One of the more appealing customs of psychoanalysis is that analysts must be analysed. If you are going to put others on the couch you should lie on it first yourself. That way your psychic wrinkles can be identified – maybe even ironed out – before you are let loose on patients.
As the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was exempt from this rule. Generation after generation of analysts have analysed one another, tracing their lineage back to the master. But the master himself was never encouched.
