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Dr. Ticho's rich clinical experience has been augmented by a survey of his colleagues' professional experiences and judgments about themselves and other analysts, and I shall try to base my understanding of the ideas he has put forward on these clinical examples.
In the first clinical vignette, the analyst is referred to as “somewhat uninvolved [and] reserved …, ” and the difficulties described are laid to the “match” between the analyst's attitude and the patient's preference for a therapist who did not “challenge her anxiety over close object relations.” In another instance, the analyst is described as “somewhat of a cold fish.” In the brief quotations from Freud, references are made to the hypothetical analyst who might “be tempted to become a teacher, model and ideal” for his patients, or to play the role of “prophet, savior, and redeemer.” Still other analysts are alluded to as having their judgments of their patients follow their own personal values concerning academic achievement, wealth, social class, politics, religion, life goals, etc.
Two serious problems are raised immediately by descriptions of
this type, one of which is briefly touched on by the author. Most of these terms are ambiguous, they do not convey a single, commonly accepted meaning. Even when there is some notion as to what each is meant to specify, they are always exceedingly difficult to quantify.
More crucially, it is as meaningless to cite such allegedly relevant personality features as it would be to treat manifest elements of a reported dream as directly indicative of its dynamic significance. Moreover, the question is not whether or when patients become “aware” of the analyst's personality, but rather what meaning the observed features have for the patient. From associations and through interpretation we discover that all such phenomena have meanings which are different for different patients, depending on the individual's mental conflicts, defensive styles, related fantasies, and coin