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During the third year of his analysis a 36-year-old man who had not dated prior to his treatment became seriously involved with an attractive, intelligent, and successful businesswoman. After they had “gone steady” for six months and lived together for a month, subtle indications of ambivalence toward Marilyn began to appear, against resistance, in John's free associations, fantasies, and dreams. The resistance was a response to fears that finding fault with her might spoil their chances of staying together.
The source and nature of the ambivalence surfaced rather suddenly in the following manner. John started an appointment by saying that he had been grumpy toward co-workers recently but they had not really done anything to justify his irritability. He wondered whether the anger might be coming from some other source. He blocked for about half a minute, then said that he hadn't been sleeping well lately. He went on a bit sheepishly to say that he had been drinking more during the past couple of weeks. He recalled that in the past he drank more when he felt “lonely, unhappy, and misunderstood.” He then blocked for about a minute. Asked what he was thinking he said: “I thought about a woman who was having trouble working the intercom at your outer door when I arrived today. She didn't seem to realize that it has a temperature switch–she was pressing it with her glove on. I tried to explain to her that she had to take her glove off