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As psychoanalysts we know that the relation between analyst and patient affects the whole organism. Most of these processes are unconscious. In many cases they remain unsymbolized and stay in the somatic self. Recently, I was reminded of the relation between body and mind when I underwent a medical examination with a long-term registration of my own blood pressure. During the course of 24 hours 65 registrations were made. Taking away the measurements done during the first hour and during physical activity 47 registrations remained and they showed an average blood pressure of 130/90 mm Hg. Among these 47 registrations one measurement was significantly higher than the others. At five o'clock p.m. my blood pressure was 160/115 mm Hg. It was significantly higher than the pressure that was registered when I was biking or performing other physical activity during the same day. The nurse who told me the results of the examination asked what had happened at five o'clock p.m.?
My diary showed that I had 7 patients that day. At five o'clock I was in the beginning of a session in which a patient told me that he was going to cancel 8 sessions in order to visit his parents and his hometown. He longed to smell and breathe the atmosphere of his childhood - a longing that was easy to understand and sympathize with. However, it was a decision that was taken one-sidedly without any consideration of how it was going to affect the analyst and without concern for our future work together. Of course I reacted. I thought that the patient was ruthless and I got angry, however not so angry that my eyes went black, neither did I become mentally excited. In retrospect, I am amazed of how unconscious I was about the intensity of my own reaction.
These cancelled sessions made it possible to talk about the patient's difficulty to cooperate and freely use the three personal pronominal - I, you and wedescribing his relation with the analyst. It became possible to formulate his difficulties to differ