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.
Reflecting on this presentation two very different situations come to my mind. First I was reminded of Bion writing about a meeting between two people – one could surmise that the people are an analyst and a patient:
When two personalities meet, an emotional storm is created. If they make sufficient contact to be aware of each other, or even sufficient to be unaware of each other, an emotional state is produced by the conjunction of these two individuals, and the resulting disturbance is hardly likely to be regarded as an improvement on the state of affairs had they never met at all. But since they have met, and since this emotional storm has occurred, the two parties to this storm may decide to “make the best of a bad job”. (Bion 1979, 247)
It is worth noticing that, for Bion, this storm happens in all situations, whether the two “personalities” are aware of meeting the Other, are aware of the significance and impact of that meeting and of what it represents for them, or are not aware of that significance and impact.
The second memory is a very personal recollection. It is a dream I had the night before I saw my first analytic patient. In the dream I was going to see somebody who was going to give me some important information. I did not know their precise address but it was apparently in my native city. Then I realized that I had lost my way, and finally I was not sure who the person was that I was going to visit, nor did I know what they were going to tell me, and it seemed that after all I was in an unknown city. I was worried and confused, feeling that really I should have been better prepared for my visit. I reported the dream to my analyst, who commented that I was going to have my first analytic session with a patient, and I was not sure of where I was going, what I would find, and how to get there. I knew she was right, but I did not like knowing that I was so inevitably under-prepared.
The analytic encounter is a unique experience, whether the analyst is a c