Prologue

In psychoanalytic writing, the bulk of our narratives are analyst-centric. As psychoanalysts, we naturally and necessarily tell stories from our own unique perspectives, and as consumers of psychoanalytic stories, we often do not have the advantage of hearing from the other side of the couch, palpably sensing the perspective of the patient narratively apart from the experiential world of the analyst-writer. However objective we may at times feel, our thinking and feeling our way into human experience—the patient's and our own—is of course quintessentially subjective and contextualized. The following articles by Brickman, Jacobs, and Rodin are rather extraordinary, in that they offer a view from, well, three sides of the couch, not just one. Their combined stories bravely chronicle the vicissitudes of individual and coconstituted loss, trauma, and eventual transformation in the analytic process. I wish to thank these authors for their intelligent, reflective, and courageous invitation into their consultation rooms, such that we may deepen our understanding of what each of us faces in one form or another.