Why does analysis take so long? Destructive urges associated with the death instinct and the repetition compulsion give a conceptual framework for the existence of time-wasting in analysis. Constructive ends may also be served by repetition. Repetition may offer pleasure, mastery, and the conservation of needed relationships, including the maintenance of a long-term relationship with the analyst. Modern analysis has developed some specific theories and techniques which have relevance to this issue. The analytic relationship is an example of a favorable outcome of the ability to spend a lot of time before mutative change takes place.