ELEMENTS OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC RELATIONSHIP AND THEIR THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS

Confidence in the therapeutic success of the analytic method tempts analysts to overlook some of the strains it imposes on both patient and analyst. The development of transference is always traumatic for the patient, as is the longing for relationship with the analyst as a result of their intimacy. The development of psychoanalytic objectivity and distance, which have to be combined with ready empathy, are similarly an arduous task for the analyst. The period of depression which the analyst must endure before he acquires his skill is described, with its accompanying danger of the prolonged dependence of the psychoanalyst on his own training analyst.