Session frequency can be seen as definitive of psychoanalytic identity but contemporary relational and constructivist perspectives and trends towards psychoanalytic work being conducted at lower and varying frequencies are leading increasingly to a rift between psychoanalytic work as theorized and practised on the one hand and as ‘taught at’ specified frequencies within psychoanalytic institutions on the other. The value of high-frequency work in the right conditions is considered, while automatic equations between high-frequency, high-intensity and high-value clinical work are questioned. Pressure towards higher frequency work, sometimes to meet training requirements, may imperil the psychoanalytic stance it seeks to preserve, particularly the recognition of patients’ frequency preferences as a psychic phenomenon requiring understanding rather than manipulation. The roots of coercive attitudes to session frequency in unresolved issues relating to institutional psychoanalytic superegos are explored; implications for training, ethics and the status of psychoanalytic work are considered.