ABSTRACT
Any consideration of factors that impede “analytic listening”, or for that matter, any listening must begin with a statement that is so self-evident as to border on being comical. The requirement for listening is an intact capacity for hearing. The analyst must steer a course between two contrasting dangers: the forced application of a pre-existing theory, which will ultimately lead to spurious interpretations, and the whole complex of chaotic theories. The analyst’s scheme of reference is what guides both the search for the point of urgency and the formulation of the interpretation. “Complementary counter-transferences” result from the analyst’s identification with a significant object that is projected into him by the patient. In the former, the analyst identifies with the patient’s self-representation and with the patient’s object representation. Matters of nationality, social class, race, ethnicity, aesthetic preferences, and politics can have considerable impact upon the empathy and attunement of the analyst.
