ABSTRACT
From time to time, clients may complain about being greeted by me in a friendly manner; they claim that this prevents them from directing their anger at me. That is, they feel disarmed in such an interaction; and the aversive affect with which they came to the session has apparently dissipated in the moment. Sometimes they may feel badly and even reproach themselves for having had any hostile feelings towards me, the one person who is so obviously warm-hearted. A female analysand once complained that I had seemed to be in such good spirits, at least while she was sitting in the waiting room. She had overheard me laughing with the patient scheduled immediately before her. With her, however, she observed painfully, I never laughed. She believed that she had simply become nothing but a burden to me in light of her constant depression.
