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Progress in psychoanalysis profoundly requires the capacity to regress not only on the part of the patient but also on the part of the analyst. In this fashion, the analyst integrates himself in the dynamics peculiar to the psychoanalytic scene. During such regression the analyst's state of mind allows his consciousness to be open to all perceptions that could be produced or evoked within himself during the session. More specifically, I propose a “pan directional suspended attention,” in which I am receptive to everything, the patient, myself, and phenomena from the environment.† In certain circumstances, at least, this partially shared state of mind could lead the patient down the track of his own regression. In my own experience, the most accurate and relevant interpretation seems to come spontaneously during a session with a patient when a certain state of regression is at work within myself. When this occurs I am almost completely absorbed by the patient, though without concentrating on any of his thoughts or associations. Even if this is done in complete silence, spontaneous associations of mine and other reactions like body movements and painful or pleasureful feelings are also welcome within the scope of my consciousness.
Operating within this context, I may formulate with remarkable rapidity a precise and insightful idea about a patient. To demonstrate and clarify this, I shall offer two examples from my own work, which will afford a concrete elaboration of what I call “regression in