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In the theory of psychoanalytic treatment the position of the analyst in the psychoanalytic situation has heretofore been considered mainly from two points of view. One of these regards the analyst's psychological situation as somewhat analogous to that of a (good) parent vis-à-vis the child (e.g., devotion, the wish to help, analysis as "re-education, " etc.). The other point of view emphasizes, in general, those strivings and attitudes of the analyst which interfere with proper analytic work (e.g., countertransference, counteridentification, criticism of active techniques, etc.). In this paper an attempt is made to make explicit and to systematize those psychological needs and gratifications experienced by the analyst which are considered to be, more or less, inherent in the psychoanalytic situation.
Previous contributions relevant to the subject are briefly reviewed. The psychological satisfactions of the analyst in the psychoanalytic situation are then presented. Discussion of this subject leads inevitably to a consideration of those factors which operate as resistance—in the analyst, the analysand, and in others—against the recognition of such satisfactions. These resistances appear to be intimately linked to the psychological motives of man (child) which drive him toward a persistent belief in the essential nongratification of the "ideal adult." Consideration of the resistances