ABSTRACT
When I was young in the field, somewhere between my first and second control cases, I had a particularly liberating experience. My supervisor, a charismatic person I would have followed anywhere at the time, proclaimed that analysts do not worry about what their patients do outside the consulting room. Our only concern is for the conduct of the analysis; the analyst should analyze and not care if the patient “gets well” or care about whatever else the patient might do with what he learns. The remark was aimed at my overdeveloped sense of responsibility, but I took it more generally. It was salve to my conscience and also probably allowed me to listen to my patient less intently and more usefully as I became less concerned about what I might be doing wrong.
