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For those of us who think of the analytic process as a joint venture between analyst and patient, this book will further stimulate our thinking about our experiences in being influenced by our patients. Firstly, I would like to go over some features of this volume that I discussed in an earlier review (Skolnikoff, in press; J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn.). Kantrowitz, a leading researcher in psychoanalytic process, reviews the evolution of thinking about the analytic process within an ego-psychological framework, the dominant clinical orientation in North America. Changes have occurred recently that represent shifts from an earlier focus on intrapsychic phenomena in the life of the patient to the current interest in the interaction between patient and analyst. Following years of research measuring the process and outcome of control analyses conducted by trainees, this work shifts to more subjective descriptions of trained analysts' experiences with their patients as reported in written self-reports and telephone interviews. The focus is on the analysts' description of their self-analytic functions being stimulated by their work with their patients. The study vividly demonstrates how important the analysts' reactions to their patients are in influencing analytic work.
After establishing the ubiquity of the impact of the patient on the analyst, Kantrowitz gives detailed descriptions of interviews with the analyst respondents. She shows the variability in the type of responsiveness of analysts based on their character (cognitive or emotional), the different mutual effects depending on the match of patient and analyst, and the variety of ways that analysts change in response to their patients. Some examples: some analysts make a habit of studying their countertransference responses to their patients to stimulate changes in their thinking about these patients and/or themselves. Some experience the work with patients as stimulating more emotion in themselves; others e