The Impact of the Analyst's Pregnancy on the Course of Analysis

Relatively little has been written about the pregnancy of the psychoanalyst, and the papers that have been written have been limited essentially to case reports from individual practices (Hannett, 1949; van Leeuwen, 1966; Lax, 1969; Braasch, 1979). In contrast, the small but substantial literature on the psychotherapist's pregnancy (Nadelson et al., 1974; Clarkson, 1980; Penn, 1986) includes a book based on a prospective study involving interviews with therapists during and after their first pregnancies (Fenster et al., 1986). In order to redress the balance and learn more about the impact of the analyst's pregnancy on the course of analysis I conducted a retrospective study based on interviews with 12 analysts and my own experience as a pregnant analyst.

I requested interviews with 18 women who had completed one or more pregnancies while practicing analysis. All were candidates at or graduates of accredited training institutes of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Six women declined to be interviewed. I