“After the Analysis …”

Most patients come for analysis as for any other form of treatment with the concrete aim of getting rid of some definite symptom. Although, as Nunberg1 has shown, their rational ideas are bound up with unconscious fantasies (“getting rid of a symptom,” “cure,” etc., possess sexual symbolic meanings whether it is a question of mental or physical treatment), they have on the whole a reasonable idea of what they can expect from analysis. But there is another type of patient for whom psychoanalysis has become the new religion. Whether or not he comes for analysis because of some distressing symptom, he will never be satisfied with a mere alleviation of symptoms or any other simple tangible result. He expects that after being “fully analyzed” he will never have any more difficulties or disappointments in life, and never under any circumstances experience guilt or anxiety; that he will develop remarkable intellectual or aesthetic powers, perhaps even prove to be a genius, be blissfully happy, perfectly balanced, superhumanly unbiased and absolutely free from the slightest neurotic symptom, caprice of mood or bad habit. I have actually heard the view expressed that a “fully analyzed person” will be free from aggression and pregenital interests, have no polygamous tendencies and never make a slip of the tongue or any other kind of mistake. Analysis is sometimes regarded as a panacea for all evil and the best or only solution for every individual or social problem. In a community where every