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This article explores the intermingling of the analyst's and patient's personalities and examines the influence of this characterological mesh on the treatment and its outcome. The author argued that what is most salient is the configuration and type of convergence and divergence between their characters, and not just the degree of overlap between them. The presence of contradictions in the analyst's character may have focal significance for the analysand, depending on its relevance to the patient's own character and psychic issues. As a “prequel” to an earlier study (M. Crastnopol, 1999) of the same patient's analysis with D.W. Winnicott, the author reviewed biographical material and a treatment record of Harry Guntrip's analysis with W. R. D. Fairbairn. She then developed a particular interpretive perspective on this material in order to illustrate
Margaret Crastnopol, PhD, Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis, Seattle, Washington.
A draft of this article was presented as part of a panel titled “The Blank Screen Come Alive: The Impact of the Analyst's Personality on Therapeutic Action,” at the meeting of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, April 1999, New York.
This article benefited greatly from the close readings and probing questions proffered by Richard Rubens, Linda Hopkins, Glen Gabbard, Stuart Pizer, Samuel Gerson, and Joyce Slochower. I am grateful also to Jeremy Hazell and to Jack Barlow for their willingness to discuss Harry Guntrip with me from their unique vantage points.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Margaret Crastnopol, PhD, 515 28th Avenue East, Washington 98112.
the complexity of examining the critical impact of the analyst-patient fit on the analytic process.