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I received a call one morning from a colleague. He said he wanted to refer an old analytic patient of his to me. My colleague had spoken to this man, Dr. T., only briefly, so he knew little about his present circumstances, other than that he was seeking more analytic work. He described his former patient as an extremely talented, though somewhat withdrawn, medical researcher who, even as a young child, had done animal experimentation for which he had received a good deal of praise and attention. The analysis had been successful, and he had not heard from Dr. T. since, until the present.
I found myself looking forward to the prospective patient's call for several reasons. Doing a second analysis is always of interest to me, especially when the first analysis is with someone whose work I admire, as it may afford a view into the postanalytic phase and fascinating follow-up phenomena. But, more on a gut level, I also recognized that I was curious because this man had followed the road not taken by me in my own career; I, too, as a young adolescent, had been interested in animal experimentation, had gotten some attention for it, and had considered a research career in medicine.