The Analytic Relationship

It is man's nature to try to help himself when in distress, failing which he seeks help from others. The patient generally comes to the analyst only after he has exhausted his own resources of self-help. The doctor's interest is in helping him become aware of his neurotic way of life, so that he can decide whether he wants to relinquish it and reclaim and further develop himself as a human being. The patient can begin to do this when he realizes that his security operations actually constitute a dehumanizing process. Since the analytic work is undertaken through the medium of the analytic relationship, the latter is exceedingly important for the work itself. The more the two participants can communicate with each other in a spirit of good will, the deeper understanding of his difficulties the patient will obtain. The analytic relationship—a specific means of understanding for the patient—is a means to an end and so is inseparable from the end. We can focus on it in the context of the analytic process for purposes of discussion. While one of the aims in treatment is to work toward an improving relationship in order to foster understanding, by the time the patient feels his analyst as a solid friend he will be well on his way toward termination of treatment, toward self-realization. The more it improves, the better it can also serve as a favorable medium in which the person can grow while relating to another human being.

But the analytic relationship can also act as a serious block to the main work. I should, therefore, like to examine this cornerstone of therapy, posing some problems whose further clarification may help us use it more effectively.

The history of the doctor-patient relationship1 reflects the general philosophy of psychoanalysis at different stages in its development. For example, in the early days the doctor functioned more as a mirror, was preoccupied with “the why” and presented less of himself in a human way. This impersonal