I have presented a personal case report and related aspects of the literature to call attention to a consideration of the impact of the personality of the analyst and his theory on psychoanalytic process. A long tradition emphasizing the neutrality of the analyst has served to obscure the interpersonal elements that are a part of any human interaction, and has interfered with our integrating these considerations into clinical theory. Just as different parents raise different children, different analysts produce different analysands. It is important that in our ongoing study of the psychoanalytic process, the nature of the differences between analyst be included, attended to, and investigated with the aim of deepening our understanding and broadening our theoretical perspective.

Now, I return to Coen's (1981) question: "Is the problem with our theories or ourselves?" Theory can serve well as a guide but