You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
With tempered optimism, the British psychoanalyst Nina Coltart utilizes the metaphor in her title, derived from the poem, “The Second Coming” by Yeats, as the binding theme for her collected papers, disavowing its pessimistic and religious connotations. The metaphor expresses for her the nature of the analytic process, the emerging reality of the patient and the analyst, as the unthinkable, the inexpressible, and the unknown make their appearance. In the case examples she cites, she makes clear her readiness to meet the obstacles to self-expression in the area beyond words, in prolonged silences and somatic detours. Her freedom to interact emotionally with her patients is exemplified in her presentations, with exquisite attention to her patient's productions and behavior, self-awareness, and a regard for context and analytic goals. Her language is fresh and nontechnical. She identifies the analyst's activity on behalf of the patient as love and prescribes the freedom to laugh as a significant element in the interaction. She pictures the analyst as on a tightrope, both objective observer and subjective participant, moving between the therapeutic and nontherapeutic, with interpretation as his or her pole.
She expresses a profound faith (with a small f) in the analytic method. In elucidating her conception of the process, she quotes