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“It was probably Freud's opus magnum that he permitted his patients (Dora, the Wolf Man, Little Hans) to teach him, and that he transmitted this knowledge to us (…). Even at this moment, the theoretic progress of analysis is the result of the cooperation of an analyst and his patients” (M. and W. Baranger 1966).
We have decided to introduce the theme of this article with the words of some of our patients, recorded in varying stages of their analysis, and of our development as analysts.
Marina: “I feel very disappointed when I feel like going for a bicycleride with my fiancé, because I like taking in the scenery slowly, and discovering new paths between the fields, and instead of that he arrives on his motorbike and he rushes me off to where he wants to go, taking all the pleasure of the journey out of it for me …”.
Daniele: “I felt terrible when I went back to the office yesterday after two days off sick, and I saw that my colleagues had finished off the work I had left outstanding, and there it was all ready on mv desk. They probably
did it with the best intentions, but I almost got angry with them, instead of thanking them. Because it was as if they hadn't counted on me anymore: besides, there wasn't all that much hurry, they could have waited for me … And also, it was a job I had been working on for a while, and I would have liked to finish it off in my own way”.
Carla: “It is very different going to buy things with my mother, who breathes down my neck, doesn't let up for a moment, wants to decide herself what suits me, or with my mother-in-law, who trusts my taste and my judgement, and leaves it up to me to choose”.
Licia (primary school teacher): “At school I gave the children some work to do, fairly easy work, because it was about things I had already explained well: the concepts of big and small, long and short, full and empty. Instead of which it was a disaster: it was as if they hadn't learnt a thing. But instead of getting angry, I tried asking myself whethe