[Undated]: The Attack on the Analyst's α-Function. Cogitations

I have pointed out that it is essential to mental efficiency to be able to ‘dream’ a current emotional experience, whether it is taking place while the person is awake, or while asleep. By this I mean that the facts, as they are represented by the person's sense impressions, have to be converted into elements such as the visual images commonly met with in dreams as they are ordinarily reported. Such an idea will not seem strange if the reader considers what happens in reverie – the word itself, chosen to name the experience, is significant of the widespread nature of the experience. Certain conditions are necessary for this work of conversion to be carried out, but these conditions, as we shall see later, may be denied, so that α is made either impossible, or at least difficult. The analyst needs to have these conditions in his work, for smooth working of α-function is essential. He must be able to dream the analysis as it is taking place, but of course he must not go to sleep. Freud has described the condition as one of ‘free-floating attention’, but it is a state that is of value in many tasks besides analysis, for, as I have said, α-function is essential to proper mental efficiency, no matter what the task.

Clearly it would be helpful to establish in some detail what goes on in α-function; an examination of the conditions required for its fulfilment might give some clues. Indirect evidence is available from the psychotic patient who appears to be sufficiently aware of the analyst's need to be able to set out to deny him it – presumably as an extension of the patient's own attempts to destroy his links with reality, and in particular that which links live objects to each other. It is well known that in many sessions the patient is at pains to behave in such a way that the analyst is given no information at all – in so far as this lies within the capacity of the patient. Frequently he will do this by being mute, but on the occasions to which I refer, the patient is