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One Major Aspect of the analyst-patient interaction involves the effect upon the patient of what he learns about the analyst. This aspect becomes crucial when the patient's complexes are activated by what he learns. In a clinical paper published a few years ago Ulanov described the effects of her pregnancy upon the course of analytic work with a number of patients (ULANOV 5). An analyst's pregnancy is an obvious example of a particular life circumstance which makes itself manifest in the consulting room without having its origin there. Such ‘intrusions’ of developments in the analyst's personal life into the special world of the analytic relationship are in no way unusual, yet they are little dealt with in the professional literature.
Most intrusions of personal life material into analytic work take a somewhat different form from that in Ulanov's example. In order to protect herself against the threat of German measles, she had to inform her patients as soon as she knew about her pregnancy; thus, she had to take the initiative. But if an analyst who had been wearing a wedding ring one day appears without one, no explanation of any kind is required; whether this change will in any way influence a treatment depends completely on the patient's reaction. Obviously the wedding ring, present or absent, refers to the sphere of the analyst's life which is independent of his work. The ring expresses something about the analyst, as do the clothes he wears, the drapes he hangs, and the neighbourhood he chooses for his practice, to mention a few items.
With these as orienting points, I shall attempt to explore through one somewhat detailed case example a major complex of the patient, the projections on to the analyst which it engendered, and the encounter between the complex and an aspect of the analyst's outside life. The selection of dream material from this case will deal exclusively with this complex, which, as might be expected, moved in and out of prominence in the course o