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(1992). New Library of Psychoanalysis, 14:114-125

As If: The Phenomenon of Not Learning

Ruth Riesenberg Malcolm

An earlier version of this chapter was given as a ‘Bion Lecture’. The present version was given at the 36th International Psychoanalytical Congress at Rome in 1989 and subsequently published in the Int. J. Psycho-Anal. (1990) 71: 385-92.

I want to express my gratitude to Dr Hanna Segal for reading a draft of this chapter and making very helpful suggestions.

Analysis is a process which aims to achieve psychic change through understanding - that is, an emotional experience of learning.

It was Helen Deutsch who in 1942 coined the term ‘as-if personality’ to describe certain types of people about whom she says: ‘The whole relation to life has something about it which is lacking in genuineness and yet outwardly it runs “as-if” it were complete.’

In this chapter I want to speak of the patient's ‘as-if’ response to analysis - a false connection with the analyst and the interpretations in the sessions, which gives an outward impress

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