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Althea Horner's Chrysalis is a fascinating story of an analyst and her analysand that has a firm sense of possible reality; however, this short novel is more than an entertaining work of fiction. It is an excellent illustration of object relations analysis—a very well-written, jargon-free account of a helpful analysis that could have actually taken place. For beginning candidates in psychoanalysis, it may afford a good introduction to discussing and understanding the stress involved in doing analytic work. The fictional analyst sets a fine example. She recognizes her own painful feelings and past experiences, which are continually evoked by the patient material, but does not allow them to interfere with her work with the patient.
The title is appropriate. The patient is a young woman whose development is incomplete. Unresolved remnants of her oedipal conflict have a negative effect on her relationships. She continues to play out the myth of being “daddy's little sweetheart” by seducing or attempting to seduce the father figures in her life and competing with or rejecting the mother figures. During the course of the analysis, she becomes able to grow up and leave the cocoon. Besides focusing on that problem and skillfully exposing the patient's use of externalization in dealing with the transference, the analyst also subtly strengthens her patient's ego, much in the same way that good-enough parents lend ego strength to their young children. The gains the patient makes include greater freedom to be herself rather than striving for approval, greatly improved relationships with family and friends, and the ability to delay action by thought, as when toward the end of the analysis she explains her reasoning for not immediately acquiescing to her lover's offer of a more permanent relationship. Another example of the patient's growth is seen at the end of the analysis, when the patient asks that termination be scheduled a few weeks before she plans to leave the city, to all