Meeting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

October 14, 1986. ON CHARM. By Stephen Rittenberg, M.D.

Dr. Rittenberg began by stating that certain patients possess the ability to charm him away from the main therapeutic tasks of analysis. What, then, is charm? How does it work? How vulnerable are we, as analysts, to its spell? There is very little about charm in the professional literature. Dr. Rittenberg noted charm's etymological connection with sleep-inducing magic spells and incantations. This led him to an exploration of charm in mythology, literature, art, and culture. He cited the connection between charm and sleep, as depicted in works ranging from Homer's Odyssey to Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale." Charmed sleep in stories can be either refreshing or dangerous. Charm has been a powerful attribute in certain characters portrayed by novelists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially his Dick Diver in Tender Is the Night. It is a vital ingredient of popular culture as well as high culture.

Noting the connection between charm and sleep, the author cited his own sleepy response to charming patients. Two such patients, one female, one male, were described in some detail. For both of them, analysis of their charm eventually became crucial. First, however, the analyst had to become aware of the ways in which they were able to shift his state of consciousness in the direction of sleep. The universal longing for blissful sleep renders all of us susceptible to charm. Psychoanalysts may be especially vulnerable: the analytic situation requires a shift in state of consciousness in the direction of sleep by both analysand and analyst. This can readily go too far. Furthermore, analysts are constantly exposed to dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and conflict. We should not be surprised to find in them, at times, a heightened longing for relief; therein lies the power of the charmer. The magical spell of charm draws us back unconsciously to the sleep of infancy. We all once happily succumbed to the omnip