Fate analysis

Domain I · Psychodynamic & depth psychology · Leopold Szondi · 1944

What it is

Schicksalsanalyse (fate analysis) is Leopold Szondi's depth psychology of the familial unconscious: a layer between Freud's personal and Jung's collective unconscious, in which latent "ancestral figures" (Ahnenfiguren) press for repetition through a person's choices in love, friendship, work,…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Short-form variants exist: Institute-affiliated couple counselling averaged about three sessions per couple with three test administrations and structured test feedback. The Institute also certifies one-year "angewandte Schicksalsanalyse", two-year counselling and half-year "Selbstmanagement" courses.
• Version followed: the Szondi-Institut Zürich training model as set out in its official Manual der schicksalsanalytischen Therapie (Jüttner, Seidel, Borner et al., Szondi Verlag 2002), anchored in Szondi's own Schicksalsanalyse (1944/3rd ed.), Ich-Analyse (1956), Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen and Schicksalsanalytische Therapie: Ein Lehrbuch der passiven und aktiven analytischen Psychotherapie (Huber…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• The client can name at least one family resource.
• The client starts noticing patterns in their own choices.
• The vocation satisfies the drive and symptom pressure falls.
• The dream figure links to genogram material and carries affect.
• New memories or affect follow, rather than intellectual agreement.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.