Collections of poems written by psychoanalysts raise questions: what are the similarities and differences, for example, between poetry and psychoanalysis, and what distinguishes a poem written by a psychoanalyst from poems written by others?

The shared experience of the analyst and analysand is a creation unique to the particular characteristics of each person and to the present changing moment in their personal histories. The joining of a poem and a reader is also a unique mix; although the poem remains constant, the reader is not and the poet is absent. Analyst and analysand are both present, though not necessarily constant. Analyst, analysand, and reader share the experience of subjectively engaging with the voice of another. Poetry is a created product, analysis a created process.

When a poem moves a reader, he or she may experience a flow of memories and associations, feel surprise at a different view of something familiar, or feel confronted by something unexpected, strange, or