You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The Field of psychoanalysis has become increasingly feminized. With few exceptions, however, men still hold most of the power, charisma, and influence in the field. When I came to the White Institute for training I selected a man for my training analysis. Most of the analytic supervisors I chose were also men. In this essay I discuss an experience that helped me to mobilize and express power and assertiveness that did not occur in my analysis or with my male supervisors, although both were important background figures. The experience occurred, instead, with a female patient who was uncomfortable with her aggression and assertiveness. She noted my discomfort with my own aggression and attacked me in various ways for not being a powerful male analyst and for being too similar and equal to her. In the course of these attacks I became able to recognize my own aggression and assertiveness. Coming to terms with the aggression in our relationship invigorated the analysis and engendered power and assertiveness in both the patient and me.
Winnicott (1949) writes, “There are many patients who need us to be able to give them a capacity to use us. This for them is the analytic task.” The analyst must demonstrate his or her ability to survive the patient's destructiveness in order to become a separate person to the patient. There are certain patients who make it difficult for a particular analyst to tolerate and survive their destructiveness. Contempt and denigration by a female patient can be especially difficult for a female analyst to tolerate. When the analyst herself is lacking in a secure sense of power and influence, such contempt and denigration from a female patient can activate feelings of helpless rage in the analyst that can render her paralyzed and unable to think and function. Thus the analyst becomes impotent and is of no use to the patient.