Commentaries on ‘The Symbolism of the Story of Lot and his Wife’

The controversial element that Lanyado offers for discussion is the use of the therapist's personality in the ‘present relationship’. She presents it from the vantage point of a psychoanalytic tradition that works strictly in the transference relationship and shows from her clinical experience that there are times when the patient needs the therapist to respond authentically, through actions, from her self. This is seen as a move in a new direction.

For Jungians in the ‘London School’ the move over the last fifty years has been in the opposite direction. Jung was very much against the rigid and unintegrated use of theory and emphasized the quality of the analyst's personality as an essential factor in healing; he associated healing with compassion, an element that has more recently been linked with the therapist's warmth, genuineness and empathy. Jung's objection was not to the need for reserve in psychoanalysis, but to an idealization that resulted in too rigid an application.

In this regard necessity is indeed the mother of invention, for the analyst must constantly strive to develop his techniques in such a way that they can be of help even in the most difficult cases. We owe it to the difficulties presented by the daily treatment of the sick that we were driven to formulate views which shake the foundations of our everyday beliefs.

In his writing he showed repeated concern that the application of a theory should not override the patient's individuality.