Why Some Patients Conduct Actual Investigations of their Biographies

IN PRIOR studies an inquiry has been made into the character of biographical data and the way in which such data are used in psychoanalysis (9), (11). In these studies the question of the credibility of such information and the means of validating reported events were central themes. Pursuant to this, certain behavioral patterns of the patient, which had heretofore been assigned little significance, took on a fresh meaning. It is a not uncommon observation that, in connection with the introspective process of psychoanalysis, as well as in the general process of self-exploration for that matter, some persons experience an urge to explore old diaries and papers and to return to the physical settings and persons important in an earlier period of life. This need may be felt only during the psychoanalysis itself or it may have been felt before then.

Often, in the analytic situation, there appears to be some resistance to conducting such an exploration into actual past situations. This resistance parallels the resistance to talking about certain subjects. This resistance frequently manifests itself as a tendency simply to forget to carry out an intended exploration or, as is often the case with such conflictual situations, to engage in such explorations in a substantially unconscious fashion only to discover in midstream, as it were, that they are in process. This phenomenon will be illustrated in the course of this paper. Every analyst has sometimes felt called upon to analyze such resistances