Le binôme oncologue-psychanalyste : parcours de patientes

Abstract

In oncological medicine, professionals work with patients in very separate areas of specialization. This specialization does not always seem the best approach, however, this kind of specialized care can benefit the patients. We would like, in the following text, to share with you a daily experience of an oncologist and a psychoanalyst treating a patient. First, we will present the oncologist’s point of view : his way of undestanding the patient’s journey, his role which is sometimes difficult to accept and maintain between taking action and speaking, the richness and benfits of multidisciplinary care, the oncologist/patient relationship which unfolds over a longterm and finally, his stance facing what wee call the ‘end of life’. Secondly, the psychoanalyst will consider her place in a medical service, working witj women facing breast cancer. Through oncological case studies, wee will follow in detail the psychological work which unfols during regular sessions between patients and the psychoanalyst. We will try to analyse the dynamic in the triad: oncologist/patient/psychoanalyst, and the potential journey from this triad to a triangulation, rich in potential for psychological elaboration and evolution. Both, the oncologist and the psychoanalyst will illustrare their work’s pecularities and will try to show how their care and intervention in a case come together in one common goal: to be listenning to both the physical and the psychological distress of their patients.