In 2023 I wrote a chapter on this for a book edited by Valerie Sinason and Adah Sachs:

Stokoe, P: 2023b; Chapter 9 The unique nature of boundaries in psychoanalytic therapy and the implication for ethics and complaints procedures. In Sachs, A & Sinason, V, The Psychotherapist and the Professional Complaint Karnac Books, London

The point I’m making in this rather pedantic way is that I have written a great deal about a model for ethics and complaints designed specifically for psychoanalytic work, taking into account the impact of the unconscious communication that is central to the therapeutic endeavour.

The BPC know about this. I met with the Greg Ross Sampson (CEO) and Laura Dunn (Head of Operations) in September last year and explained my view and model to them.

My view is that the current system is profoundly un-psychoanalytic, deeply flawed and does dreadful damage to both complainant and clinician.

I do hope that some of you will give consideration to my arguments. You might want to talk to clinicians who have been dragged through an unnecessary lonely and frightening process. Or perhaps simply read the papers on my website.

This ‘cancelling’ of me in the organisation of the upcoming conference has spurred me to write this blog, not because of any upset I feel about being treated in this way, even though it is painful, but because I am so deeply upset and concerned that our profession has signed up to a process that causes terrible pain and provides no real relief for either party in a complaint but protects itself from knowing this by forming a spurious identification with a simplistic version of a legal mind.

Please note, I am always interested in any thoughts or arguments you might have with this brief blog.

Thank you for taking to trouble to read it.