Some Questions for Psychoanalysts: Reflections on Ibsen's “The Wild Duck”: The Wild Duck. Henrik Ibsen. A Norton Critical Edition. Translated and edited by Dounia B. Christiani. New York: W. W. Norton, 1968.

The art of interviewing patients, particularly those who have given the analytic treatment a couple of trials or have seen many analysts, requires at times a different technique than habitually used by psychoanalysts. It is necessary to derail the individual, so to speak, from his habitual recounting the story of his life by rote, as if it happened to someone else and as if there is nothing new to be learned from giving a second look at one's life.

The interviewer has to be able to enter into a meaningful exchange with the patient, ask some questions which may be new to him, respond to some answers—in brief, he has to impart dramatic urgency to the interview. The therapist may then be in a better position to assess the patient's capacity to reflect on what each is saying, to see whether the patient can stop and think. Fast replies and repartees are rarely a sign of fast thinking. Is the patient able to maintain a focus for any length of time? Can he switch attention to a new subject and respond appropriately? One notices such an ability by the patient's use of his eyes. Are they fixed on the therapist, or does he look inwards and can he have the ‘aha’ effect? Bergliot Ibsen reports:

The strange thing about Ibsen was that he seemed slow at grasping things. One had to tell them twice to him. The first time he just listened, the second time he asked for further and more minute details, which was not in my Björnson line, but he insisted. He took note of all the details, one could almost see him swallow them; when something interested him specially he would lift one eyebrow…6