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In her pungent introductory remarks on the complex relationship between reality and psychoanalysis, Helen Myers chose to focus on the subjective, inner reality of the mind, the psychic reality, stressing that this was by no means a unitary concept, since it consisted actually of two viewpoints—that of the patient and of the analyst—each interacting with and affecting the other. Is it possible, she wondered, for the analyst to interpret the patient's inner reality without distortion, since the subjective account must of necessity be filtered through a subjective analytic listening screen.
Meyers suggested that the analyst can help patients become aware of their subjective reality, and even of their particular psychic bias, but noted that even this approach can become intrusive and authoritarian. In a lighthearted but telling vignette, she described a patient who tended to draw erroneous conclusions about external reality, based on his own rigid subjective expectations, congratulating her on owning a new car. “Knowing” this to be untrue, she challenged him by asking