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How successful is a “successful” analysis? Do analysts usually succeed in reaching the deepest layer of a patient's unconscious?
The following material deals with problems that first arose in 1940. It was not till nearly thirty years later that all of the pieces, unearthed in two analyses, formed a meaningful, clear and coherent composition and fell into place like a finished jigsaw puzzle.
In order to trace the unfolding of the conflict and reaching its final dimensions, I am using my own analytic pilgrimage as an object for demonstration. Something remained untouched. For a long time my own analytic training and knowledge did not provide the insight which I, while still an analysand, could not reach.
It has not been an easy decision to prepare these notes for publication because it takes courage to expose oneself. One hopes to be praised for such open-mindedness, but ridicule, rejection and perhaps even deadly silence could be in store for me.
Why have I chosen this thorny path of self-revelation? To the best of my knowledge I am free of exhibitionistic tendencies. I am not presenting this paper in order to gain recognition. I already have it. Sympathy? I am too old to be pitied.
This material is presented to show how my own experiences have taught me that even partial solutions are often sufficient for the “temporary” resolution of conflict.
Secondly, I thought that this presentation might be of help to students and practitioners of psychoanalysis in revealing some of the analytic processes. We speak of free association, transference, resistances,