Stress in the Personal and Professional Development of a Psychoanalyst

For us, as analysts, making our love and need one contributes to the fulfillment but also to the stress of our work. Our lives are enriched and suffer from a peculiar degree of integration of the professional and the personal. Presumably, had we not had both love and need for a professional life centered on human issues we would not have chosen to become analysts. An analyst who only loves this work, in the expectation that it will provide every emotional fulfillment, will complicate the treatment with his or her personal investment. On the other hand, one who only needs this work, and does not love it, for whom it is a deadly serious business, who tries to obtain all pleasure from outside avocation, not only splits himself or herself, but also robs the work of its essential playfulness.

The following pages present a series of dilemmas that result from being an analyst. The common thread is that in each the strain of the work and personal stresses exacerbate one another. At such times, rather than providing a safe haven from personal concerns, our work focuses our awareness on them more sharply. In