" Io sol uno
… di nostra vita "
—Dante

IN A CASUAL CONVERSATION, A YOUNG analyst who is not in supervision with me (nor is he a candidate at any particular training institute), tells me that his patient finally became affectively engaged with him and at the same time began getting seductive. Then, in her next session, he says, she announced that she was terminating. I say it sounds like a lot of people I know, that as soon as they trust you and become affectively connected, they let you know what they want. I think to myself that it may have little to do with sex but perhaps with some affirmation of herself as a woman, as a person, as an equal, or as a loving object. Or it may have to do with his being an equal, a loving object or an affirmation of him as a man, a male or masculine. In effect, she may have been saying, "I'm here, are you?" Alas, he did not answer.