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Psychoanalytic discourse often describes an ideal course of analysis, one that then becomes a norm for analysts and analytic discussion. It is well to remind ourselves that this ideal, or norm, developed first when Freud was conducting analyses in six months or a year, and believed that familiarity with unconscious process would be curative. Our idea that an analysis has a predictable course, a completeness in addressing conflict, and a decisive termination stems from these early days. Contemporary discussions of crises and impasses in treatment, along with recognition of enactments and countertransference in general, have enriched our picture, just as Freud did in “Analysis Terminable and Interminable” (1937). Investigations of the actual course of patients in and following analysis through follow-up has added further to creating a real understanding of where analytic experience may fit into patients' lives (; Wallerstein 1986).
A recent invitation to report on my experience with psychoanalytic patients who returned for more treatment later on, and the lessons I learned from them, led me to reflect on my forty years of clinical work, as well as on cases I have encountered in reading, teaching, and supervising, and in study groups and public presentations. The result has been a discovery of the wide variety of analytic experiences. I was surprised to realize how many of my analytic patients had in fact returned. As I tried to generalize from these experiences, I noticed that there was an immense variation. People came back for a wide variety of reasons, and their postanalytic contact took a wide variety of forms. As I tried to generalize, my broadest impression was the most obvious one—that analysis is a profound experience, one that in almost all my returning patients enabled them to think and feel about themselves differently. While it is not universal, I've been struck by the relative ease with which these patients can wonder about themselves, talk with me comfort