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Presenter: The patient has been in analysis with me for two years. In an interview before the analysis began, she told me that she had chosen me because she liked what she had heard me say at a conference. She said she was coming for analysis because her husband had problems and she thought that perhaps she could help him to start analysis too. I suggested that it might be interesting for her to work in some way other than psychoanalysis.
She returned for a second interview and spoke in a very incisive tone of voice. “I know I need an analysis for my own work.” After a long pause she said, in a different tone of voice, “I know I am very fat.” I agreed to start analysis and a schedule was arranged.
She had great difficulty in tolerating any hostile feelings towards me. The things she talked about seemed to belong in fairy-tales; she described her wedding, her wedding dress – everything was so beautiful. She said, “It will soon be Christmas and my husband is going to dress up as Santa Claus – I almost believe he is Santa Claus. After all, I believed in him for a long time.” Everything was beautiful, her whole life was beautiful. Nevertheless she suddenly said, “You are bad; you make me say things I don't want to say. You're like the witch in the fairy-tale who forced people to speak.”
Bion: If she thinks that, why does she come to see you? Alternatively, if she comes to see you, why does she say you are bad? A tremendous number of people have learnt what they think are the sort of things that analysts want to hear. It is an increasing difficulty for us.
P: She reports dreams in that way, as if she is giving me something I would like to listen to.
B: She can dress up in any kind of clothes, or in any state of
mind. The character she chooses to wear can hide her from herself. It is easy for her to feel that both she and you are dressed up, but who the two real people are, in the same room at the same time, is quite another problem.
P: It is as if she offers me a wardrobe a