ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended as a step towards redressing an imbalance in that aspect of analytic thinking which too often seems to emphasise absence rather than presence. Possession anxiety relates to the presence of an ambivalently charged object taking its power from the person possessing it, who will then fear losing control over the object. This chapter presents a case of a patient with possession anxiety. More specifically, the origins of possession anxiety should be traced to the genital stage of psychosexual organisation. A specific but significant instance of the two contrasting aspects of anxiety (castration and possession) is the analyst's own emotional attitude towards the patients' analytic material. The scope of the analytic process widens, the patient becomes a more active participant in it, as Schafer advocates, the emphasis is shifted from what the patient is anxious about losing or being deprived of, to what he is anxious about, but also may be proud of, possessing.
