In formulating this article, I wondered initially what advice I have to impart to experienced analysts. It is true that after thirty-eight years of practice I feel more comfortable in my work; I can conceptualize more easily; I feel more open to exploring what Winnicott referred to as the “psychoanalytic space.” Yet I am all too aware of often finding myself in a position of not knowing, a familiar state for an analyst, except that now I am much more in touch with possibilities, less insistent on knowing, more respectful of my patients' inherent capacities for finding their own way.

Perhaps I am more aware of the inevitable hubris that all analysts are prey to, that is, the tendency to assign too much power to the analytic process as the major factor of change in patients'