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THE PERSONAL, THE IDIOSYNCRATIC, the spontaneous, the unpredictable aspects of the analyst's experience remain outside of the realm of the acceptable and are unappreciated for their positive contribution to the analytic work.
The study of the value of analytic neutrality and anonymity has been carried out, but the value of the spontaneous and unpredictable hasn't been integrated into our self image. It remains outside the body of technique and will always be so. There is more to analysis than interpretation—correct, penetrating and well timed; yet attention is not usually drawn specifically to this aspect of our effort. The analytic material or context is to be understood and interpreted, subject to objective, detached and impersonal observation. In contrast we casually refer to the implicit, the tacit connectedness of the relationship, the working alliance or the analytic setting. Here the inclusion in the analytic process of the analyst's self and her immediate experience is unavoidably acknowledged, but not usually in sharp focus. Obviously strictly delineated, rigidly adhered to role definitions are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for responsible behavior. Nor do they, I think, provide the conditions for analyses of depth and vitality. I do not think that we require such vigilance, that we can trust ourselves not simply to discharge feelings, act out wishes or to be unaware of blatant distortions; relegating our experience to the inadmissable only leads to further distortion.
It is not in the world of the repressed that experience will be integrated. It does not seem to me that an analysis in which the analyst attempts to achieve and maintain some idealized role position