Re-analysis After the Death of the Analyst: The Problem of Countertransference in Re-analysis

I was struck by certain developments in the re-analyses of two women patients who both came to me after the death of their female analysts. Both of the analysts had died after long illnesses.

The attitudes and behavior of these two patients displayed some unusual similarities which, although the patients were dissimilar in many ways, distinguished them from other of my re-analysands. I soon found myself under a peculiar strain, which I came to realize was due to these patients' persistent comparison of anything I did, said, or omitted to say, with their dead analyst. Evidently, I was found to be wanting in all regards.

Consciously I was aware that both these women needed consolation and support, but I also knew that pampering them would worsen their depressions (No rachmones, as Theodor Reik used to say). Under their constant barrage of rageful criticism, which I felt had to be directed against their dead analysts for abandoning them, I began to doubt myself. I wondered whether I was feeling some unconscious sense of victory since I was alive and their analysts-one of whom was my friend and mentor-were dead. Under the impact of their anger I wondered whether they might have a point. Maybe I really was a miserable analyst-not as wise or compassionate as their former analysts. Maybe I envied the former analysts. What qualities in them made these women love them so much, when they reacted to me by wanting to tear me to pieces? The dead analysts,