Agency, Surrender, and Grace in Psychoanalysis

There is a vital dialectic between agency and surrender in life and in the analytic process. Without an ability to will, one cannot choose one’s actions; one becomes a passive victim of circumstances rather than an agent who can influence one’s own destiny. On the other hand, an exaggerated sense of agency fails to take into account the limits of our ability to control life, and is associated with a type of narcissistic omnipotence that can be linked with an experience of isolation. In this article I explore some of the subtleties of the interplay between willing and surrendering in the analytic process. I also examine the way in which an inability to surrender can impede the patient’s ability to take in what the analyst has to offer. And finally I adapt the concept of grace from theological discourse to highlight a dimension of the analytic process that involves an emergence of the patient’s capacity to make constructive use of the analyst’s interventions.