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TRADITIONALLY, THE GENDER OF THE ANALYST was considered to play a minimal role in the psychoanalytic process. Early interpersonal theorists, like Thompson (1938), thought the gender of the analyst would only be significant in the earliest phases in treatment. Mogul (1982) concluded that therapist sex matters least in traditional psychoanalysis with neurotic patients. Person, however, (1983) contends that the effects are more subtle in analysis than in other psychotherapies, and are just as pervasive in both.
There are certain reality aspects in the female analyst's life which make the gender of the analyst a core issue. Pregnancy and motherhood are among the most obvious personal revelations we can make to patients. The pregnancy itself is visible and culminates in an inevitable interruption in treatment. It is an event in both the analyst's and the patient's life. This experience is timed to the analyst's needs not the patient's. It provides a powerful stimulus for the patient to confront the analyst's gender, perhaps for the first time (Nadelson et al, 1974). These events can make the analyst, rather than the patient, the central focus in the treatment. The pregnancy is a developmental crisis and time of psychophysiological stress for the analyst (Bibring, 1961). She may have increased feelings of emotional and physical vulnerability, fatigue (Nadelson et al 1974)